Celticlady's Reading Room

To Catch a Falling Star is Book Eight in the Graham Saga, and the last of the series, which makes me sad. I look forward to getting the invite to review another book in this great series. I did not start the series from Book One but rather in Book Three, but that was alright as the way Anna writes it was easy to pick up the story. 

This book continues the story of Alex and Matthew Graham in Maryland. Mathew gets a letter from his brother Luke, who he has not seen in twenty years, letting him know that he now owns the family manor back in Scotland. Alex is not happy at all about leaving her home to sail across the ocean to Scotland and the prospect of seeing Luke again is unsettling. The year is 1688 and Scotland is torn between the Catholics and the Protestants and war is on the horizon, another reason for Alex not wanting to go to Scotland. But go she does with a couple of her sons and Matthew. 

Scotland is not what they expected, definitely a lot of changes in 20 years. In another story, Alex's son Isaac has fallen through a painting to arrive in a time 300 years in the past. He is a gifted painter like his grandmother Mercedes, who somehow managed to go back and forth in time herself. While he tries to paint a way back to his own time to his wife and daughter, things don't go as planned. 

The Grahams must face an uncertain future and tragic losses while they need to decide if staying in Scotland is an option, Alex hopes not because her home is now in Maryland with the rest of her family. There is persecution in the colonies as well as in Scotland against the Catholics which adds to the stress that the Grahams have. Their daughter in Scotland is accused of murder and takes off and it is up to the family and friends to find her and bring her home and prove her innocence. This was a terrible time when religious adversity comes between families. 

I really love time slip novels and this is a wonderful series, written with amazing knowledge of the Colonies and Scotland. the characters are so well written that I feel like I know them and had an amazing time going along with them on their journey of births, deaths, love, danger and time travel. I really need to go back and read the first two books so I can better understand how Alex came to be in Scotland in the first place. I will miss this amazing family and hope to read more in the sequels that will follow, well according to Anna anyway. I look forward to reading Anna Belfrage's next work in In the Shadow of the Storm, a new series set in the fourteenth century.