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Summary: This Lady Has an Ear for the Language
Review: Ms King can write. She's obviously educated, and she weaves an enchanting tale. Her descriptions are wonderful, and if you enjoy language for its own sake, you will enjoy this book. If you like Anya Seton's work, you will probably like this book. It's a historical romance which actually has some history and a wonderful sense of the period. Thank you, Ms. King, for a good read.
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Summary: A stunner!
Review: No one writes Scottish historical romance better than Susan King. It's not just her superlative research, powerful stories, and strong, admirable characters, but her ability to create a compelling, utterly convincing sense of time and place. The Stone Maiden makes it clear that life in 12th century Scotland was not easy, but that there was beauty and magic in the hills and the way of life. I love Alainna's carving stone to preserve the history of her people, and the Stone Maiden herself was a compelling figure--and beautifully resolved at the end of the story! In fact, stone and beauty are the perfect metaphors for this book, and for the strength and integrity of Sebastien and Alainna. This is a story to linger in the heart and mind.
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Summary: An Adorable Hero
Review: Sebastien was one of those hero's where only a look or gesture can melt a woman's heart. He was so handsome and very nice, just a great guy. This book was slow in a good way. I like the way the author took her time with him, although we all know that this method doesn't always work for a lot of her books, but isn't that due to the attractiveness, or lack of, of the hero?
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Summary: Lyrically lovely,romantically rapturous,a real treat.
Review: Set in Medieval Scotland,an enchanted granite pillar lies at the heart of this novel along with the backdrop of a feud that has spanned centuries. The ancient attack of a woman of one clan by a man of the other is where the feud and the Stone Maiden is born. The woman, who was the heroine's ancestor, could not be saved and so faeries preserve her soul by transforming her into the Stone Maiden. That same enchantment prevented a man of the murderer's clan, the MacNephtans, from harming a woman of the MacLarens, Alainna's clan. She is now the head of this clan but after years of fighting the enemy,it consists of little more than a few elderly men and women. Alainna is safe for a while longer, but the seven hundred year old spell is about to run out. So she petitions the King for help. What she wants is a Celtic Champion to protect her people and ensure her bloodline by adopting her name for his own and also their children. What she gets is the steady military might of a Norman Knight who speaks Gaelic.
Sebastien le Bret has a dubious background. He was a foundling raised by monks who has won honor,praise and reputation to his invented name by sheer grit and determination. Within his character, one of the themes of the book comes into play ; he wants to belong. Alainna quotes an incantation which haunts him :
"I am weary and I am a stranger....be my wings til I find my home" .
He is envious of Alainna who is a stone carver and is able to preserve centuries of her clan's rich heritage into stone tablets. He knew little of his parentage and for this reason was never accepted by the parents of his late first wife with whom he has a son. Entrapment is another theme. Alainna's clan feels entrapped by their growing weakness against their enemy. Sebastien feels entrapped by his duty to obey his King's orders to go to Alainna's aid when his intentions are to go to Brittany where his son is reported missing. And Alainna is entrapped by her responsibility to her people. As clan leader she resists the man she believes can do her people no good , but as a woman, she is intensely drawn to him. I love the way Susan King gives her heroines brains as well as brawn and a worthwhile occupation as opposed to merely waiting for the hero to rescue her from countless perils. Alainna is gutsy,intelligent and brave and Sebastien is strong yet vulnerable, courageous yet tender and they are thrown together to find a common thread that eventually binds them together.
There is such a wealth of celtic history and tradition weaved into the characters and their lives that it will transport you there- time travel courtesy of Susan King ! I found myself reading the words in my head in a broad Scottish accent ! At the beginning , Alainna dreams of Sebastien , accurate from his hair colour down to the charge on his shield , despite the fact that she had not yet met him . The book ends ,as it begins , with a dream , this time of the Stone Maiden returning to human form , who tells her that she is about to re-enter Alainna's life in a different way . I won't tell you how,that will spoil it for you , but it is a lovely way to leave the reader ,looking into the hero and heroine's future along with them.
The Stone Maiden is a gentle love story with a spoonful of wit, a sprinkling of warmth and a whole stirring of Celtic fables ,traditions and incantations : DELICIOUS . If ,like me, you have read and loved Susan King's books , then you'll devour this one too . Read and enjoy, and I defy you not to fall in love with Sebastien le Bret and Scotland alike !
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Summary: This is a must read !
Review: Susan King has done it again! I have read every one of her books. She has never let me down. Her story's about the scottish highlands are always great. This story is about a Highland lass who ask's the King of scotland for help. Her clan is dieing off form a feud that has lasted 700 years. Alainna is sent a Norman knight Sebastein Le Bret. By the kings order she is to marry this kinght. Alainna dose not want to marry him she wants a highlander. She want this highlander to take on her name as well. Alainna and Sebastien are handfasted, but he will not take her name. as you read this story you see that they both have very strong pride. you are drwan into their love for one another hopeing that they will let go of their pride and stay together. This is a must read you dont want to put the book down till its over. I loved this book I could really feel what the both of them were feeling I cryed when they did and laughted when they did!
