A Cottage By the Sea by Ciji Ware
Sourcebooks Reissue, June 2010; Random House 1997
$15.99 544 pages
Review copy provided by the Publisher, thank you!
The Burton Review Rating:

Some might call it running away..

But after a scandalous Hollywood divorce, Blythe Stowe considered it damage control for body and soul. The pain, the humiliation, the daily tabloids shouting details as her famous husband dumped her for her own sister demanded a serious getaway: to the wild coast of Cornwall and a cottage by the sea that her Wyoming grandmother claimed had been home to her ancestors.

Some might call it chance..

But Blythe encountered more than just a quaint retreat nestled amid vivid skies and gorgeous ocean. And she had the odd sensation that her wickedly handsome neighbor Lucas Teague was more than a British gentleman going broke. He might be her destiny..

This is a delightfully fun novel that contains essences of romance and history and modern times all expertly crafted into a cohesive and addictive narrative. Blythe Barton whisks herself to Cornwall to escape the prying reporters and her ruined marriage, and the reader gets to know and like Blythe as she rediscovers herself during this much needed respite. Complete with a captivating historical atmosphere of a misty Cornwall, author Ciji Ware does a fabulous job of recreating the nuances of epic authors such as Daphne Du Maurier and Mary Stewart.

I was one of the readers of the recent reissue of Island of the Swans by Ciji Ware (reviewed here) and I had fallen in love with Ware's writing style. While the last novel was more about a true historical character, A Cottage by The Sea offers a modern tone with flashback settings to 1700's England. The novel mentioned Daphne Du Maurier several times, and there were many times especially during the flashback settings that the gothic style was prominent within the book.

Blythe Barton finds herself with an uncanny ability to see into the past, and this past contains her probable ancestors of the Barton/Trevelyan clan of the eighteenth century. While renovating Cornish property Blythe comes across a framed family tree that beckons her soul. The owner of the Cornish property where Blythe finds her quaint English retreat is of course a handsome sexy man who Blythe falls for immediately. She goes into business with him, among other things, and along the way tries to recuperate and heal from her messy divorce. Strong family ties are a theme in this novel, with the past family members invading her thoughts as well as Blythe's present-day family; such as her grandmother's quotes and her immature, conniving and betraying sister. Since the novel echoes with themes of gothic romance novels, this one made me want to delve into Du Maurier and Mary Stewart again. I really enjoyed the details of the land and the old estate which featured a castle, of course.

Blythe needs to find the missing link of the past and find contentment in the present, and readers are taken through a haunting love triangle of the past that reverberates mystery and intrigue throughout the novel. I loved the past day revelations the most, and the characters of the past deserve a novel all their own. The supernatural elements were believable and added much to the story without becoming outlandish. Ciji Ware does a splendid job of merging the two stories into a suspenseful family saga that I loved getting lost in. Prudish readers like me who are not accustomed to ardent loves scenes may find themselves blushing at a few intervals in the novel. I would have appreciate a lot more depth to the characters overall, but I was totally entertained by the novel and that's all I would ask for in this type of read. This was a very enjoyable adventure that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to history lovers, romance readers and even those who like a little trip to the past via ghosts. The story was written so well with the links of the past to the present complete with the genealogy chart that had me wishing that the story was true.

I previously featured the author Ciji Ware at The Burton Review, read the interview here. My review of Island of The Swans can be found at this link.

1.Ciji, your book Island of the Swans was a wonderful treat for me to read. It is about Jane Maxwell, the 4th Duchess of Gordon. What propelled you on the journey of first writing her story, twenty years ago?

McCullough Women

I come from a long line of “Uppity Women” of Scottish-American descent, and my great-grandmother, Elfie McCullough--the tall, statuesque woman second on the left in this picture of five generations of McCullough women (my mother is the babe-in-arms)--lived to be 94. Until her death when I was fifteen-years-old, she and my Great Aunt Marge filled my head with exciting family lore, and claimed that we were descended from the famous (some say infamous) Jane Maxwell, the 4th Duchess of Gordon.

