Some books are quiet. You can hear the distant bleats of sheep, smell the intoxicating scent of wildflowers in the breeze, and see just a flash of something you wish you hadn't seen. The Road from Belhaven is just that. A coming-of-age tale of a young girl growing up on her grandparents' farm in Scotland, The Road from Belhaven is a testament to surviving the poor choices of youth and finding a way forward. Throw in a splash of second sight, and you have a unique story that stays with you. This is my read from Margot Livesey, and now I want to go bathe my mind and soul in all her previous works.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

This is a beautifully profound poetic novel that chronicles the life of a young girl, Lizzie growing up and coming of age in 19th Century Scotland. Livesey weaves in strong feminist vibes along with the rough life of women in that Era. There is also some magical realism abound in the book which creates depth, magic and mystery. The characters are loveable, relatable and the prose is descriptive. I loved this book from beginning to end.

Pub date was February 6, 2024, so it's in your bookstore now. Thank you NetGalley, the publisher Knopf and the author Margot Livesey for this ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher Knopf for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Road from Belhaven offers a glimpse into life in the bucolic Scotland countryside and the yearning for more in life. Primary character Lizzie Craig realizes when she is a young that she can see into the future via pictures or little movies that she envisions. She also realizes that while she can see what will occur she can only stand by powerless to effect a change even when the result of the vision foretells an accident or other perilous event.

When a young tailor’s apprentice woos Lizzie she is smitten and truly believes he loves her. Alas, as in many tales and in real life, too, the young man’s intentions are not as pure as his lust. Unfortunately Lizzie’s gift of sight did not foretell her own misfortune and Louis’ betrayal.

The visuals in this novel are strong and despite their flaws, I enjoyed the characters – even those I did not particularly like. A good, but quiet read. Not compelling but thoroughly enjoyable.

I particularly enjoyed the Scottish setting in this book about a young woman’s complications in growing up. The setting of the farm was lovely as well as the tales of the family. It’s a complicated plot, and made more interesting by Lizzie’s gift of seeing visions into the future. It’s a lovely tale set in an even lovelier country.

The road from belhaven is a quiet story about a young Scottish farm girl who has the gift of second sight and is coming of age. The novel traces her coming of age as she falls in love and becomes pregnant out of wedlock. This is a pastoral novel and an ode to 19th century novels that inspired it. I expected something different from this book, as I thought the second sight would factor into as a bigger point in the plot. This is not a plot heavy novel, rather a quiet mediation of the characters, so if you like that, you will love this story. This one wasn’t for me, but that is more of a me issue than an issue with the author or novel itself.

Thanks for the publisher for providing the arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Lizzie Craig, an orphan, is growing up with her grandparents on a rural farm called Belhaven in late 1800's Scotland. She has the gift of second sight - she can foresee events before they happen and unfortunate events they are. One of the local farmhands migrates to Glasgow in pursuit of a better life. He drops in one harvest season with a friend called Louis. Louis is a tailor's apprentice in Glasgow. Lizzie Craig falls in love with him. When Lizzie realizes that her grandparents will leave the farm to her older sister Kate and her husband Callum, she decides to follow Louis to Glasgow. She falls pregnant out of wedlock and Louis is unable to marry her until he completes his apprenticeship. She is blessed with a baby girl Barbara. What happens next? Will Louis and Lizzie ever be united in marriage? You have to read the book to find out.

The novel is a beautiful narrative of rural life in Scotland in the late 19th century as also a glimpse of Glasgow of the times. It is also a story of coming of age of a naive village girl growing up in a sheltered rural environment as she struggles to find her way in a big city. It is a story of a woman who wants to live life on her town terms, constrained as she is by the restrictions of the time and age she is born in. I found the book a bit too long and predictable for the plot and story line. This one is for you if you are a fan of light-hearted family drama, romance and happy endings.

Thank you NetGalley, Knopf Pantheon Vintage and Anchor and Margot Lindsey for the ARC.

Thanks to Netgalley and Knopf for the ebook. Life on a small Scottish farm a hundred plus years ago where a young girl gets random visions of the future. These are visions that she can’t change and they don’t help in any way from getting her life twisted beyond recognition as she chases a young man to Glasgow.

This is a quiet yet powerful novel about Lizzie, a young girl being raised by her grandparents on their Scottish farm. She discovers that she occasionally gets "pictures" of what will happen in the future. Her visions are a small part of the story, yet they have huge consequences in her life. Often a bleak novel, Lizzie makes decisions with lasting repercussions that guide her life, and ultimately show the beauty of connections with others. Thank you to Netgalley and Knopf for the advance digital copy!

