The Vanished Days by Susanna Kearsley

The Vanished Days by Susanna Kearsley 

Sourcebooks Landmark, published October 5 2021

448 pages 

Egalley via netgalley 

A sweeping love story set against the Jacobite revolution from much-loved, million copy bestselling author Susanna Kearsley

There are many who believe they know what happened, but they do not know the whole of it. The rumours spread, and grow, and take their hold, and so to end them I have been persuaded now to take my pen in hand and tell the story as it should be told…

 

Autumn, 1707. Old enemies from the Highlands to the Borders are finding common ground as they join to protest the new Union with England, the French are preparing to launch an invasion to carry the young exiled Jacobite king back to Scotland to reclaim his throne, and in Edinburgh the streets are filled with discontent and danger.

 

Queen Anne’s commissioners, seeking to calm the situation, have begun settling the losses and wages owed to those Scots who took part in the disastrous Darien expedition eight years earlier.

 

When Lily, the young widow of a Darien sailor, comes forward to collect her husband’s wages, her claim is challenged, and one of the men who’s assigned to examine her has only days to decide if she’s honest, or if his own feelings are making him blind to the truth, and if he’s being used as a pawn in an even more treacherous game.

 

A story of intrigue, adventure, endurance, romance…and the courage to hope.

I decided to choose this book for review as I have read and enjoyed several of Kearsley's works. This one is a little different from those and I missed the gothic/majestic themes of those works. The Vanished Days is more of a historical detail dump with some shady characters. 

Lily is an easy character to empathize with but the main crux of this novel was to prove a marriage occurred. The story goes back and forth with a myriad of characters that we don't know who is important or not. 

The narrative of Adam the investigator is dry and plodding. I honestly did not care about the info dump on Scotland/Caledonia/Jacobites but if you are an avid lover of this Era 1699-1707 this would interest you with the history and a dash of hope for a romance. 

If you are interested in starting with Susanna Kearsley, I had rated Named of The Dragon five stars, The Shadowy Horses four stars. Start there! 

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