Now, you need to understand that Hazel (Elifie McCullough’s daughter and my grandmother, Hazel, dressed in white, sitting in the rocker holding the baby) was mortified by a mother who ditched her hard-drinking husband and ran away from a Missouri cattle farm to New York with an itinerate violinist. Nana Hazel, in fact, along with my very practical mother (the baby in the picture) cautioned me “not to believe a word Elfie McCullough ever said.”

Years later I ran across a short monograph detailing the tumultuous life of “The Match-Making Duchess” and immediately felt a burning desire to learn everything I could about this eighteenth century “Woman of Fashion” who was the confidante of kings, in love with two men for more than thirty years, the rival of Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire, the patroness (and suspected paramour) of the poet Robert Burns--and connected through her five daughters’ dynastic marriages to three dukes, a marquis and a baronet.

I spent five years researching her life; made about five or six trips to visit her haunts throughout Scotland and England; traced the Scottish kilted regiments that fought in the American War of Independence; and even slept in her bedroom in the house she built in the Highlands. Sadly, I could never actually prove that my McCulloughs married into the Maxwells of Monreith a few generations before Jane Maxwell was born in 1749. However, it certainly was fun trying…

2.When you learned that this book would be reissued, what were the first thoughts running through your mind?


I was ecstatic when I learned through my agent that Sourcebooks’ historical novel imprint, Landmark, was interested in purchasing all my backlist for reissue, along with a new historical I had recently completed. I was particularly happy that Island of the Swans—first published twenty years ago in 1989—was going to find a new generation of readers and be published in this beautiful trade paperback format with an exquisite cover. I had always loved Daphne du Maurier and Anya Seton’s works and thought of my books as written in that tradition—in other words, as historical novels, not romances, though there is always a strong love story threaded through everything I’ve written. When I saw the draft cover for Swans utilizing the Romney portrait of the Duchess that hangs this very day in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, I literally burst out crying, feeling that my new publishers “got” what I had been trying to do as a writer from the first day I started to create this novel—my first.


3.Do you feel as close to your main characters in the book as you did twenty years ago? How has your relationship with Jane Maxwell, Alex Gordon and Thomas Fraser changed after twenty years?


Ciji as Duchess Gordon

What a great question! I lived with these characters for the five years it took me to research and write this book (1983-1988), and even used to give lectures about the book and the real-life historical figures of Jane, Alex, and Lt. Fraser dressed in full “Duchess Regalia!” When I read the Swans in 2009 in preparation to restore some 100 pages a previous publisher of a second edition had taken out, I was amazed (says she modestly…) how immediately caught up I became in the twists and turns of their true-life saga! I love Jane Maxwell for her courage, for her amazing accomplishments during an era when women were frowned upon for participating in the “public sphere,” and for her struggles to cope with being forced to marry a man she learned to admire—Alexander, the 4th Duke of Gordon. I felt her anguish that in letters I discovered that proved she could never put aside the love and devotion she bore for her childhood love, a man I believed to be Thomas Fraser of Struy.

4.The novel is based on real historical figures. Have you learned any new information regarding these characters since its first publication in 1989?

Yorktown Surrender
After Swans was published, I began a book that dealt with Lafayette during Colonial times in America and discovered that Jane’s true love and Lafayette may very well have known each other before and after the Battle of Yorktown, and the ultimate surrender of the British troops when the Scottish regiments were forced to lay down their arms. My portrayal of Jane caused a small amount of controversy among some descendants of the Maxwells and the Gordons who, I suppose, wanted everyone in the family to be portrayed only in the noblest of terms, which, of course, if one is trying to ferret out “truth” from events that took place two hundred years ago, is nigh on impossible. As with my life as a reporter for ABC in Los Angeles for twenty years, I call it as I see it. My credo when writing historical novels was never to put anything in the novel that I knew to be untrue, but this is a work of fiction, after all, so I obviously filled in what was not known with what I call “intelligent supposition based on the research and primary documents.”