Moody and atmospheric, THE ROAD FROM BELHAVEN, follows the peculiar tale of a young girl as she struggles to contain her psychic visions with life on a Scottish farm that is not as exciting as she might wish. In her efforts to secure love and a better life, she follows a young man to city life and makes a series of decisions that cause misery for others. The beginning is lovely as readers meet the protagonist in all of her young innocence. As the book progresses, she becomes far less engaging and heartwarming. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Growing up on her grandparents’ farm in Scotland in the late 1800s, Lizzie has always had the ability to selectively see into the future. Unfortunately it didn’t help her make better decisions when she met a tailor’s apprentice who worked at the farm during the summers and convinced her to run away to Glasgow. After Lizzie makes some terrible decisions which irrevocably hurt her family, her sight may help pick up some of the pieces of her broken family.

Lizzie was an incredibly frustrating character, her decisions were terrible and selfish and yet I couldn’t fully dislike her. This one fell a bit flat for me though since the story felt predictable and my favorite characters were the ancillary characters and not the main characters which I just couldn’t connect with.

3.75 stars rounded to 4

Thank you to NetGalley and and Knopf for the Arc to review

The Road from Belhaven is a lovely little book. The novel is a historical coming of age story set in Victorian-era Scotland. The story follows Lizzie Craig, who has occasional visions of the future. The story is unique, and I found myself rooting for and liking Lizzie, even while questioning a number of her decisions. Thanks to Knopf and Netgalley for the ARC.

I have always enjoyed books by this author and I was not disappointed by The Road from Belhaven. I have to admit that Lizzie, the main character, was not likable at all. I spent most of my read fuming over her actions towards her grandparents, her child, and sundry others. For me though, to really enjoy a book I need it to pull in my feelings/emotions. Lizzie lived with her grandparents on a farm. They took her in when her parents died. Her grandfather was a grudge holder and through out the book it cost him in family. Grandmother was sweet and maternal. Unbeknownst to Lizzie, she had an older sister. Kate came to live with them when her own guardian died. Between Kate and Hugh, a farm laborer, the outside world was brought to Lizzie's attention. Once Lizzie realized that she didn't have to stay on the farm forever, she became selfish and self-centered. The people in the book all wrap around each other--and what started out as a loving, caring family became an angry, hurting bunch of people. The journey from farm/village to city girl is one that I was glad to be on. I am very appreciative of the digital ARC I received from NetGalley and Knopf. This review was written in my own words and not coerced in any way.

Margot Livesey’s The Road from Belhaven transports the reader to late 19th century Scotland in this beautifully written, lyrical coming of age story. The rural scenes are particularly lush. Livesey’s words truly paint a portrait of the farm where protagonist Lizzie Craig lives with her grandparents. Urban Glasgow is depicted in fine detail as well. The characters are likewise vividly drawn, especially that of Lizzie.

Highly recommended. Fans of Tracy Rees’ historical fiction might especially adore this book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for the complementary ARC. Opinions are my own.

Young Lizzie Craig is being raised by her grandparents on a Scottish farm in the late 1800's. She has the gift of sight and sometimes sees things before they happen. Lizzie does almost nothing with this "gift" until she sees things that impact her love life. I wasn't a fan of Lizzie-I felt like she let a lot happen to her and the decisions that she made weren't ones that I would have. I found myself getting frustrated with her a lot. The author was great at setting and mood but this main character wasn't to my taste.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for my honest review.

Written with a graceful simplicity, The Road from Belhaven will enfold you unexpectedly quickly into the life of its heroine, Lizzie Craig, a character whose emotions are so vivid that it’s impossible not to feel for her through all her growing pains, yearnings, and mistakes. Orphaned as a baby, Lizzie is raised by her grandparents on their property, Belhaven Farm, in Fife, Scotland, in the late 19th century. The rhythms of rural life, beautifully summoned, instill a sense of wonder as Lizzie takes pride in gathering eggs and caring for their animals through the seasons, aware that the future responsibility for the land will lie with her. Excited to learn she has an older sister, Kate, who comes to join the family, Lizzie is slow to realize how this will affect her future. Lizzie also keeps to herself that she gets occasional flashes – “pictures,” as she calls them – of future events, which often drive her to rash decisions even though she doesn’t have the power to prevent what happens.

