Sevenwaters Trilogy
6 primary works Complete
Book 1
Book 1
A magnificent saga set in the Celtic twilight of 10th century Ireland, when myth was law and magic was a power of nature, brilliantly brought to life: the legendary story of an evil stepmother opposed by a seventh child.
Lord Colum of Sevenwaters is blessed with seven children: Liam, a natural leader; Diarmid with his passion for adventure; twins Cormack and Conor each with a different calling; rebellious Finbar made old before his time by the gift of Sight; and the young compassionate Padriac.
But it is Sorcha, the seventh child and only daughter, whose birth was the cause of their mother's death, who alone is destined to defend her family and protect her land from the invading Britons and the clan known as Northwoods. For Lord Colum has been bewitched by the sensuous and malevolent Lady Oonagh - and Sorcha's six brothers are bound by a spell that only Sorcha can lift.
Exiled from Sevenwaters and cast out into the forest and beyond, Sorcha falls into the hands of the enemy. She finds herself torn between the life she has always known and a love that comes only once.
And still she must work to lift the spell that has turned her brothers into six vulnerable swans.
This is an old Celtic legend in its own right, here brilliantly evoked and brought to life. All of the brothers are beautifully delineated characters, and Sorcha has a unique inner strength that drives the narrative to a startling series of endings.
Like Marion Zimmer Bradley's MISTS OF AVALON or Jean Auel's CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR, this is first-rate historical fantasy that can have the widest possible appeal, taking in also the readership of historical fiction writers like Mary Stewart (THE CRYSTAL CAVE), Mary Renault (THE PERSIAN BOY) and Anya Seton (AVALON).
Book 2
Book 2
A magnificent saga set in the Celtic twilight of 10th century Ireland brilliantly brought to life, when myth was law and magic was a power of nature. Son of the Shadows is a haunting and powerful story of passion and destruction vividly told.
Sorcha’s daughter Liadan has become, like her mother, a herbalist, healer and storyteller. She is a quiet, background figure at Sevenwaters, leaving centre stage to her twin Sean, the heir to Sevenwaters, and her older sister Niamh, the golden-haired beauty, in appearance so much a Briton, like their father, Hugh of Harrowfield.
Sorcha’s six brothers have had no children; some are dead in the fight to regain from the invading Britons the islands sacred to the druids. Finbar is thought dead; left for ever part swan by the curse of Oonagh the witch, his fate in the wild is unknown. Conor is now the chief of the druids, seen at Sevenwaters only at festivals.
When Conor brings with him a young druid, Cieran, to celebrate Beltane, the fate of beautiful Niamh is sealed: she and Cieran fall in love, and are discovered. Niamh is forced to marry a political ally of Sevenwaters and depart forever – Cieran has accepted banishment, and broken Niamh’s heart.
Returning from journeying with the newly weds to Niamh’s new home, the Painted Man enters Liadan’s life: she is kidnapped by his mercenary warriors and taken to heal one of their number who lies dying in the woods. Famed and feared throughout the region, the Painted Man is her doom, as Cieran was her sister’s.
But the Painted Man may be the only man who can recover the sacred islands. Without them there is no hope of freedom for the people of Sevenwaters and their beliefs. The mystery surrounding Cieran is deeper still. There is a prophecy concerning the child that will be born to Liadan, and then the secrets will be told, to those who survive in this war-torn and dangerous land.
Like Marion Zimmer Bradley’s MISTS OF AVALON this is a story with inbuilt magic. Vivid images of our Celtic past weave a tale of great mystery and romance.
Book 3
Recalling the lost Celtic past to life, this rich, magical story of loyalty and love is a new Mists of Avalon for readers of historical fantasy.
Raised in an isolated cove on the beautiful Kerry coast, Fainne's childhood is a lonely one. But her beloved father, the exiled son of Sevenwaters, teaches her all he knows of the magical arts, and every summer she looks forward to the arrival of her one friend, the gypsy boy, Darragh. Soon, though, her world will be changed for ever when her grandmother, the renowned and feared sorceress Oonagh, enters her life.
Oonagh tells Fainne that she carries the blood of a cursed line of sorcerers and outcasts, and then she burdens her with a terrible task. She sends her to the fortress of Sevenwaters, to the family Fainne has never known, to use whatever powers she can to thwart a prophecy that is near fulfilment. The Fair Folk in alliance with Sevenwaters will win back the sacred isles unless Fainne kills the child the prophecy talks of. Tormented by evil dreams, Fainne knows she has the power to do this...
Child of the Prophecy is a powerful and haunting conclusion to the Sevenwaters trilogy.
Book 3
Sevenwaters is in turmoil. The fey prince Mac Dara is desperate to see his only son, married to Maeve’s sister, return to the Otherworld. To force Lord Sean’s hand, Mac Dara has caused a party of innocent travelers on the Sevenwaters border to vanish—only to allow their murdered bodies to be found one by one.
When Maeve finds a body in a remote part of the woods, she and her brother, Finbar, embark on a journey that could bring about the end of Mac Dara’s reign—or lead to a hideous death. If she is successful, Maeve may open the door to a future she has not dared to believe possible....