Star Gazing - Reviews

From www.LoveReading.co.uk:

"This was a joy to read from the first page to the last... Romantic and quirky and beautifully written."


Roger Hutchinson, author of CALUM'S ROAD, writing in the West Highland Free Press:

"She writes much better than most other published authors. She is more ambitious in her narratives than all but a few. Two of her three books have been difficult to put down. It's a track record worth recognising."


From Candis magazine:

"A blind, 40-something widow isn’t the obvious choice for a romantic heroine, but Marianne Fraser leaps off the page in this beautifully written tale. Emotionally closed and bitter after losing her husband in a terrible accident, she is resigned to a single life, sharing a house with her sister in Edinburgh. Enter Keir Harvey, a somewhat abrupt yet mysterious stranger from the Isle of Skye, with whom Marianne feels an instant connection after a chance meeting one night on her doorstep. Keir wants to take Marianne to Skye and ‘show’ her the stars – but can she trust him? More vitally, will she allow herself to be vulnerable to love once again? This wonderful novel is by turns passionate, funny and truly moving – a compulsive page-turner to the very end."

Candis verdict: One to restore your faith in love!"


Adele Geras, author of FACING THE LIGHT and HESTER'S STORY:

"This is a story of love, music, and nature, with touches of the supernatural and a very engaging and believable heroine. As a bonus, you're transported to the Isle of Skye and Edinburgh... An enjoyable novel by a reliably good writer."

Susan Bell writing in the Aberdeen Press & Journal:

"This is a read for diehard romantics with a bent towards environmental issues... I admired the resourcefulness of the writer in manufacturing a story line which allows the reader to feel the emotions and frustrations of being blind."


Kevin Crowe, bookseller, writing in Am Bratach, a magazine for NW Scotland:

"Most fiction is highly visual. Descriptions may use touch, smell and sound, but vision predominates: skies are blue, grass is green, snow is white. Such is the ubiquity of sight as the means to transmit information, it is demanding for both writer and reader to try and perceive things without recourse to vision. James Kelman, in his Booker prize-winning HOW LATE IT IS, HOW LATE created a character who woke up one morning in a prison cell to find himself blind. Apart from flashback sequences, the rest of the novel relies on senses other than sight.

"Gillard’s latest novel is very different in tone and subject to Kelman’s, but she too invites us to live in a world of darkness. Indeed, she goes further than Kelman in creating Marianne who is congenitally blind, and thus has no conception of colour, dimensions and other visual aspects of the world...

"Although a love story, this book is a world away from the escapist romances of Cartland and Cookson. It is gritty, realistic, ironic and challenging. And Gillard has succeeded in writing an accessible and entertaining novel in which we are forced to face the world without the sense of sight."


From a 5 star review on Amazon by Lynette Baines of Melbourne, Australia:

"As a sighted person, I can't judge how accurate Linda Gillard's portrayal of blindness from the inside is, but, as a reader, I was totally convinced. Keir is a heart-stoppingly attractive hero, and Marianne is so stroppy, you just have to love her & want this relationship to last. It's unusual in romantic fiction to have a heroine who exasperates the reader as much as Marianne does, but, the book is all the better for it. There are more than enough bland heroines out there. Marianne is real & the journey she takes with Keir is a delight. Edinburgh & Skye in winter are gorgeous settings for the story, and Louisa & her Goth assistant, Garth, provide some lighter moments... A fantastic romance with real characters. I read it in one afternoon, unputdownable."

From Cornflower's book blog :

"Here's an idea: check the weather forecast for the weekend. If it's going to be cold and wet, sit by the fire with a mug of hot chocolate and read this book; if it's going to be warm and sunny, get a seat in the shade and read this book.

Linda Gillard's latest novel STAR GAZING is a delight... Apart from the fluency of Linda's writing, what particularly struck me about this book is the wonderfully perceptive and sensitive depiction of what it is to be blind, and to what degree a lack of sight causes a reliance on other senses...

You're unlikely to be disappointed in the book."



From a review by Ann Davis of Doncaster in NewBooks magazine:

"A thoughtful yet romantic read... This is a good book for a group as there would be much to discuss... Unashamedly a well-written romance story."

Personal read: 4/5
Reading group read: 5/5 "

From Simon Thomas' Stuck-in-a-Book book blog:

"STAR GAZING is not as ambitious or controversial as A LIFETIME BURNING - and consequently, where A LIFETIME BURNING was a great novel, STAR GAZING is a good one. A very good one. It would be surprising if an author had two novels of A LIFETIME BURNING's power in them, let alone consecutively. STAR GAZING, though, demonstrates Linda Gillard's continuing power as a storyteller, a creator of vivid and unusual characters, and a novelist who will hopefully soon get the recognition she deserves. I'm delighted that a fourth novel has already been written - can't wait."


From Elaine Simpson-Long's Random Jottings of a Book and Opera Lover book blog:

"The use of musical images to paint a picture for Marianne is just so right... When Keir is trying to describe snow to Marianne he says it is dazzling and almost hurts the eyes. 'And if it were a sound?' He gazes at the snow-covered landscape. 'You know those strings at the beginning of The Flying Dutchman overture. The very opening chords? That's what it looks like'. Perfect.

I enjoyed STAR GAZING enormously... I think that A LIFETIME BURNING still remains my favourite so far, even though I think this is better written. The narrative seems to be much more pared down here, no words wasted, clean, flowing and no superfluous ornamentation. This is the kind of writing I admire and like. I cannot bear fuss and frills and this style suits the slightly prickly, tentative nature of the slowly growing love between Marianne and Keir.

Thank you, Linda, and thank you for the operatic and music references in the story which, for me, enhanced this lovely book."


From a LiveJournal review by BookCrosser Nic Wray:

"Marianne is great - spiky, feisty, very human... She is not defined - or constrained - by her disability ... To write a book such as STAR GAZING - written by a sighted writer who has to describe living as a blind person, especially one who is to be 'shown' landscape (and a landscape as spectacular as Skye!) and to incorporate a romance that readers will accept as suitable for a mainstream novel could be called ambitious. It is to Linda's great credit that she succeeds on all counts. An excellent novel."