Tonight you get another book review from me because I finished it earlier today and it was one of those treasures that leaves you feeling disoriented like the real world is so lacking and you want to dive back into the world you just left.
For some background on the book it is called Seer of Sevenwaters and is authored by Juliet Marillier. This is a book from a series that started with the Sevenwaters trilogy. I actually thought upon reading this book that it was number 4 and felt that maybe I had just forgotten a few things since it had been awhile since I had visited the Sevenwaters world. Looking for great site resources to share with you all I actually discovered that this is the 5th book in the series and that I skipped over one. The sevenwaters series consists of four generations of the same family and is based around the Celts and Britons. The books are as follows (in chronological order)
Daughter of the Forest is about Sorcha our first heroine. And is loosely based on the Hans Christian Anderson story "The Six Swans." Sorcha must sew shirts made of painful nettle for her brothers to return them to human form from swans. During this time she must remain completely mute.
Son of the Shadows is about Sorcha's younger daughter Liadan. Liadan is a skilled healer who also receives visions. Liadan is able to silently communicate with her twin brother Sean. Liadan is kidnapped by a band of outlaws to save one of their members.
Child of the Prophecy is about Fainne. The daughter of Niamh and Ciaran. She is raised by her single father the sorcerer Ciaran. She is sent by her evil grandmother to murder one of her cousins in Sevenwaters and must find the line between good and evil, determining which side she is on.
Heir to Sevenwaters is the book that I need to now go back and read it is about Clodagh the daughter of Sean & Aisling. She shares the same mind link with her twin Deidre that Liandan and her father Sean shared. She has to go on an unlikely journey to save her little brother (Finbar) from the Fair Folk.
Seer of Sevenwaters is the book that I just finished which has been the best one thus far. It is about Sibeal and her last Summer to spend with her sisters (to include Clodagh) before she will take her final oath to become a druidess. An unusual ship wreck turns her world upside-down.
Twixt Firelight and Water (which I haev yet to read) is about Conri, who ends up becoming Ciaran's familiar in the form of a Raven. Flame of Sevenwaters (I also have yet to read this) is about Maeve, one of Sean's daughters and sister to Clodagh & Sibeal. Maeve was horribly burned in a fire when she was little and is hesitant to return to Sevenwaters but ends up on a journey with her brother Finbar to save her family.
Now that we have a little bit of background of the series I am going to focus on just Sibeal's story: Seer of Sevenwaters. Sibeal is 16 at the start of the story and we are introduced to her as she is on her last Summer with her sisters before she takes her oaths to become a druid which will lead her to a quiet life in the forest in solitude. A shipwreck leads her to encounter Felix, a man that has amnesia. She helps to nurse him back to life and help him to remember who he is. In doing so he must go on a periless journey to safe comrades. Sibeal also must partake on the voyage and in doing so shows more of her amazing druid skills. The journey's impending end leads Sibeal torn apart between her vows of solitude and celibacy as a druid and her heart and visions of life if she were to be with Felix.
No words that I write could truly do this book justice. I find that Juliet Marillier books start out a little slow but intriguing which leads you to keep reading and gets you more and more interested. Before you know it you are completed wrapped up in her Sevenwaters world and have a hard time coming up for air. I find that Seer of Sevewnwaters has been my all-time favorite book of hers thus far. Somehow I felt as thought I could relate to Sibeal in a way that I rarely relate to a character so completely. I feel as thought perhaps in another or past life I had a druidic connection. I could hear a lot of my mother's words about me in my reflection about the book today. Sibeal is always being chastised by those around her for not allowing her emotions to control her. She is always feeling the turmoil inside and feels the strength of her feelings within herself as she knows that her duties are what needs to be at the forefront for her. My mother is always telling me that it is ok to feel love and it is ok to be excited about things. I do feel love and I do feel excitement I just don't show it in the way that some people traditionally think that I should all the time. I consciously make the effort to show someone that I care about how special they are to me and how much I love them. The amount of things going on in my mind do not always lead this emotion to be portrayed constantly in the outer part of me.
I highly reccomend this series and especially this book. Due to the time span in between most of her stories it IS an option to read one book as an individual but if you want the backstories of the other individuals you will encounter along the way that may help explain why they are the way they are or why they do certain things, than I would suggest reading the previous stories to fill in the blanks.
Juliet Marillier also has 3 other factions of books in the Celtic Realm to include the Saga of the Light Isles of which I have read the first book Wolfskin and it was an excellent read. She has also written the Bridei Chronicles and last but not least the Wildwood Series.
You can buy Seer of Sevenwaters currently on Amazon for less than $8.
For Juliet Marillier's official site visit :
Juliet Marillier's official site
I waited a long time to watch this movie because I thought it could possibly be a waste of time. So finally last night I was able to find the time to watch it. As I suspected it was not the greatest movie of all time. It could have been a lot better except that it really was pretty slow moving. 
