The Daughters of Ireland

Who wouldn't be interested in reading about the lives of three very different women living in Ireland with the Deverill Castle as the common setting? I was until I began reading The Daughter's of Ireland, at least that is what made me want to read the novel in the first place. To understand a few things, the novel takes place during 1925 to 1931 and involves the lives of three unusual women who have different motives for wanting essentially the same thing, true love and control. In the Edwardian period of history since marriages were built upon social status and wealth instead of love, most of the marriages involved affairs for either partner as long as they were keep discrete. So this happens with virtual every couple mentioned in the book. Even one such affair involved a homosexual relationship as well.

Keeping that in mind, I really wanted to see where this would go and if it could keep my interest enough to even finish the novel. Sadly it did not. The Deverill family was placed under the curse of Maggie O'Leary back in the mid 1600's that none of the Deverill family members would ever rest in peace until the land which the O'Leary's believed was taken from them was returned. Kitty Trench is married to a wonderful man Robert who has vowed to take on the illegitimate son he believes resulted from an affair with Kitty's father and another women. The child however belongs to Jack O'Leary a man Kitty has had a long standing affair with and had promised at one point to take the child and move to America and begin a new life for them. The child however is a product of another relationship with Bridie who gave the child up to be raised by Kitty whom she felt would offer a much better life because she was dirt poor at the time and raising a child was simply out of the question.

Now that her circumstances have changed and she finds herself with a large inheritance that will change things not only for her, but now she wants Jack back. She promised Kitty that she left him behind once and she will not leave Ireland without him. But she does when her plans to kidnap the child result in her almost being caught when Jack doesn't remember who she is. She then decides to head back to America to New York where she can simply start over again. The Deverill castle is now bought by Celia, a former Deverill before being married who wants to restore it to its former glory along with all her new husbands money to do it with. She tries to get Kitty's buy in to join her but Kitty is making her own plans to leave Robert, despite her conflicting feelings and running away her Jack and her lover Jack to start a new life in America. Oh what a tangled web they weave.

I received The Daughters of Ireland by Santa Montefiore compliments of William Morrow, a division of Harper Collins Publishers. While I wanted so much more from this novel, it simply did not deliver. Kitty sees and can communicate with the former Deverill ghosts even though others can not, the promiscuity between all the characters is hard enough to keep track of despite them wanting the very thing that stand right in front of them. It is a book format of the those desiring for the greener grass on the other side of the fence but missing what is right in front of them. I would have to give this novel a 3 out of 5 stars based on my own rating scale and hope others might find this book to be more enjoyable than I did.

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The Daughters of Ireland by Santa Montefiore

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