Reviewed by Francine
Imagine if you will the windswept coastline
of Ireland and a man mourning a lost love! If you’ve ever read “Wuthering
Heights” you’ll recognise the mournful sorrow of loss in this novel, and in
some respects Devan, Marquess of Castlereagh, befits the dark brooding essence
of Heathcliff from the classic tome penned by Emily Brontë.
Thus Devan poor man has
retreated from England to Dahlingham, where beside himself with grief the
appearance of a young woman who markedly resembles his late beloved haunts his
every waking hour and dreams taunt and torment him. Aside from tragedy of Devan’s
loss, Raven has no recollection of who she is or whence she came from. She is
but a seeming orphan lost to strange dreams and unexplained circumstances. All
the while Devan is far from her thoughts until an act of kindness, a kindness
that drives him to the brink of belief he is losing his mind, and Raven to the
horrors of love transcending time. But how can love in the present coalesce
with love in the past, and how can she give her heart to Devan if it rightfully
belongs to another?
Whilst Laura Mills-Alcott readily
admits the ballad “Sweet Barbara Allen” inspired the writing of the novel, it’s
more than that, for it has underlying elements of the Sleeping Beauty about it
with the long sleep in a nether existence, and a prince who with one kiss stirs
and brings forth a life Raven had lost. Thus The Briar and The Rose is a tale
of something once lost and regained with a twist ending to warm the hardest of unromantic
hearts. Enjoy!
