The Maid of Ballymacool

Michael was a bit pushy in his concern, which was off-putting at first, but once he settled down, I warmed up to him and found that he meant well. His chivalry concerning Magee's abuse of Brianna was especially enjoyable.

Adeline was loathsome for a good chunk of the story, but I enjoyed her later in the tale.

Magee was bitter and well written, but I felt like the full explanation of her history was withheld. There were glimmers of it, but I definitely wanted more.

The premise was lovely.

Brianna was the perfect Gothic leading lady: innocent and curious and bent toward adventure.

These notes from the author's note were shocking and disappointing to me:

“but I did take some creative license with the timeline and some of the details.”

“The house was taken over... by a band of antitreaty IRA forces—not British forces.”

“... none of the Boyd family members were harmed...”

Why blame an entire country for the actions and behaviors of a small group of people?

Why should a family who didn't have any members harmed be featured as a family that had several people killed?

These sorts of “creative license” alterations to historical facts always leave me feeling a lot like Brianna in this story: lied to and betrayed. Why not use the real history instead of creating a “more dramatic” one? Usually, the real history is plenty dramatic if written well.

I closed this book disappointed. I hope the next one is more accurate to historical accounts.

Content: altered history, tobacco, derogatory term, expletive, profanity, replacement profanity, replacement expletives