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Product details
- ASIN : B0BYGT46K1
- Publisher : Independently published (14 Mar. 2023)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 375 pages
- ISBN-13 : 979-8387040481
- Dimensions : 15.24 x 2.39 x 22.86 cm
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BOOK REVIEWS
Lexa Dudley writes a striking historic
rendition of life on the island of Sardinia. Children of the Mists is a story
of enduring love. Set in the 1800s, life on Sardinia had barely changed since
the time of the Caesars. Two families, the Sannas and the Canus, are united by
friendship and adversity. Love and laughter, joy and promises, omens and
superstitions, youth and experience transcend generations. However, for
Raefella and Antonio, their passionate love becomes entangled with revenge.
Death changes devotion. Promises are forgotten. Vendettas cannot be ignored.
Ambition clouds judgments. Antonio and Raefella were promised to each other,
nothing would keep them apart, not even family. Committed to each other, they
fight for their love against all odds.
Children of the Mists by Lexa Dudley
captures your heart and takes you back in time. A time lost in tradition and
love. A time long past, but not easily forgotten. Dudley is an endearing
storyteller. Her writing technique is full of illustrious scenes, depicting the
beautiful sights, aromatic scents and the echoing sounds of Sardinia. Every
word portrays her devotion to the ancient culture of the untamed island. The
Sardinian traditions and language are skillfully woven throughout the
narrative’s plot. The characters are strong, wild, and at times, illicitly
ambitious. Yet, also tender, traditional and passionate, conveying a
well-rounded cast. The plot develops graciously, steadily reaching the climax.
Then it tumbles down with a few unexpected turns of events, causing the reader
to be engulfed in this story of unbridled love and retribution.
by Cheryl E Rodriguez
*****
Children of the Mists by Lexa Dudley is a
story of honour, love, revenge and honesty of emotions. When Salvatore Sanna
saved the life of his neighbour Gestinu Canu, Canu promised Sanna that he would
marry off his son Orlando to Sanna's daughter Victoria. The two neighbours are
living in harmony and happiness, with a cordial friendship, and Orlando and
Victoria truly love one another.
However, Victoria’s brother Antonello loves
Orlando’s sister Rafaella. The two lovers want to be together, but the Canu
family has big plans for Rafaella and they will not let her settle for someone
who is not meant for her and her worth. What are these two lovers going to do?
Will Orlando and Victoria’s love survive this conflict? Will Rafaella and
Antonello be able to enjoy a life together filled with love? Will Canu and
Sanna's friendship survive after this drawback? Will honour allow love to
prevail or make it perish?
Lexa Dudley has done a brilliant job with
Children of the Mists. The story was the perfect combination of love, revenge,
and, of course, honour. The historically correct aspects of the story will take
you back in time and allow you to appreciate the characters so much more. You
will be transported back to 1855 and you will fall in love with Sardinia, the
amazing country of the Canu and Sanna family. It was indeed a great story, one
I would like to read again. The novel was great and I enjoyed it immensely. The
story had just the right amount of thrills and love to make it perfect. This
novel is not to be missed.
by Rabia Tanveer
****
Two families, bound by a debt of gratitude,
work peacefully as neighbors. The Sanna and Canu families have lived and thrived
alongside one another through the years. Salvatore Sanna and Gestinu Canu even
paired their children to be married, so all would appear to be perfect in
paradise. Only, the eldest Sanna son is in love with Rafaella Canu and must go
against her father and older brother's wishes if he wants to be with his love.
In a series of moves reminiscent of a medieval political drama, the two
families are shaken apart by vendettas and petty grudges and then pieced back
together again by the bond of love.
In Children of the Mists, Lexa Dudley
paints a beautiful picture of love, family, and the struggle to do what is
right. As exotic landscapes and settings go, you really don't often get to see
off the beaten path places like Sardinia. I'm glad that Lexa Dudley resurrected
it from the annals of time, because the countryside of the late 1800s can be a
beautiful and romantic place - as Dudley's expert writing describes for us. I
admit I got swept away with the romance of the settings and two pairings. The
names alone were deliciously foreign and cast a hearty glow over the story,
really transplanting me into the heart of the novel and holding me there so
that I wanted to keep reading long after my eyelids were drooping closed at
night. Children of the Mists is a must-read for those who love family dramas,
historical fiction, or simply romance.
by Katelyn Hensel
****
Children of the Mists by Lexa Dudley is a
love story set in Sardinia in 1855. While Salvatore Sanna worked hard all his
life to gain his land, his neighbor Gestinu Canu got it pretty easy through
marriage. Both of them are going to be related soon as Victoria, Salvatore's
daughter, is getting married to Orlando Canu. It is a match fixed as a bond of
honor to return Salvatore's gesture of saving Gestinu's life earlier. They also
love each other. Salvatore's son, Antonello Sanna, loves Rafaella, Gestinu
Canu's daughter. Rafaella's father and brother have other plans for her. It's
an engrossing story of love, revenge, desire and honor.
