#Review: Beyond The Wild River by Sarah Maine

Book length - 326 pages
Available now on: 
Book Depository - www.bookdepository.com
  Amazon UK - Beyond the Wild River
   Amazon US - www.amazon.com

BLURB

For fans of Kate Morton and Beatriz Williams, a highly atmospheric and suspenseful historical novel, set in the 1890s about a Scottish heiress who unexpectedly encounters her childhood friend in North America, five years after he disappeared from her family’s estate the night of a double murder.

Nineteen-year-old Evelyn Ballantyre has rarely strayed from her family’s estate in the Scottish Borderlands, save for the occasional trip to Edinburgh, where her father, a respected magistrate, conducts his business—and affairs of another kind. Evelyn has always done her duty as a daughter, hiding her boredom and resentment behind good manners—so when an innocent friendship with a servant is misinterpreted by her father as an illicit union, Evelyn is appalled.

Yet the consequence is a welcome one: she is to accompany her father on a trip to North America, where they’ll visit New York City, the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, and conclude with a fishing expedition on the Nipigon River in Canada. Now is her chance to escape her cloistered life, see the world, and reconnect with her father.

Once they’re on the Nipigon, however, Evelyn is shocked to discover that their guide is James Douglas, the former stable hand and her one-time friend who disappeared from the estate after the shootings of a poacher and a gamekeeper. Many had assumed that James had been responsible, but Evelyn never could believe it. Now, in the wilds of a new world, far from the constraints of polite society, the truth about that day, James, and her father will be revealed…to stunning consequences.

MY REVIEW

I had heard so much about this book that I was slightly nervous when I began to read it in case it did not live up to such high praise, but there was absolutely no need for me to worry, as this atmospheric and stunning novel is beyond reproach. 

It is the late 1800s and Evelyn is on an exciting trip with her father to North America and Canada where she hopes to regain a shred of her former close relationship with him. But as business remains at the forefront of his father's mind, Evelyn is once again relegated to the status of an inconvenient woman, which doesn't sit well with this intelligent and opinionated lady. With old friends and new accompanying them along the way, it is only when an unexpected face from the past reappears in the most unusual place, that Evelyn and her father must face old mistakes if they want to make a change for the better. But there are those who will do anything to stop the truth from being exposed and they don't care who they hurt in the process...

BEYOND THE WILD RIVER by Sarah Maine is a masterpiece of writing as the author's evocative descriptions flow over the reader like a sultry melody, lulling you into a different time and place, and bringing every emotion to life with a burst of colour and feeling. The characters and plot line are compelling and interesting, and I devoured this novel in one sitting. I look forward to many more outstanding novels from this author in the future. Trust me when I say BEYOND THE WILD RIVER by Sarah Maine is a must-read novel for 2017. 

BOOK RATING - 📖📖📖📖📖 5+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Author Bio:
Sarah Maine was born in England and emigrated to Canada with her family at the age of ten. A small northern Ontario community was home for the next two years before the family moved south, and Sarah went to high school in Toronto. She returned to England to study archaeology, stayed on to do research and work, married there and has two sons. 
Books were always important. She grew up on a diet of Arthur Ransome and Robert Louis Stevenson but also the classics, Jane Austen and the Brontés and, of course, Daphne du Maurier - but now enjoys a wide range of contemporary fiction. 
The House between Tides will be published in 2016, followed, in 2017, by Beyond the Wild River. A third book, Ullaness, is work in progress. For more information:
Website - sarahmainebooks.com
Twitter - twitter.com/sarahmainebooks
Facebook - www.facebook.com/Sarah-Maine-Author-1581332188811712/

*I want to thank Emily from Hodder & Stoughton, and Sarah Maine, for the opportunity to review this beautiful novel. Happy Reading!!!