Here Burns My Candle by Liz Curtis Higgs

by | Mar 19, 2010 | Fiction Book Reviews | 2 comments

Evocative and beautifully written, Liz Curtis Higgs newest novel Here Burns My Candle brings a Scottish spin to the Biblical story of Ruth. Like her previous Highland series, Here Burns My Candle will capture your heart, twist it to the breaking point, and bring you to hope in the end.

Lady Marjory, the Naomi figure in this story, must be broken so she can be pieced back together in a way that will bring glory to God and Lady Elisabeth must find the strength to choose the unimaginable. Forgive the greatest of betrayals.

Lord Donald is a beautifully crafted, fallen hero and I wish I could have seen more of him. It raises my hopes for the second book and the ‘rebirth’ of a new hero.

Liz’s research of Scotland and her trip there shines in the descriptions and language of the book. If you enjoy a good historical novel, or if you’ve read Liz’s other books, you will fall in love with this story too.

About the Book from Liz: (www.lizcurtishiggs.com)

September 1745 

Edinburgh is a bustling city of fifty thousand inhabitants, the narrow closes and wynds crowded with rich and poor alike. Tongues are wagging over the impending arrival of Charles Edward Stuart—the young pretender to the throne—and his Highland army. Scotland, though bound by English law, is thick with Jacobites, who support the restoration of James and the overthrow of King George II.

Safely ensconced in their well appointed rooms overlooking the High Street are the Kerrs of Selkirk. Landed gentry from the Scottish Borders, the Kerrs have called Edinburgh home for a decade, all but abandoning their quiet country estate in favor of Edinburgh’s heady mix of culture, commerce, and political intrigue.

A spiritual famine has inflicted this family, a waning devotion to God. The Kerrs don’t belong in the city, and instinctively they know it. Edinburgh is foreign, unfamiliar, and even dangerous. Yet, they remain.

Lady Elisabeth Kerr is a keeper of secrets. A Highlander by birth and a Lowlander by marriage, she honors the auld ways, even as doubts and fears stir deep within her.

Lord Donald Kerr has secrets of his own, well hidden from the household, yet whispered among the town gossips.

Dowager Lady Marjory Kerr hides gold beneath her floor and guilt inside her heart. Though her two abiding passions are maintaining her place in society and coddling her grown sons, Marjory’s many regrets, buried in Greyfriars Churchyard, continue to plague her.

Bound by marriage, then torn asunder by cruel circumstance, the Kerr women will be forced to depend upon one another. And that’s when things will get verra interesting…

A mother who cannot face her future.
A daughter who cannot escape her past.
A timeless saga of love and betrayal,
flickering against the vivid backdrop
of eighteenth-century Edinburgh.

Here Burns My Candle is based on the beloved Old Testament story of Naomi and Ruth, set in another time and place to demonstrate the timelessness of God’s Word. Scotland forever, dearie!

2 Comments

  1. Liz Curtis Higgs

    Pepper, I am grateful beyond words for your thoughtful, thorough review. What a wordsmith you are! Bless you for not giving away all the plot points (smile), and for encouraging readers to take their own journey with Marjory, Elisabeth, and Donald. You can be sure that long-awaited hero will appear in MINE IS THE NIGHT next Spring. God’s blessings on you, my sister, this Easter and always!

    Reply
  2. pepperbasham

    My pleasure, Liz. I hope to stir emotions with my novels one day as well as you do with yours.

    Reply

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