Wednesday 4 April 2018

Review #9 of 2018 Turn of the Tide by Margaret Skea


Leisure reading?

I've not had time for much of that recently, but I just have to read at least a couple of pages of a novel, before going to sleep. A habit? Yes, but it's a cherished one.

I'm only slightly behind on my Goodreads reading challenge, which includes all genres of book read, but this is the most recent historical novel that's been completed.

Turn of the Tide by Margaret Skea was a very enjoyable read and well-worth the 5 *s  I gave it on Goodreads, and on Amazon.   

 What is it that makes one family take umbrage against another, so much so that it lingers and festers for decades?

 In Turn of the Tide, we get a glimpse of what it must have been like to have been a family member, during the never ending violent and bloody feud between the Cunninghames and the Montgomeries of Ayrshire, Scotland.


Within a relatively small geographical area, it’s inevitable that some of those people will have ties to both sides, since the pool of moneyed people was fairly small. ‘On which side does your loyalty lie?’ must have been a very difficult question to answer for a woman with connections through marriage, but an even more difficult one for a man who wanted the hundred and fifty year long feud ended.

Turn of the Tide paints a very realistic picture of the harshness of life during the late 1500s. And, as well as being embroiled in family feuds, it was a time when loyalty to the king and his cronies, was also a very dangerous business – though sometimes a profitable one for the astute, and the canny. Befriending one of the opposite faction, as Munro (linked to the Cunninghames) and Hugh (Montgomerie) do, is central to this tale, and the trials and tribulations of their families are very believable.

I look forward to fitting in a read of the second book of the series. 

Recommended for those who love Scottish Historical Fiction. 

Slainthe! 

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