This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.
Reviewed by Emily-Jane Hills Orford for Readers' Favorite
What is it that lures the present to the past and the past to the present? Is it a love so powerful that it can only transcend time? “There are many bargains one makes in life: honor for power; integrity for wealth; character for renown.” The power of the written word can outshine all these feats, but for Donal Donn, an aspiring seventeenth-century poet, his love for Mary, daughter of the laird of Undlay, is more powerful to him than anything he can write. And now, his forbidden love with someone above his station will have him meet his doom. In Catherine Hughes’ In Silence Cries the Heart, two star-crossed lovers will challenge the confines of time as a twenty-first-century schoolteacher, Caitlyn Hegarty, finds herself entangled in the tragic history of the doomed lovers as Mary’s voice rings true through Caitlyn’s heart. Can Caitlyn unravel the mystery and set things right?
Catherine Hughes’ novel, In Silence Cries the Heart, was inspired by the true story of Domhnull Donn and Mary Grant. Taking the facts of history and intermingling them with fiction, the author has woven a tapestry of parallel plots set in the seventeenth and the twenty-first centuries. The narrative effectively sets the stage, both past and present, and lures the reader into the web of plots and subplots of both eras. The story is told in the first person narrative from multiple points of view, and each person speaking is identified at the beginning of the chapter in which they tell their side of the story. The author shares her passion for history and literature, including quotes from the poetry penned by Donn. At the end of the novel, the author shares some interesting historical facts about the characters and events that are the makings of this epic story. A fascinating and engaging read.