Review Irish Lady by Jeanette Baker
A successful attorney in a posh London neighborhood, Meghann McCarthy thought she’d escaped the slums of Belfast forever. Until Michael Devlin needs her help. Years before, her love for the Irish charmer had nearly torn her apart, but now he’s part of a past she never wants to revisit. However, she can’t leave him defenseless against a murder charge-even if uncovering the truth puts her life in danger too.
She’ll risk everything to save Michael-and she’s not the first of her family to put it all on the line for a man she loves. As Meghann delves further into Michael’s case, further into the history that binds them so irrevocably, she slips into the unfolding drama of centuries before…of another woman’s desperate fight to free her rebel husband from the clutches of Queen Elizabeth.
Irish lady is a great take on the Irish historical romance novel. Taking on the flight of the earls at the end of the Irish rebellion against the English, while also taking on the 20th century with Michael a former IRA soldier facing a murder charge for something he didn’t commit, when Meghann goes back to Ireland to help him through his trial and their romance is sparked again.
Honestly this your typical romance novel plot so I’m not going to go into how it works, even how the back in time retrospective works either because if you have ever read a romance novel that had just the slightest hint of time travel you’ll all ready get it. Instead I’m going to talk about what makes these older novels these classics so much better than a lot of what is written today.
You ready, here it is…. character consistency. And character development.
Okay so thats two things but really it all comes down to the characters. See, Ms. Baker’s novel is long. Not long long, but its a real novel length. Not some tens of thousands of words but over a hundred. What does that mean? She has the time and the space to create characters we actually get to know and care about. AND she has the plot space to make the characters react IN CHARACTER to what is happening in the story, despite how long it will take. The character development in Irish Lady is astounding. You crawl into these characters, get to know them like they were a part of you and a good character, will become part of you if you love the story. You’ll be able to write fan fic in your head, imagine what it would be like if they were real, be able to see your world through their eyes and you get there with Meghann and Michael.
Obviously I loved it. Not only do you get a great perspective of history, the flight of the earls and the IRA through the novel, but you get to meet two characters that are just amazing.
Overall Rating: B
