Sunday, April 27, 2014

Tide and Tempest

For Tillie McGrath life's plan was simple. Move to America and build a life with her beloved and unborn child. Life rarely goes according to plan, however, and Tillie finds herself burying the past and moving forward thanks to her friends at the boarding house. What Tillie doesn't realize that the past can fight back when you least expect it.

Tide and Tempest by Elizabeth Ludwig is the third book in her Edge of Freedom series and I was thrilled to continue on with the stories of the boarding house's next member after falling in love with the intertwined tales of Ana, Cara, and Eoghan in the early stories.

I really appreciate how carefully Ludig works to build her worlds and keep her characters intersecting through natural story points which flow out of the overarching plot and am amazed when seemingly coincidental encounters from earlier tales turn out to be major plot drivers an entire novel later! To have this level of foresight (or the ability to tie back) definitely increased my enjoyment of the plot and Ludwig's storytelling capabilities.

In the second novel, readers are briefly introduced to Tillie McGrath, Tide and Tempest's heroine, a sad woman in the midst of rebuilding her life after loosing her fiance and delivering their stillborn child. As a result my interest was already piqued when I opened up book number 3 found Tillie's journey to and from the boarding house to be our next focus.

When I first started Ludwig's series Tillie was the one woman I wished I could find out more about, the grieving woman, the quiet woman, and Ludwig does not disappoint. While staying true to the overarching plot with the Fenian's and The Celt, Ludwig still crafts a beautiful story of mercy, forgiveness, and love for young Tillie.
I found, in a lot of ways, Tillie has been the character over the series to show the most growth and wonder if this is a reflection of Ludwig's on growth over the series as an author?
Tide and Tempest does have a more complete feel than it's predecessors, possibly due to story line completions, but their was an equal though more subtle maturation in the writing itself which adds to the ease of reading.

Overall,  as much as I loved Ludwig's early work, Tide and Tempest has become a new favourite and I'd highly recommend it to fans of the genre.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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