Review of The Island House by Posie Graeme-Evans

Review of The Island House by Posie Graeme-Evans

 

 

In 2011 Freya Dane, a Ph.D. candidate in archaeology, arrives on the ancient Scottish island of Findnar. After years of estrangement from her father, himself an archaeologist who recently died, Freya has come to find out what she can about his work. As she reads through his research notes, she sees he learned a great deal about the Viking and Christian history of the island. But what he found only scratches the surface of the discoveries Freya is about to make.

In 800 A.D. a Pictish girl named Signy loses her entire family during a Viking raid. She is taken in by the surviving members of the Christian community on Findnar, but when she falls deeply in love with a Viking boy, she is cast out. She eventually becomes a nun and finds herself at the center of the clash between the island’s three religious cultures. The tragedy of her story is that, in the end, she must choose among her adopted faith, her native religion, and the man she loves.

Centuries apart, Freya and Signy are each on the verge of life-changing events that will bring present-day and Viking-era Scotland together. The Island House plunges the reader into a past that never dies and a love that reaches out across a thousand years.

 

 

 

The story revolves around the life of Freya and Signy who is living on a Scottish island that is small called Findnar. Though they are separated by many years, Freya is in the present day and Signy is from the Viking age.

Signy lived on the island during the Viking reign and Freya's father left her have the island. The island is the one of the things that connects the two women together through out time. Freya is researching the life of Signy and what her life was like when she lived on this island years before.

Though in Signy's life her whole family have been killed and it is only her now, until she meets a nice man called Bear. Together they are both are taken under the wing of a nun. The nun is part of the religious group of other nuns and priests that were able to not get hurt or found by the Viking's.

When Freya's father passes away, he leaves her the island that is Findnar. Freya being an archaeologist can help but go and explore this amazing island and find out about the people who lived on there years ago. That is how Freya comes to learn about the life that Signy lived on the island.

As the story progresses as Freya learn more about the life that Signy lives the more Freya learn about her own life and about the story of her life that is still left to be written. This novel is very moving, with two likeable characters that make very strong characters.

Even though this book is not a genre that I would normally pick up, it does contain romance parts that made reading it worthwhile. It is a historical novel that is cast across years that separate these two woman who both live on the amazing island that is full of tales yet to be told.

It does contain violence themes, but the story makes up for the violence in the amazing story of these two women's that is beautifully told even though they lived in different times.

If I had to sum this book up in a sentence it would be, "A story that no matter what time period you are from will move you just by reading the amazing story of Freya and Signy and the one place they both call home".

I have to give this book a 4/5, it is really amazing that I would recommended to anyone who loves history and romance.

It is out now to purchase.

It is published by Hodder & Stoughton.

I would like to thank the people at Hodder & Stoughton for gibing me a copy to read.

 

Posie Graeme-Evans has worked in the Australian film and television industry for the last twenty-five years as an editor, director, and producer on hundreds of prime-time television programs, including McLeod's Daughters and Hi-5. She lives in Sydney with her husband and creative partner, Andrew Blaxland.

Another day, another book,