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Summary: Highland Magic
Review: Susan King has produced another spellbinding book of the Scottish Highlands. Her reasearch plots and characters are woven into a story that makes the reader believe they are actually living in the same keep as the characters. this is a must for readers of historical romance.
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Summary: The Land of Angels
Review: The Stone Maiden is a lyrical novel set in twelfth century Scotland, a tale of Celtic clans and Norman knights intertwined with the legend of an ancient maiden. With grace and style, Susan King weaves together the threads of fantasy, romance, and historical fiction. After her father and brothers are killed in a feud with Clan Nechtan, Alainna MacLaren becomes the sole heir to Kinlochan, a vast but impoverished holding that sits like a gateway to the mountains of the western Highlands. Her clan is dying, with only her elderly kin surviving after so many generations of violence. The feud began in the fifth century, after a MacNechtan accosted a MacLaren woman. When faeries discovered the woman dying, they caught her spirit inside a granite pillar and raised it on the shore of the loch near her beloved home. For centuries, the Stone Maiden has protected Clan Laren. However, the spell can last only seven hundred years. Soon Alainna will chisel the final mark upon the stone, where the years have been counted. No one knows what will happen then. Will the feud die, will it rage anew, or will Clan Laren simply fade into the mists of time? King William, the Scottish monarch, wishes to establish a Norman military presence in Kinlochan to ensure his authority -- so he sends Sebastien leBret, one of his Norman knights, to wed Alainna. Author Susan King skillfully uses Alainna, Sebastien, and the Stone Maiden as a metaphor for the uneasy alliances among the Normans and Celts in twelfth century Scotland. Fantasy can be thought of as lying along a continuum. At one end are works told in broad strokes that emphasize events. These are big stories, often epic in scope, with characters moving within the framework of the plot like chess pieces on a board. At the other end are character-driven tales that focus on individuals; their personal stories inform and offer insight into the larger context. Although I enjoy fantasy drawn from all along that continuum, I tend to prefer works centered on personal relationships among the characters. The Stone Maiden weaves a romantic story around Alainna and Sebastien that brought the Celtic history and legends alive for me. Celtic folklore abounds with legends that involve stone. In this book, those themes provide an allegory for the political backdrop of the story and act as a symbol of human spirituality. The stone also becomes a metaphor for Alainna, who is a skilled stone carver. King's subtle blending of mythology and the art of stone carving create a poetic mood, one enhanced by her evocation of the stark beauty in the Scottish countryside. The Celtic poem from Alexander Carmichael's Carmina Gadelica (Charms of the Gaels), which serves as a theme for Sebastien, embodies the story's mystical quality: I am weary, and I a stranger,
Lead me to the land of angels.
Be my eyes in time of darkness,
Be my shield against hosts of faery,
Be my wings till I find my home. The Stone Maiden is a magical tale of love, fantasy, history, pride, and honor. It offers to take the reader home on its wings of enchantment.
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Summary: The Stone Maiden
Review: The Stone Maiden is a MUST read for both romance and historical readers alike. The story is riviting and the plot is complex enough to keep you interested without the feeling of reading a documentary that so many historical romances do. I especially enjoyed the detail and authentic day to day living depicted in the book. Susan did her homework on this one as usual. For you historical buffs: the detail of the stone cutting and carvings a correct (I looked them up.) And they intertwine with the love story in a unique and pleaseing manner. Not only is this a must read but it is a book that you will want to read again and again. I sat down to read for an hour and read to the end of the book in one setting. I just could not put it down.
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Summary: Ssuan King Tells a Wonderful Story
Review: The Stone Maiden tells me that Susan King just gets better with every book she writes. I have read all her books and I look forward to every one. Her grasp of medieval Scotland is always flawless and her story of Alianna MacLaren, Celtic legend, and the Norman knight who falls in love with her is a magical tale and one not to be missed.
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Summary: Very Disappointing
Review: The Stone Maiden was the first book I had read by Susan King and it will be my last. The only reason I give this book a review of 2 stars, and not 1, is because I finished it without throwing it away, but I only finished it so I could give an honest review of this book to warn others to not waste their time. I am a big book reader and I have come up with my own saying; "A book is only as good as its editing". This book was chalked full of errors and that grated on my nerves. The worst thing is to have to reread something to make sense of the books MISTAKES! If the puplishing company does not want to waste their time corecting errors then why should I waste my time and read it? Although editing was a big block of my disappointment it would be silly to tell people not to read this book because of spelling errors and jumbled words. No, I am going to tell you that this book had no character. I did not come away from this with a feeling of understanding the characters and I had a hard time believing in Allaina and Sebastiens "love". I thought Alainna was boring and Sebastien was lame, and NOTHING even remotely exciting occured until the end of the book and that was over within minutes. I strongly urge you not to read this if you are looking for a book that you would ENJOY!
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