Review: Compelling story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 27, 2013
I really enjoyed this book.  The writing flows, and the story is compelling.  The protagonists in the story are, for the most part, newly-arrived convicts transported from England to New South Wales, Australia, in the early 1800s.The author explains a great deal about the early history of Australia without being pedantic.  The historical details are very nicely integrated into the story, and are never are intrusive.  The author clearly did a lot of research, and the historical accuracy adds to the richness of the tale.The author also points out how crucial New South Wales Governor Lachlan Macquarie was to the development of the democratic Australia that we know today.  He insisted on fully integrating convicts into society after their sentences had been fulfilled, thus preventing the creation of a stratified settler society.  His policies are crucial to this story, for it allowed former convicts to have dreams of someday owning their own land and having their own businesses.The hero of the story is Tiger Carstairs.  Tiger has a prosperous farm, and dreams of land over the rugged Blue Mountains (the "mystic mountains" of the title), land that will be opened to settlement in the near future.The heroine is Isabella O'Shea, transported for knifing a member of the nobility in England who attempted to rape her.  She arrives in New South Wales scared to death that she will be assigned to serve her sentence in less than desirable circumstances.  Nevertheless, in Australia she will have more hope for a decent life in the future than she would ever have had in the slums of London.  Isabella is assigned to work for Tiger Carstairs, a man whom she resents because he seems to embody everything that she hates about the English aristocracy.It really is difficult to describe the story without including too many spoilers. The tale does take unexpected twists and turns, and completely engages the reader.Why four stars rather than five?  Well, Tiger and Isabella were a bit too stubborn and childish a few too many times, in my estimation. But this is just my own opinion, and others may disagree. Their actions did not ruin the book. (I personally cannot stand the plot device of the silly "tragic misunderstanding" that could be cleared up with one short conversation, and thankfully the Hero and Heroine's misunderstandings did not fall into that category.)Highly recommended.  This is a memorable story, and a real keeper.