5.I loved learning about Jane's independent spirit. What are some of the qualities of Jane that you admire? Do you think your portrayal of Jane is a close characterization of her?
Duchess of Gordon Recruiting on horsebackCiji, Tony, son and daughter-in-law in Scottish regalia

As I mentioned, I come from a Scottish-American background, as you can guess from this picture in June 2009 at my son and now daughter-in-law’s engagement party. Spending all those years researching for Swans deeply connected me to my Scottish roots. Additionally, it turns out that my husband of 33 years, Tony Cook, is also of Scottish-American derivation. We learned long after we were married that his family name had been MacCook and that we shared several other Scottish names in our family tree: Bell, Alexander, McAllister, Hunter and Forester. We have loved being part of this “community” and for a while we were members of the MacLeod Scottish Country Dancers! I mean, talk about living your research….

9.Island of The Swans is filled with historical details that made it quite an interesting treat for the historically enthused readers like me! Your later works seem to be more leaning towards the romance genre and the self help non-fiction genre. Why were you not inspired to write another historically rich novel?

I’m not surprised that you may not know about my second historical novel Wicked Company, (Marie has it on her shelf now!) also set in Scotland and England about a group of “uppity” eighteenth century women playwrights whose works were produced—as in real life—at Covent Garden and Drury Lane theatres! I was changing publishers right at the time the first edition of Wicked was published and the book was given short shrift when it came out as a result. I actually am tremendously proud of this historical novel and believe it’s among my best work. I am thrilled that this “orphan” has found a new home with Sourcebooks/Landmark and will appear on their Fall, 2010 list!

What I find so fascinating is the way books are truly categorized by their covers. My other novels are as richly researched and steeped in history—even the dual story historical/contemporary titles like A Cottage by the Sea, Midnight on Julia Street, and A Light on the Veranda—but they were saddled with some God-awful covers during the period where every book was thought to have a better place in the marketplace if it was “genre-ized” by emphasizing the romance more than the history. Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca or Frenchman’s Creek would be thought to be pure romances if she’d had the covers I was given back in the eighties and nineties! Bless Sourcebooks/Landmark for creating covers that match the contents of my historicals!

10.I want to read more of your fiction! What other books of yours do you think I would love?


A COTTAGE BY THE SEA Sourcebooks Landmark (JUNE 2010)

Well, if you love Cornwall, England, and are fascinated by the idea that events in the past are still impacting your life in ways you’d never imagine, you might enjoy A Cottage by the Sea that will be out from Sourcebooks Landmark in June of this year. I’ve always been fascinated by the linkages between areas in America that were settled fairly early and the regions in Europe from whence the settlers to our country came. In this case, many the Cornish tin miners ended up in the mines of Wyoming and Pennsylvania. This novel starts out in the present time with a woman who has experienced a terrible trauma and literally runs away to the land of her ancestors—the area around Foy, Cornwall, which is—surprise, surprise—Daphne du Maurier country! Yes, there is a central love story, but this is a book about the way in which major events in eighteenth century Britain have echoed down through the centuries in the lives of the descendants of those brave souls who ventured across the Atlantic in search of a better life. As my dear husband calls this book and the two others that use the dual-story device, these are my “Woo-Woo Historicals.” I was interested in the form after I saw the film version of The French Lieutenant’s Woman and the movie Dead Again –both of which interwove past and present. I really loved the research that went into understanding not only the historical details of those periods in Cornwall (and for the other two books in this series: New Orleans and Natchez), but also my grasp of the “new science” that is developing about how traumatic events can become what I call “genetic memories.”

11.What are your future writing goals?

