The Irish Trilogy
Before The Fall
Before The Fall
Book Two
“A highly ambitious, engaging, and evocative novel and a hauntingly captivating read.” —The Sunday Independent
Continuing the journey of Irish emigrée Jo Devereux, a woman haunted by the sins of her foremothers, and the men who betrayed them.
Now that her mother has died, Jo has spent the last six months back in Ireland, trying to unearth what really happened in her family during the Irish Civil War–and how it relates to the dramatic disintegration of her life in San Francisco. Could her mission to uncover the truth be the key to a possible future with her old love, Rory? Or will it be their undoing?
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Description
Now facing the birth of her child, and single motherhood, Jo Devereux’s time is running out. She has spent the last six months in Mucknamore, the Irish village she fled twenty years ago, with a trunk of old letters and diaries left by her grandmother and great-aunt.
The papers have revealed a heartbreaking legacy—bitter secrets that have haunted the women in her family for four generations, and forced Jo out of Ireland, and away from Rory O’Donovan, the only man she ever truly loved.
Now facing the birth of her child and single motherhood, Jo must face the ultimate truth under her mother’s and grandmother’s unshakeable silence–and how it somehow connects with her failed life as a gender-bending agony aunt in San Francisco?
As she pieces together the poisonous pieces of the past, can Jo redeem the legacy of guilt and shame bequeathed to her? And what of Rory, son of her family’s sworn enemies, now mired in family troubles of his own?
Will their mission to uncover the past unlock a possible future together? Or are they about to lose everything all over again?
The first two books in this trilogy holds the reader in the grip of fictional history from the Irish civil war to the backtracking and present life of Jo Devereux. She takes on the task of unravelling the family saga and neighbourhood fueds in descriptions of comradeship, love, betrayal, entrenchment, loneliness and romance. The females characters are as strong a force as their male counterparts to be reckoned with. I am looking forward to the third book coming out and to wherever it takes me. A wonderful must read where you can steal away awhile.
It was a present to my mother and she absolutely loved it as she has the first book of the collection!
In 1995, pregnant Jo Devereux is still living in Ireland. Caught between her relationship with former lover Rory and the desire to return home to San Francisco, Jo battles with the past and its possible impact on her future, as she unravels her family’s possible involvement in the death of Rory’s great-uncle, suffocated in Mucknamore’s notorious sinking sands. Writing her family’s history, she discovers how Granny Peg rescued Nora from a mental institute, only to trigger further problems with the O’Donovans.
Following on from the first book in this trilogy, ‘After the Rising’, the story flips between 1920s and 1990s Ireland, and 1980s San Francisco. The book is beautifully written and draws the reader into a web of history, lies and murder. The characters are all deftly drawn and really come alive off the page, taking us into the heart of their lives and the difficulties of each generation. The dialogue, particularity, is realistic in each setting and gives a real sense of who the characters were.
A superbly written tale that fully engaged me from the first page.
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Really enjoyed this sequel and cannot wait for the final book. Great story with the historical back drop and educational. If you are a fan of history and the Irish troubles it’s a must read.
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Well written gripping tale – highly recommended
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