Three Women of Kintail by Mildred M. McBride
Three Women of Kintail
by Mildred M. McBride
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/13400470/
I received this book because of my username (KateKintail). I loved the town of Kintail so much that I set my own story there when I was in high school. It was enjoyable to read another story set in this quaint village in the Scottish highlands. This was a self-published book, and the quality of the writing reflects that. There are a number of grammatical errors on the first page alone and many horrible ones peppered throughout. I know my self-published book has errors as well, so I try to not be so hard on it, but it was still painful to read as well. Also, I had trouble keeping some of the characters straight; even though there was a handy who's who list at the beginning, that list didn't cover all the characters, just a dozen or so. And even now that I've finished, I'm not sure which are the three women of Kintail this novel's title refers to. There were a lot of women in the book.
Aside from all of that, I did enjoy the story, when it felt like a story. There were some historical parts that seemed a bit forced/explained rather than shown. And there were HUGE time gaps during which important things happened like battles or major character deaths. So it was a strange read. It was also hard to imagine people in the 13th century using the word "disease" when first recorded mention of it is late 14th century and even then, not the way it's used in this book. But, apart from these faults, I really enjoyed getting to know the characters, some of whom I grew to love. Apart from the few things that seemed wrong for the time period, the culture was depicted beautifully. I really did feel as though I were in the Highlands, mixed up in the politics and daily struggles of the clan MacKenzie. I love the respect the clansfolk give each other and the honor with which they all--women and men--attempted to conduct themselves with, sometimes in difficult situations.