1906 Fairmont Hotel After the earthquake and Fire

I’ve just put the finishing touches on the first historical novel I’ve written in a decade called A Race to Splendor about a group of women architects who, amazingly enough for 1906, received the assignment of restoring the legendary Fairmont Hotel atop Nob Hill following the devastating San Francisco earthquake and fire that left some 250,000 citizens of the city homeless for up to two years. In the light of the terrible events in Haiti, this book has amazing relevance, I think, to our own lives here in America where earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes and other natural disasters test our character and our ability to maintain the veneer of a civilized society while the rebuilding takes place. My husband and I moved to San Francisco eleven years ago and ended up living in a building designed and built by Julia Morgan, the first licensed woman architect in California who’s main claim to fame was as the designer of the magical Hearst Castle here in California. As with the Duchess of Gordon, I became obsessed by her story of overcoming every obstacle imaginable to forge a career in the all-male realm of designing and constructing buildings! Morgan, through a series of absolute flukes, received the commission to rebuild the Fairmont following the April 18th quake and subsequent firestorm. Sourcebooks/Landmarks is bringing out this new historical of mine to mark the 104th anniversary in April, 2011, and you can’t imagine how thrilled and excited I am about this.

As for my future work: I have a parallel career in nonfiction (Rightsizing Your Life: Simplifying Your Surroundings While Keeping What Matters Most came out in 2007) and I do a lot of public speaking and writing about the subject of living more simply, which remains relevant, given the current economic downturn. As for fiction: I’m now noodling about a couple of historical projects: one dealing with the eighteenth century world of Fine Bone China, another about an eighteenth century woman court painter, and yet another idea about some little-known but totally fearless nineteenth century suffragettes in the Wild West!

As always, I want to keep asking the question: “What were the women doing in history!” A famous woman academic, Gerda Lerner, once wrote (and I’m paraphrasing) “Half of human history has yet to be written because the lives of women weren’t properly chronicled by historians; and the half of human history that has been written is woefully inaccurate because the lives of women weren’t properly chronicled.” In historical fiction, at least, I’m doing my very small part to try to rectify that.

Ciji reading on couch with dog and cat
13. Can you give us a selection of your favorite authors?
Well, I’ve already mentioned my favorites, Daphne du Maurier and Anya Seton, but I love Jane Austen, of course, along with Rosamund Pilcher, and a new novelist I’ve discovered who writes Regency mysteries, Tasha Alexander. I also love Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs series set in the early 20th century, and of course, I love the Sourcebooks/Landmark’s reissuing of the Georgette Heyer legacy. I have to read a lot of nonfiction for the work I do in that genre, so there is no greater pleasure in life, as far as I’m concerned, than to curl up with a juicy historical that sweeps me out of my ordinary day and into the past. I am so grateful that this genre appears to be experiencing a marked resurgence of reader interest!

Ciji, I thank you so much for your time!! This was a fabulous interview experience for me!

ISLAND OF THE SWANS BY CIJI WARE—in stores February 2010
Re-issued in its original full length, this acclaimed and bestselling romantic historical novel by award-winning author Ciji Ware tells the true story of passionate and flamboyant Jane Maxwell, the 4th Duchess of Gordon (1749-1812). In love since childhood with Thomas Fraser, when she hears that he's been killed in America, she marries the Duke of Gordon with disastrous results. But Fraser, very much alive, returns to England to claim her love.

In addition to telling a heart-wrenching love story, Island of the Swans also paints a fascinating portrait of a powerful and controversial woman and the tumultuous era in which she lived. Patroness of poet Robert Burns, advisor to King George, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Jane Maxwell was a towering figure in her own time and is an unforgettable heroine.

About the Author: Ciji Ware has been an Emmy-award winning television producer, reporter, writer, and radio host. A Harvard graduate, she has written numerous historical and romance novels as well as non-fiction. When she's not writing, Ciji is a Scottish history and dancing aficionado. She lives with her husband in California.

Giveaway Fun!! 2 winners of ISLAND OF THE SWANS!
USA & Canada, no PO Boxes.
Comment here with your Email Address.. and you are entered!
If you want extra entries, then follow this blog +1 (current followers will get this if you let me know) or post about this Giveaway with a Graphic link on your Blog's Sidebar for +2 entries.
Ends around 2/12.