The story is engaging with its romance, revenge, twists and turns that keep readers guessing about what is going to follow. The characters are well portrayed and the book also gives a peek into the Sard society that existed in 1855, and the wildness of the place before the unification of the Italian States took place. The narration is descriptive and detailed, and captures the beauty of the land, making the scenes and story very visual. There is a raw passion and sensuality in the romantic scenes which make it very tangible to readers. Readers will soak up the beauty of Sardinia as the story captures the essence of the place. The author's love for Sardinia is evident as the story progresses. On the whole, it is a love story that will win the hearts of readers with its many dimensions. An entertaining love story that will captivate the readers with its romance, passion, revenge and honor.
by Mamta Madhavan
******
Children of the Mists, set in the 1800s in
Sardinia, is a delightful story about the enduring love that Raffaella Sanna
and Antonio have for each other. They live in the countryside with their
immediate families. As childhood sweethearts, they matured into adults still
caring for each other the same way. Unfortunately, Raffaella’s greedy brother
Orlando wants her to get married to Luigi, a doctor from Sassari. Orlando
believed that he would obtain a huge fortune if Raffaella became Luigi’s wife.
He felt that he would have access to Raffaella’s land and sell the trees on the
land and become rich. This plan was interrupted as Luigi’s jealousy intervened
and he tried to dispose of Antonio. Antonio survived the ordeal. Will Antonio
and Raffaella's love survive?
Children of the Mists is an intriguing tale
with a historical slant. Author Lexa Dudley did an excellent job in presenting
her enchanting plot. The language used is colloquial and is quite easy to
understand. I love the way in which the author intertwined the elements of
ethnicity, clan rivalry and romance in her story. The author also thoroughly
explored the pervasive theme of good versus evil in a dramatic yet effective
manner. I enjoyed the camaraderie between the family members. This denotes a
sense of loyalty which is lacking in our society today. It is akin to a breath
of fresh air in a balmy summer. Nowadays, many societies have embraced a
selfish mentality and the author’s emphasis on close knit communities is quite
refreshing. The pace of the story is a bit slow at first, however, it picks up
as the plot unfolds. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Children of the Mists. I recommend
it to all lovers of historical romance, and romance in general.
by Valerie Rouse
******
Sometimes love breeds vengeance, vengeance
breeds tragedy, and tragedy, in turn, breeds love again. Set in Sardinia
between the years 1855 and 1860 and divided into two parts, everything comes
full circle in Children of the Mists by Lexa Dudley. More than anything else,
Dudley shows us exactly what transpires before one generation of Sards makes
way for the next, and how it is that, no matter how terra incognita we might
figure some culture to be, it is just as powerful, wonderful, and pulsating as
every other.
Raffaella Canu had been sent to Itteri for
a decent education. Gestinu, her father, had high hopes for her future.
Whatever they were, Raffaella only wished for one thing: to be with Antonio,
the shepherd boy she had loved since childhood. Orlando, her brother, however,
doesn’t want Antonio in his sister’s future. To Orlando, his sister is still
just as soft-witted as she was before she went to Itteri. She could have a
wonderful life if she would just see reason and agree to marry Luigi, a
prominent doctor who also happens to be his best friend. It might take more
than a promise for Raffaella to finally be with the man of her dreams.
Change is a thing that dwells just between the realms of good and bad, unbiased and final. For some, change can mean a new, more wonderful life. For others, it can only mean more misery. For the Sardinians in this novel, change means abiding to laws that are not their own, but the laws of some king who is out to unite every single Italian state so that everyone “can prosper as one country”. The Sards have land, but there are those who would take it away from them within the blink of an eye. One misstep and a language known as legalese renders them fugitives, after which they are hunted by the Carabineri or doomed to the nullified life of a bandit.
The first part, starting at 1855,
introduces us to the lifestyle and customs of the Sards. We are introduced to
the Sannas and the Canus, and can easily see how the lives of these two
families are connected. “Vitoria and Orlando were promised to each other in
marriage; in a contract made between Gestinu and Salvatore, as Salvatore had
saved his friend’s life when he first came to live in the mountains.” In the
second part, three years after cholera made its way into their lives, the stage
is set for a beautiful tale of love, vengeance, and redemption.