When Lizzie turns sixteen, a tailor’s apprentice from Glasgow, Louis Hunter, comes to help her family in the fields. Their growing relationship has her following him to the city, where she soon finds herself in the shameful situation of all too many love-struck unmarried women. In this sense, Livesey’s novel offers a timeless story that’s made distinctive through well-wrought details: the harvest ceilidhs; the crowded bustle of Glasgow, which has Lizzie agog; the “white harled farmhouse” where her grandmother, Flora, dispenses wisdom she suspects won’t be heeded. But it’s not predictable, overall, thanks to the delicate characterizations. Although many people – herself included – cause Lizzie undue heartache and regret, there are no true villains, other than society itself and how it curtails women’s choices. This is a beautiful book about the sharp-cornered path to maturity.

(Published in the Historical Novels Review, Feb. 2024)

I loved this sweet story about a misguided, naive young woman raised on her grandparents' farm in rural 19th century Scotland. She has inherited a gift of seeing certain incidents in the future, which lead to some questionable choices in her life. She falls in love with a young farm helper who takes a position as an apprentice tailor in Glasgow and follows him, leaving the farm. This starts the chain of bad decisions that had me shaking my head! This is a quiet story, but you know I love a coming of age story and the historical setting made this a very enjoyable read.

This is the gently told, atmospheric and devastating story of Lizzie, an orphan raised by her grandparents on a farm in Scotland in the late 1880s, her coming of age, her love, her loss, her....so much else. Lizzie loves the farm, loves the ducks and cows, and all of it, and she loves Hugh who helps but then her previously unknown sister Kate arrives and upends everything. Kate loves Callum. And then Hugh, who has moved to Glasgow, brings Louis to the farm and Louis, well Louis is the catalyst for Lizzie's life changes. This is not a supernatural or paranormal novel but Lizzie's periodic visions (or pictures as she terms them) are cautionary and frightening and they propel her into action more than once. I loved these characters- from Lizzie, her grandparents, Kate, Hugh, Edith, Callum, Louis, Tom and the rest- who stand out on the page. You'll probably guess what's going to happen in some spots but surely not in others so no spoilers from me. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. It's a terrific read with gorgeous storytelling and a compelling heroine.

Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC of The Road from Belhaven by Margot Livesey in exchange for an honest review.

The Road from Belhaven is a coming of age story of our narrator, Lizzie Craig. Lizzie was orphaned as a child and was left to be raised by her grandparents on their farm in Scotland. The story unfolds as we discover that Lizzie has the ability to see certain aspects of the future, but she doesn't know how or when these "pictures" will come. Lizzie struggles through life making decisions based on her minimal "pictures."

While the idea of this book had me so interested, I just couldn't get my head around the story. There were so many plot holes that needed to be filled in. Lizzie's "pictures" almost become non-existent in the second half of the book. She also never learned from her mistakes, and continued to make horrible choices about her life as the story progressed. I wish I could say that I enjoyed this one, but this story and the writing style was just not for me.

This compact novel tells the story of Lizzie as she struggles with her gift of sight and with difficult decisions about love, family, and making her own way in late 19th-century Scotland. The prose is beautiful and the characters well-wrought. I wasn't quite as drawn into the "seeing the future" aspect of the novel, but it was well done. And though I felt connected to Lizzie, I would have liked to have seen a bit more growth. Though she sometimes felt twinges of regret for her decisions, I never felt she actually learned from the truly cruel things she did.

Quick and Dirty
-historical fiction with magical realism elements
-coming-of-age
-moody vibes/settings
-dark, gritty, and full of heartbreak

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗲𝗱
I love a moody book, there’s no secret about that. And this book delivered on that front, for sure! From the bleak farmscape to the gritty streets of Glasgow, this book had a dark, almost morose vibe. Even in moments of joy and pleasure, there was always the feeling that something ominous was lurking around the corner (it often was), which added an element of suspense that drove the narrative forward. I loved seeing through the eyes of a young Seer and appreciated how the author incorporated the visions into the main plot points. It gave added dimension to the magical aspects of the book, rather than making it a sideshow. I’m not a huge fan of the unexpected pregnancy trope, but I see why the author felt it necessary in this book. Faced with impossible choices, Lizzie must follow her heart, but what happens when our heart misleads us?

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗗𝗶𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸
There wasn’t much about this book that I could find fault with, which is to say I thought it was a great example of gothic-inspired fiction. While it felt a bit YA at times early in the book, there were certainly enough adult themes to keep me engaged. I was disappointed by some of the family scenes as I hoped for more understanding and support for poor Lizzie. I also wished the author added a bit more about Scottish culture and how the gift of sight was perceived at the time.

𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗜𝗳
Folks who enjoy 19th-century stories with a touch of darkness will appreciate this book!