Good luck, and thanks for visiting with Ciji! See my Review!

Island of The Swans by Ciji Ware
Sourcebooks Landmark Reissue, February 1, 2010
Review copy provided by Sourcebooks, thank you!
The Burton Review Rating:

"Best friends in childhood, Jane's and Thomas's relationship blooms beyond friendship as they grow into adults. When Thomas is reportedly killed in the American colonies, Alexander, Duke of Gordon, appeals to a devastated Jane. Believing Thomas is gone forever, Jane hesitantly responds to the Duke, whose passion ignites her blood. But Thomas is not dead, and when he returns to find Jane betrothed to another, he refuses to accept the heartbreaking turn of events. Soon Jane's marriage is swept into a turbulent dance of tender wooing and clashing wills--as Alex seeks to make her his and his alone.

Winner of the "Romantic Times" award for Best Fictionalized Biography.

In this resplendent love story a dazzling era comes vividly to life as one woman's passionate struggle to follow her heart takes her from the opulent cotillions of Edinburgh to the London court of half-mad King George III . . . from a famed salon teeming with politicians and poets to a picturesque castle on the secluded, lush Island of the Swans. . . .

Best friends in childhood, Jane Maxwell and Thomas Fraser wreaked havoc on the cobbled streets of Edinburgh with their juvenile pranks. But years later, when Jane blossoms into a beautiful woman, her feelings for Thomas push beyond the borders of friendship, and he becomes the only man she wants. When Thomas is reportedly killed in the American colonies, the handsome, charismatic Alexander, Duke of Gordon, appeals to a devastated Jane. Believing Thomas is gone forever, Jane hesitantly responds to the Duke, whose passion ignites her blood, even as she rebels at his fierce desire to claim her.

But Thomas Fraser is not dead, and when he returns to find his beloved Jane betrothed to another, he refuses to accept the heartbreaking turn of events. Soon Jane's marriage is swept into a turbulent dance of tender wooing and clashing wills--as Alex seeks truly to make her his, and his alone. . . ."

This is such a wonderful piece of historical fiction that Sourcebooks Landmark publishers picked it up after twenty years and decided to republish it. And I am so glad that they did, because this is a story that needs to be told, but hasn't been. Based on a true story, Jane Maxwell is an infectiously delightful young lady who soon grows up to be a rival the Georgiana the Duchess of Devonshire. But how she got that way is the charm of the story. Set against the backdrop of Scotland, Ciji Ware brings Jane Maxwell to life in this endearing tale of love, passion and betrayal.


Jane Maxwell has an overbearing mother but enjoys her childhood with her sisters and the neighborhood boy, Thomas Fraser. As they grow up together, Thomas and Jane become more than friends, much to the chagrin of the status-seeking mother of Jane. Thomas leaves Scotland in spite of Jane's pleas to stay or to at least marry her before he leaves, but he is intent on restoring his family name by becoming a good soldier in the States. He leaves Jane behind, and she is heartbroken that his tunnel vision does not include the predicament that he left Jane in. With Thomas Fraser gone for two years, Jane's mother worked furiously to eradicate him from Jane's memory. A battle in the states went so bad with Indians that the soldiers could not distinguish who the bodies belonged to. Thomas was among those assumed dead. When Jane received word of this, she was stricken and paralyzed with grief. This was a superbly written part in the story that had me crying my eyes out, even though the back cover of the book foretold this event within the plot.

At the same time, the Duke of Gordon has lost the mother to his child, and he recognizes Jane's pain. He is a complete gentleman and makes the reader really enjoy his presence within the story, for he really seemed to be a diamond in the rough. And he was a DUKE! That was the most important thing to Jane's mother, even though Jane had no intentions of furthering the relationship beyond companionship. Eventually though, the Duke grew impatient, and in very much love with the beautiful Jane Maxwell. He was determined to rid her of her ghost of Thomas Fraser and to make her his wife. A turning point in the novel occurs when he coerces Jane into marrying him. And she is happy.. she thinks... till she finds out that Thomas is indeed alive and well, and this not until her honeymoon!! The tragedy of these two love birds was perceptible and heartbreaking, especially as they meet for one last goodbye at the island of the swans.

