Marjory and Elizabeth Kerr are alone. Having lost both husbands in the recent Jacobite uprising and subsequently all titles and land after being branded as traitors to the Scottish Crown, Marjory takes her daughter-in-law Elizabeth to Selkirk, hoping to find work and a new life in the land of her youth. After being accosted by Dragoons and snubbed by the neighbors, however, the Kerr women are left with only questions. Will the townspeople forgive Marjory for her former pride and snobbishness? Will Reverend Brown banish them both from Selkirk? Will Lord Buchanan turn Elizabeth, his newly appointed seamstress, over to the King for her past mistakes of treason, or will he fall in love with the woman she has become?
This book is a sequel to Here Burns My Candle, and I was a bit worried that I would be lost when the book arrived, but I had no problems. The author does a fabulous book of filling in the reader on the important information from the previous book without sacrificing the flow of the current story. Higgs’ characters are so realistic that it seems you might just meet them on the street. Their depth of character reflects the struggles they have conquered in the previous story and the class issues in eighteenth century Scotland. Higgs’ extensive research shines through in the detail she brings to the setting. The best parts of the book, however, are the twists that Higgs continually throws into the storyline. Each time the reader feels comfortable predicting the next piece of action, the author throws in a new tangle. Fabulous!
I loved this book, and if you are a historical fiction fan, you have to check this one out! I’ll definitely be hunting down more books by Liz Curtis Higgs.
I received a free copy of this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for an honest review.
For more information about Mine is the Night, including an excerpt from the book, go here.
