In the1800s the penal colony of Botany Bay was an unforgiving place. Mystic Mountains is a story of courage and persistence-essential traits for the settlers carving a new life in a raw land where suffering and heartbreak were commonplace.
In the early 1800s the penal colony of Botany Bay was an unforgiving and harsh place. Isabella O'Shea is transported to New South Wales for wounding a member of the British aristocracy who raped her, so it is understandable that she loathes members of the upper class and the system that punished her; sentenced her to seven years transportation.
Tiger Carstairs is rich, ambitious and English-so is it any wonder she is determined to hate her new master. Tiger dreams of making a new life beyond the aptly named Blue Mountains, so called because of the perpetual haze of blue surrounding them.
Mystic Mountains is a story of courage and persistence-traits that were essential for the settlers who carved out a new life in a raw land where suffering and heartbreak were commonplace.
Isabella and Tiger face tragedy and many hardships in their quest for a new life in this untamed land.
Excerpt
Home? It was so far away and so far removed from where she stood now, that it seemed as if the years before she'd been arrested had been lived by another person. But for all their poverty she'd always known what it was to be a part of a close, loving family. Oh how she missed her ma, and her brothers and sisters.
Isabella ignored the leering looks they received from men scurrying to off-load cargo. Her legs felt as if they would give out on her at any moment. Her bad foot with its crooked toes was beginning to ache fiercely and she swayed.
At last they were herded to where a stern government clerk sat at a table, a ledger in front of him and a pen in his hand.
Gracie poked Isabella in the back. "I 'ope I get a strong 'ansome master," she said with a chuckle. "Like that one with the gold 'air over there. Look at 'im. Lord, 'e'd do me fine. E’s been staring 'ard at us since we came ashore. Stands out from the other lot like a boil on yer nose, don't 'e? Rather a dandy, I don't mind saying so. I'll warm 'is bed any time 'e likes."
"Can't say I noticed him," Isabella lied.
"Oh no, suddenly you're blind, eh?"
"One member of the gentry's the same as the other. They can all rot in hell." Isabella shuddered. She detested them all, with their fine clothes, finicky manners, and hearts as cold as stone.
"You may sit on the ground, ladies." The officer in charge gave the order then smirked as he marched away.
"Cripes, why didn't they tell us that before?" Gracie sank with a huge sigh onto her well-padded bottom. The others followed her.
* * *
Tiger Carstairs removed his hat, then ran his fingers through his sweat-dampened hair. Smiling grimly he pushed the hat back on as he turned his back on the bedraggled lines of women.
What a bunch. They didn't get any better. Still, one female had caught his eye. She was a bit short on flesh to cover her bones, but there was a light of defiance in her eyes that the dreadful journey with all its degradation hadn't snuffed. She'd stared right at him from eyes as green as the sea as she'd limped past, her spine straight as a broomstick. He liked that.
Yes, she'd do perfectly.
She was young, if not very hearty, but Thelma had told him to keep his eye out for one who didn't look as if she'd be off in a flash with any man who showed up at the back door. This one hated men, if that glower she'd given him was anything to go by. So blatant was her scorn he'd fully expected her to spit in someone's eye. The sunshine had picked up glints in hair that would probably be reddish-brown after a good washing. But the wench had really taken his fancy, stirred some deep emotion. It was an unnerving sensation, peculiar in its uniqueness.
Professional Reviews
They deserve each other
I really loved this book (previously published as Blue Haze but re-published as Mystic Mountains). It was like Pride and Prejudice...ooops, I mean Arrogance and Obstinacy, meets the Thorn Birds in 1818 Australia. I love realistically flawed characters--perfect romance H/h's are such bores--and both of these were so realistically flawed, the way their life experiences from their past hard-scrabble youth carried over to lead to inappropriate and sometimes foolish judgments in their present was so well developed into the plot of this book. Now I shouldn't love it as much as I did. There were a few things in this book that I really hated, but I can't say without spoilers, that should have made me downgrade my rating--however, any book that keeps me up to 3:30 AM to finish, because I just can't put it down, definitely rates five-stars. This is also the kind of book that will make the next few books I read seem like they don't measure up.
Compelling story
I really enjoyed this book. The writing flows, and the story is compelling. The protagonists in the story are, for the most part, newly-arrived convicts transported from England to New South Wales, Australia, in the early 1800s.
The author explains a great deal about the early history of Australia without being pedantic. The historical details are very nicely integrated into the story, and are never are intrusive. The author clearly did a lot of research, and the historical accuracy adds to the richness of the tale.
The author also points out how crucial New South Wales Governor Lachlan Macquarie was to the development of the democratic Australia that we know today. He insisted on fully integrating convicts into society after their sentences had been fulfilled, thus preventing the creation of a stratified settler society. His policies are crucial to this story, for it allowed former convicts to have dreams of someday owning their own land and having their own businesses.
The hero of the story is Tiger Carstairs. Tiger has a prosperous farm, and dreams of land over the rugged Blue Mountains (the "mystic mountains" of the title), land that will be opened to settlement in the near future.
The heroine is Isabella O'Shea, transported for knifing a member of the nobility in England who attempted to rape her. She arrives in New South Wales scared to death that she will be assigned to serve her sentence in less than desirable circumstances. Nevertheless, in Australia she will have more hope for a decent life in the future than she would ever have had in the slums of London. Isabella is assigned to work for Tiger Carstairs, a man whom she resents because he seems to embody everything that she hates about the English aristocracy.
Best convict book ever written
I have read many. many book but this one would to be one of the ones at the top of my list. The descriptions not only had me visually transported to the past, I could also feel and smell the surroundings and the people.
Extremely well written AND without the use of miss used word "that" which many top writers use today.
Congratulations Tricia , keep them coming as I will be looking for your efforts.
Based on the memoirs of a Pearl Harbor survivor. Letters from two pen pals take the reader on a journey into the past, a past where nightmares came true, and when hatred reigned.
Tralee, Ireland. September 1948.
An arrogant, and highly agitated, priest arrives home after 40 years.
Days later he's dead. Suicide? Or did his past catch up with him?