Can the Duke of Gordon make Jane forget Thomas Fraser? Can the Duke of Gordon handle being second fiddle to the ghost who came alive? Will their marriage work in the end? We fast forward and there are a brood of children to the Duke and Duchess of Gordon, and they appear happy. But the emotions of knowing that Thomas Fraser is alive wears both of them thin. The Duke is not quite as empathetic as he was before, because Jane is officially his wife and he has no desire to compete with a low born soldier. I felt my attitude of the even-tempered Duke become more and more exasperated with his masculine insecurities.
And yet at the same time, our heroine Jane carries on, and continues to bear children for the Duke. She very much wanted the marriage to work and enjoyed her Duchess status. She was an enigmatic character who enjoyed the social scene, traveling to London from the Gordon's Edinburgh home, and she seemingly tried very hard to keep Thomas Fraser out of her heart. She is said to have been the Duchess of Devonshire's rival. Unfortunately, Thomas showed up at inopportune times, causing major rifts in the marriage between Jane and Alex Gordon. I really loved the way that Ciji Ware spun this epic saga, taking little known details of this love triangle and making their long-gone stories come alive again through this plausible telling. Ciji Ware infuses the novel with historical details so that when the romance scenes take over, the historical aspect of the rest of the story more than made up for the steamy romance scenes. And yet, even though I am not a romance genre connoisseur, I loved the entire aura of the novel, coupled with the romance and the history. Of course the author had to infuse her interpretation of the facts to thicken out the novel, and one can only wonder if Alex was as sensitive as he seemed to be in this telling. But it is certainly true that he had a roving eye, and enjoyed bedding his servant.

A fantastic setting, and wonderful writing supported the slow moving drama of Jane Maxwell's life, and I felt like Jane would have been proud to have this story written for her. There are not many Jane Maxwell novels out there, and even if there were, this would still be the one that is highly acclaimed. Take this as a warning: it instills a melancholy within your soul, knowing that true love never dies regardless of the circumstances of one's life and the need to move on. The overwhelming feeling of sadness was palpable throughout the saga and I did weep several times. I am becoming such a softie it seems. This was a mesmerizing blend of sizzling romance, history, love and honor that I recommend to any historical fiction enthusiast. Ciji Ware has written an unforgettable tale that easily brings this Duchess of Gordon to life and into your heart.
This gorgeous reissue is available February 1, 2010!! Visit the awesome Interview with the author on my blog with some interesting photos. of course a giveaway is included.

Other Reviews of this title:
Lucy at Enchanted by Josephine
Jenny at Jenny Loves to Read
Jennifer at Rundpinne

Too Great A Lady: The Notorious, Glorious Life of Emma, Lady Hamilton:A Novel by Amanda Elyot
"Emma Hamilton is renowned as the real-life heroine of the greatest love story in British history. Now, Amanda Elyot breathes new life into this remarkable woman, in what might have been Emma's very own words.
The impoverished daughter of an illiterate country farrier, young Emily Lyon sold coal by the roadside to help put food on the family's table. By the time she was fifteen, she had made her way from London nursemaid to vivacious courtesan, and continued a meteoric rise through society, rung by slippery rung, to become the most talked-about woman in all of Europe, mistress of many tongues, a key envoy in Britain's and Italy's war against the French, and confidante to a queen.
This novel, inspired by her remarkable life, recounts Emma's many extraordinary adventures, the earth-shattering passion she eventually found with Lord Nelson, and how they braved the censure of king and country, risking all in the name of true love."

I have a feeling I forgot something. But this is certainly a fun list to ponder.. and I love Amazon. Just posted today is my review of Island of The Swans by Ciji Ware, giveaway is Tuesday!