The Island of Mists is calling her home…From internationally selling author, Wendy Nelson-Sinclair, comes a historical account filled with adventure, betrayal, bravery, and personal growth blended with rich history and elements of fantasy.Living in a Utopian world isolated from the outside, Yvaine is a young healer and the daughter of the High Priestess. One early spring night, Yvaine is … night, Yvaine is shocked to hear her name as it is picked to be the next Huntress during the Rites of Beltane. A role she doesn’t want but is forced to accept.
Yvaine is taken to the Sacred Island, an ancient place where she is trained and nurtured for the sacred duty handed to her. During her training, Yvaine discovers buried secrets from her past and reunites with someone long-thought to be lost from her. Someone that helps her understand why she was chosen and aids her as she comes to grips with her strained and tumultuous relationship with her mother.
Beltane arrives and with it, comes the threat of bad weather. A dark portent of what is to come. Yvaine goes forward confidently, completely unaware of the dangerous brutality and horror that await her. Through sheer will and determination, she survives the night’s atrocities only to have a once loving community turn its back on her. Unwilling to be brutalized a second time, Yvaine says goodbye to the Island of Mists and bravely steps out into a foreign world, determined to make a new life for herself.
Across the span of a decade, Yvaine comes into her own as she finds independence, learns the importance of trusting one’s instincts, and becomes part of a family once again. Yvaine’s well-planned life is thrown off course when she finds a wounded stranger lying close to death. Taking him in, she heals him and in doing so, places her heart in his hands. With the keeper of her soul at her side, Yvaine comes to grips with her past but when tragedy strikes again, she’s left with only one option: to go back to the one place that she vowed to never return to or die.
The Island of Mists is calling her home. It’s call is impossible to resist.
WARNING
This novel contains elements of sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape, and violence.
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Astoundingly realistic history through one woman’s eyes
This is a very ell written historical novel, in the style of an autobiography. We see ancient northwest Britain, with its ever-changing population of Roman descendants, Angles and other English tribes, Celts and Vikings. Religion served as the great organizing principle, with the new Christians vying for dominance over the ancient Celts and goddess worshippers, as well as the old Norse gods. Yvaine is the heroine, a native of the goddess-worshipping people of the Isle of Mists. Her sad and mystery-laden life there is over when a religious ritual gone lethally wrong sends her fleeing her home for the mainland and a new, strong world she must learn to survive. Her life as a newly free woman in an unstable and dangerous world takes her through love, friendships, losses and discoveries – not the least of which is the truth of her own origins. It is a harsh and violent time and place, and author Wendy Nelson-Sinclair does great justice to the recreation of that world, its people, and the forms that shape it. Yvaine’s feelings about her life are empathetically detailed, and the only sour note is the ending, wherein a now-dead Yvaine continues her narrative as though she still lived – very disconcerting, and an affront to all the preceding authenticity in the author’s first-person POV. Readers should be mindful of triggers: rape, murder, graphic violence; these are presented as the commonplace events of the times, and not sensationalized. The ending aside, I stayed up late and neglected a few chores to finish this engrossing and vivid historical novel. This is a voluntary review of an ARC.w
Though a very long (and sometimes slow) read, this novel spans the lifetime of the female protagonist who learns the lessons of life through love, responsibility, fear, sadness and pain. The actual Island of Mists reminded me so much of Avalon (Isle of Glass) and the story included multiple cultures (Celtic,Christian, even Viking). This book shows that no matter what you run into in life, you must persevere through it all to find your peace and lessons learned.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Trigger Warning Not Here or Goodreads, But at Amazon
When I chose this book at one of my favorite book review sites, the description there did not include the warning that it does at Amazon about there being rape and other triggers. So I was absolutely aghast when I came to the horrific scene that included multiple rapes and extreme physical abuse of a 16-year-old girl. I checked the review site again, to be sure that I didn’t miss it, but it was not there in the book’s description. Had I known about the extremely violent rape night, I would not have chosen this book. I honestly could not get past it, and I DNFed the book at that point. It’s taken me several hours to calm down enough to write this review. Aside from this, I didn’t think that much of what went before this terrible scene was that well written. This is a long novel, weighing in at over 500 pages. Nothing much really happened of note for a long time (aside from the sickness). It felt like the author was more explaining how healers worked in this society and their goddess-centered culture and rites. It was a trifle boring up until that ghastly scene. If you have any triggers around violent rape or violent physical abuse, I recommend bypassing this book.
I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.
This was my first book by Wendy Nelson-Sinclair and I really enjoyed it!!! Yvaine is from A Utopian world that is isolated from the rest of the world. She is the chosen one for a role she does not want. When the once loving community she knows turns their back on her she leaves and tries to start over in a world of unknowns. Events that unroll beckon her to return to the one place she vowed never to return to, but will she? Read and find out!!! Enjoy!!!
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.