This could be really depressing but Kelly imbues it with hope. The Feenys keep moving in order to stay ahead of the famine and grinding poverty that beset Ireland and the UK in the 1800s. However, they always have each other. A good read for fans of historical fiction.

Life seemed good for Pat Feeny on the day he married his lovely Mary. They looked forward to a life together, raising a family and living off their land. All that changed on the morning they woke up to a diabolical stench coming from their fields. Overnight the potatoes had been struck by blight. As this was they stable diet of the ordinary people it wasn’t long before people were starving and struck by disease. When Mary’s whole family are wiped out they set off for England. Their life in York is a long way from the green fields of Erin.
It’s a long time since I read a historical story. I enjoyed this one. The characters were engaging and the events were vaguely familiar from my knowledge of history tied up with a good narrative.
This book would appeal to those who enjoy a good family saga Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher fro giving me the chance to read& review this book.

Thank you Netgalley and the Publisher. I loved this book and would recommend it to other readers who enjoy reading books about 1800s

Absolutely loved this book, went and bought the second in the series and have preordered the third.

I think this is definitely going to be a love it or hate it book simply based on comfortableness with the culture. Growing up in an Irish home and inundated with its literature, music, movies and history for as long as I can remember for me this was familiar. I can still hear my father’s Irish brogue that would break out when he’d sing or read certain things with similar prose so I loved Sheelagh Kelly’s writing, phraseology, and word choices.

I felt the author did a great job really immersing you in 1800s Ireland along with the horror of the potato crop failures that nearly destroyed a nation. I loved the descriptions and hated them at the same time because the vividness of the sorrow and devastation created here reminded me of what my family went through; the permanent scar it left upon our culture.

I felt the struggle of what the people had to endure and how much harder it could get if they left seeking survival was accurately captured here. It’s not an easy book to get through when you have a personal connection to one of the worst acts visited upon humanity but this book handled that difficult time with grace and respect to those who went through it and its survivors.

I’m looking forward to the next book to find out where she’ll be taking the family saga next.