What the Wind Knows Paperback – Unabridged, March 1, 2019

not a chopped-up badly written serial with cliff-hangers that force you to buy another installment - what a pleasure to finally find a real book on Kindle after all the junk I've gone through this past year. Cliff-hangers for sure but they are by chapter, fast-moving and keep you pulled in to the very end. A wonderful story from the first word to the last! Very professional writing, like a big thick novel I used to get from a library from a real publishing house - every sentence perfectly structured, no typo's or made-up words. I intended to read a couple chapters a day and make it last, but I made the mistake of getting comfortable in my recliner and literally couldn't stop reading until many hours later I got to the end! Should have read a few chapters to learn the characters then gone to the end to see what happened like I usually do, then I go back and read the whole thing at my leisure. Then I wouldn't have spent most of the day glued to the story. Every character becomes real very quickly, the story is so believable although your mind knows it's fantasy. So much Irish history woven throughout - if you have any Irish in your roots at all you sure need to read this! And if you don't, it will make you wish you were Irish - it was that magical. Be entertained and educated at the same time. There were a dozen times the story could have ended and left one feeling sad, but it kept going until the amazing wonderful happy ending! I'm going to read the whole thing again as I kinda hurried through a lot of the history part trying to get to the end so I could get back to my housework LOL

This book was amazing! It was so good with beautiful writing and a riveting and interesting storyline of romance, time, and history. However, it had some scenes that were not "clean" (not explicit, but a little handsy) so I wouldn't say it is a "clean romance" sadly! I skipped those parts and because of them I wish I hadn't read it. I'm sad that I can't recommend this book to anyone because of that and won't be reading any more books by her. "Slow Dance in Purgatory" was an awesome clean romance, why couldn't this have been clean too?

My grandfather was born in Dublin in 1904 and although he wasn't Irish (German ancestry), I'd always wondered about his history in Ireland and how it fits into my own life story. I decided a pilgrimage of sorts was necessary to figure it out. I took my sister with me and we visited site after site, enjoying as much of Ireland as we could in a 3 week period. We visited every tourist site we could, and some usual locations on a whim. Many of those sites are mentioned in this book. We started at the Cliffs of Moher, spent days visiting Malahide Castle, Dublin castle the national museum's, New Grange and Galway, Cork, Muckross House and Middleton. We skipped the Blarney stone (who really wants to kiss something thousands of others had kissed in the last week?? It sounds unsanitary to me). We also skipped Waterford, but visited the Drombeg standing stones, the Ring of Kerry and the Giants Causeway. We traveled east to west, south to north and still didn't have time to see it all. We never did learn about our heritage, but I'm guessing that will be another opportunity. Another trip. Another adventure. Ireland is a beautiful place with a LOT of history, from the famine to the loss of the Titanic, its played its part in our lives. I wish I'd read this book before our trip. It would've explained a little more of the political conflicts that remains today. Belfast and northern Ireland remain part of the British empire and there are still some who are angry with the capitulation and presence of British influence on "Irish soil". As few as 20 years ago there were bombings and killings in protest of British rule. The Irish are a proud and traditional people. Wool sweaters, caps, fried fish and potato dishes, traditional music and dance are all present, but a new element has been added in spades: tourism. It seems that Ireland has recently increased 10x its business in tourism. It's growing as well. You can't see a clear skyline anymore, every city is dotted with cranes as they tear down the old and rebuild modern structures. This book was wonderfully written, making all of the history come to life. I enjoyed the characters, the plot (the conflict, the history, the romance), the language & tradition, the recollection of a past that isn't my own, but it felt SO real. Reading this story placed me there in the middle of the love, laughter, & heartache. I enjoyed the book tremendously. I WILL look for other books by this author. I'm usually content with a book when I'm done, this book made me crave more of Ireland. Maybe I'll get to visit the Emerald Island again someday.

I’m not a huge fan of political history & war but this author made it such an essential intertwined part of the story line that I needed to know exactly what happened and found myself happy for Ireland today. The main characters were very well written, as were all the characters, and it was easy to get lost in their journey. I periodically reread my favorite books on kindle. But the books I love, I buy a hard copy. This one made the cut for the shelf at home!