I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
Nicola Marter has the power of psychometry - when she touches an object, she can learn about its past. She tries to keep this ability a secret. She inherited it from her grandfather, who was tested in torturous ways. The power isn't spoken of around the house. However, one day at work a lady comes in to get a wooden carving, "The Firebird", appraised. Nicola's boss doesn't think it's worth anything, for lack of proof. But Nicola touched the wood, and knows the truth: the Firebird used to belong to the Russian Empress Catherine, given to a girl named Anna, in the early 1700's. Nicola goes on a quest, with the aid of her an old friend, Rob, whose psychic powers are far greater than her own, to prove the Firebird's validity. But will she be able to find clues from the eighteenth century, still hidden almost three hundred years later?
I was excited to begin this book when I received it for free from Goodreads First Reads. However, it was nothing like I'd expected it to be. The beginning of the story was all about Nicola, as I'd expected it to be. However, once she met up with Rob, her old friend, the main character of the book became Anna, the girl who received the Firebird in the 1700's. The memories of Anna started to grow longer and longer in length, until there was more of Anna than there was of Nicola. I'm glad, too; although I expected this story to be more on Nicola's psychic powers, it turned out that the main focus was on Anna, and life in that time period. For whatever reason, I found Anna's account to be quite compelling. I normally don't prefer to read historical fiction, so I was astonished to find I was beginning to grow more of a connection with Anna than Nicola, especially since Nicola was written in first person and Anna in third. Although I was surprised that the main character became Anna, I found I enjoyed the story more from that point on.
One thing I didn't like about the book was all language differences. If it was just in the olden times of Anna, I could understand that. However, do people in Scotland truly say "I'm no feart", or "I ken that"? Before reading this story, I would have had no clue what someone was saying if I heard those words spoken. However, through context, I realized what those phrases meant: "I'm not afraid" and "I know that". I still found it off-putting, though, with 'ken', in particular, being repeated over and over, and 'aye', as opposed to a simple 'yes', or 'yeah'. It's just so different from what I'm used to, like learning a few words in a new language and having to put them into normal English.
There was one thing about this book that I both appreciated and yet, on occasion, found incredibly tedious: the descriptions. I understand that Susanna Kearsley was just trying to show the reader everything, but at points, I found my mind drifting and had to bring it back to the book. I in no way found this book boring; just some of the descriptions. A lot were very long, and some unneeded. However, some were very good. I found that when my mind didn't automatically skim, and I was able to fully read each word, a clear vision was painted in my head, and I could easily picture where Nicola or Anna was at that precise moment. Some points were just too wordy for me.
Overall, I'm glad I read this book. It was one of those that lured you in slowly. At first, I didn't always want to pick it up again. But by the midway-point, I was definitely invested. I would rate it three stars. It was a good book, but I wish it had more to do with Nicola's psychometry than Anna, in the past. I don't always like books based in the past, but I did enjoy this, even if it wasn't what I was expecting.
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