It doesn’t take much to imagine Sardinia
and all of its beauty. “Although she couldn’t see the river, Raffaella could
hear it in the valley below as it grumbled and chattered its way over a bed of
shiny, cold, grey stones; as it bubbled in the ravine with the fullness of
extra water from the melted snows of the distant, haze-green mountains.” We are
taken to ravines, caves, small churches, and bedrooms in which the very light
of dawn that enters it is graced by the author. Refined human life is faraway,
neither important to the reader nor more desirable than Dudley’s craftily
recreated setting.
There is more than one love story, the one
towering over every other in the book of course being that of Raffaella and
Antonio. They have loved each other since childhood, and a doctor with “clammy”
hands can be seen as the hand that aims to snatch cupid’s arrow out of the air
just before it strikes its target. Another love story is that of Marina, who is
Antonio’s little sister, and a bandit named Gavinu. Dudley also throws in an
unexpected romance that I found to be quite a surprise. Because of the
alternating third person narrative, we get to follow each of them without much
of a fuss.
Raffaella might be the main protagonist,
but it is the characters around her, what with her just wanting to be with
Antonio and all, that keeps things interesting. Even Sergio, an old shepherd,
can make one burst out laughing when he works on the nerves of Orlando with his
superstitious babbling. Small characters get to play pivotal roles to move the
story along to its dreaded, and I mean this in a positive way, conclusion.
Gabriella, Antonio’s mother, is the character through which we can get a lot of
information about the Sard culture. She is important to the community, a healer
who gets called upon many Sards when they fall ill.
Orlando is the personification of ambition,
making decisions based purely on logic rather than love. While not the main
antagonist, he is perhaps the main reason for all the conflict and heartache in
this novel. He is not an evil human being, but for some reason, his destiny
doesn’t seem to be one that is filled with happiness. “’You’re cursed, you’re
cursed,’ repeated the shepherd, whimpering.” His decisions tend not to end up
well. When one looks at his development in the book, it’s easy to see how the
author took great care with him.
The theme of change and the different
outcomes it has for different people was well explored. Raffaella was proud of
her homeland and to her change didn’t involve a life away from her home and
married to a doctor. Orlando was exactly the opposite. Change was his way of
forgetting the past. Other themes like vengeance and redemption also played a
big part. The Sards seems to have a particular notion when it comes to revenge.
“As a fellow Sard, you must know the importance of revenge.” Orlando himself
seemed to encompass almost every theme book, which, considering that he is not
the main protagonist, only leads me to wonder why.
I got a lot from this book. I got laughs
and I got tears. I got to experience Sardinia from 1855 to 1860 and all its
greatness. I could see greenery, mountains, and people in love. I felt that I
was reading a wonderful romance novel set in a magical place.
I truly loved reading this book set in 19th
century Sardinia. Having listened to many stories from Sardinian friends and
relatives about generations past the book really brings to life the soul of
this beautiful land during harsh times. I know it's a cliche but I could not
put the book down as the story and intrigue developed having become attached to
the wonderful protagonists. Not only will you be captivated by the tender love
story of Vittoria and Antonio but get caught up in their love for their
stunning land and its traditions which is all the more refreshing given today's
high-tech society. A must read!
by Deborah Michele
Having read The Whispering Wind previously
I was recommended Children of the Mists.
What is overwhelming clear in both books is
the author's deep love and fascination with Sardinia: its landscape, people and
culture.
Children of the Mists has a useful set of
family trees at the start as there are many characters involved and it is easy
to refer back to.
FOR REVIEWS PLEASE GO TO AMAZON.CO.UK
She has been lucky enough to win finalists in the following awards:
THE NEXT GENERATION INDIE BOOK AWARDS 2014
Finalist ROMANCE
THE NATIONAL EXCELLENCE INDIE BOOK AWARDS 2014
Finalist ROMANCE
Finalist LITERARY FICTION
Lexa lives in Suffolk with her husband, three dogs, and six geese and enjoys her four sons and their families which include eight wonderful grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.
Please feel free to visit her website:
http://www.lexadudleywriter.co.uk/
Her first book THE WHISPERING WIND won two FINALIST awards.
Her last book CHILDREN OF THE MISTS was a WINNER OF THE BOOK EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2016 for Literary excellence.
Her latest book LOVE IN ANOTHER TIME is also set in Sardinia.
Reviews for Love in Another Time Finalist 2023 BOOK EXCELLENCE AWARDS
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