Only with Blood

I received a copy of ONLY WITH BLOOD: A NOVEL OF IRELAND by Therese Down from Lion Hudson in exchange for an honest review. 

 

I can honestly say this a top-notch book.  Let me start with the cover.  A girl in a white dress stands overlook water, tall grasses swaying in the wind behind her.  Her long dark hair wavers.  This image evokes so many thoughts.  My imagination was instantly sparked.  The novel itself did not let me down.

 

From the first page, the reader is gripped in raw drama.  You get to experience Ireland during World War II right along with the characters.  In the novel, a farmer, Jack Flynn, sells his daughter, Caitlin, in order to make ends meet.  His beautiful daughter is then married to an older man who isn’t well.  She yearns to attend a university.  Without giving away any spoilers, along comes IRA agent Donal Kelly. 

 

The research in the novel is impeccable.  You can tell the author and editor spent a great deal of time on this novel.  I have read a few books that involve similar situations, but I still learned a lot from ONLY WITH BLOOD.

 

I highly recommend this to fans of historical fiction.