Morning's Gate - Hardcover

The British author of the widely acclaimed historical romance Louisa Elliott (1989) now turns her considerable talents to writing the story of Louisa's children--beginning in the present when Zoe Clifford, Louisa's great-great granddaughter, travels to York in search of her family's history. There, Zoe meets a distant cousin, Stephen Elliott, who shares with her a long-unopened trunk filled with letters, photographs, and a captivating diary written by one of Louisa's sons, Liam. From there, the novel slips back in time to the year 1913, and the long- dead family members are brought vividly and convincingly to life. Young Liam develops a boyish infatuation with Georgina Duncannon, whom he believes to be a distant cousin, but an overheard conversation reveals that Georgina is actually his half-sister. Horrified, Liam confronts his mother and then abruptly leaves home, striking out for the wilds of Australia. When WW I breaks out, he enlists, and when he becomes violently ill with dysentery, he is sent to London to recuperate. Georgina, a nurse, finds him there, and the two are drawn into an incestuous affair. Slowly, Zoe and Stephen piece together the clues and make the discovery for themselves. And in the process, they discover some unusual parallels--Zoe lives in a flat where Georgina once lived, Stephen physically resembles Liam--between past and present. They also fall deeply in love, but trouble arises when Stephen, a ship's captain, is sent to the Persian Gulf. Distance and several misunderstandings make them doubt their feelings for each another. It takes a near- tragedy to shock them into a recognition of how much they do in fact care. Well-researched and deftly written: a thoroughly satisfying historical romance that manages to bridge the decades with grace and skill. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Although not technically a sequel to the author's Louisa Elliott ( LJ 7/89), later generations of that novel's family are featured in this one. In the late 1980s, Zoe Clifford goes to York searching for information about her great grandmother's family and encounters a cousin, Stephen Elliott. Drawn together romantically, the two share a compulsion to sort out the puzzles emerging from records, letters, and a diary. Illegitimacy and incest are among the troubling aspects. The blanks are filled in for the reader with flashbacks to World War I England, Australia, and European battlefields. In researching this novel, Roberts has utilized an Australian soldier's diary and personal reminiscences. The result is not uniformly successful. Some episodes and individuals are well drawn, with the better parts centering around Zoe. The incestuous relationship comes across as mawkish while the idea of a long-dead Elliott guiding Zoe and Stephen seems contrived. Consider where the earlier novel circulated well. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 10/15/91.
- Ellen Kaye Stoppel, Drake Univ. Law Lib., Des Moines
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.