Giveaway & Review: Whisper Falls by Elizabeth Langston

Whisper Falls by Elizabeth Langston

Publisher- Spencer Hill Press

Released- Nov 19th 2013

Pre-Order- Amazon / B & N

While training for a mountain bike race, high-school senior Mark Lewis spots a mysterious girl dressed in odd clothing, standing behind a waterfall in the woods near his North Carolina home. When she comments on the strange machine that he rides, he suspects something isn’t right. When Susanna claims to be an indentured servant from 1796, he wonders if she's crazy. Yet he feels compelled to find out more.Mark enters a ‘long-distance’ relationship with Susanna through the shimmering--and temperamental--barrier of Whisper Falls. Curious about her world, Mark combs through history to learn about the brutal life she's trapped in. But knowledge can be dangerous. Soon he must choose between the risk of changing history or dooming the girl he can't stop thinking about to a lifetime of misery.

My Thoughts:

Whisper Falls, is a brutal and heartbreaking story about one girl life in an unjust colonial time and the boy who cared enough to want to save her from a cruel fate.

Mark Lewis is training for an intense Cross Country mountain bike challenge, when he stumbles off his bike by Whisper Falls. There, he see's an odd girl wearing strange colonial times clothing in the cave behind the falls. But when she spoke to him about his "odd machine", Mark suspects something is off. The strange girl is named, Susanna Marsh and she claims that the year is 1796...two hundred years before Marks time.

Whisper Falls is a very impressive debut novel by Elizabeth Langston. It has about everything I like in my escape. Time travel, fantasy, romance and even though I don't usually read historical, I found this one to be exceptionally interesting. 

This is a very strong and compassionate tale that reflects on a cruel time period. Langston writing is very bold and brave, with emotional and touching skills, she brilliantly and painfully captures what life was like in colonial times. Every time we visited 1796, I felt like I was transported through the pages. I felt so nervous to see what would happen next to Susanna or the other people in her life.

To think of that time period in history hurts my heart. The life of an indentured servant or any servant for that matter, is hard, lonely, bitter and utterly cruel. To think, you must obey your master and be mindful of everything you do. To be barefooted (except for winter), to clean, cook, sleep on hay and endure savage punishments when ever the master see's fit. To be hungry, lost and always frightened and not being able to change your fate. 

I think that's why I took to this book so quickly. The way Susanna's story is expressed really does weigh heavily in your mind and heart and like Mark, you feel like you would do anything and everything to change this fate.

I also found the history aspects fascinating as Mark would find new information to uncover about Worthville, North Carolina and the consequences his actions has caused in Susanna's time period. There is a lot of gray areas -realistically speaking- about walking into each other's time periods and the unanswered question of why Whisper Falls acts as a sort of portal to the past. I think this could have been ironed out a little more, but once the story is said and done, it really doesn't seem to matter. Call it destiny or magic or an act of mercy, Mark and Susanna were meant to be brought together.

The moments between Susanna and Mark was very sweet, tender and warm. Susanna is from a different century, so a lot of the conversations between the two was very amusing, specially since Mark doesn't hold back today's lingo's and slang.

Susanna is a sweet and humble girl who has a beautiful heart. She's brave and caring and tougher then one would expect.

Mark is good people. He's like your everyday teenager with family issues and girl problems, but he's dedicated to his sport and always tries to be a good person. Something about Susanna touched him and without any real reason, his whole world changed and all he wanted to do was find a way to see her, be with her and free her. This is the kind of love story that I want to hug. It's not about lust or want, it's simply about caring about a person so deeply that you would do anything, even walk through centuries, to save her. And it was beautifully done.  

All in all, I quite enjoyed this book. It was hard to read at times since certain scenes were a bit disturbing to get through, but the writing is absorbing and outstanding, the story is inspiring, magical and moving and Susanna and Mark will steal your heart and make you believe in a fate like no other. A terrific debut! I can't wait to see what Langston will come with next!

Find the author:

Goodreads / Website                               4 Snowflakes

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