Customer Reviews

Kathleen (Sunfire)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

To a collector of Scholastic's late, lamented young adult historical romances, the tale of Kathleen is the "holy grail". Is it worth it? Not as moving as Emily but it features so much more than your typical Sunfire. Kathleen watches her world crumble around her - sometimes, literally. She loses her home, her family, and finds herself alone in an 1840's Boston that is none to friendly to the Irish. Kathleen finds work at the grand Thornley mansion, and meets David... but while the ending seems too pat, too easy in those last two pages the journey there is just as vivid - Ransom's gift for painting images of a long-ago time and place is just as strong here as it was in Emily, Susannah and Amanda. Hint for hunters: their large size would often mean that the first 15 Sunfires are often incorrectly stuck in the regular romance, not children's, section at many a used bookstore. Just a tip!

I read this book when it was first published in 1985. I seem to recall that my mother bought it for me when I cleaned up my room! The Sunfire series is excellent. This book, Kathleen by Candice F. Ransom, is rich in history and very informative about the Irish working class in America in the late 1840's. Kathleen is a heroine who had to overcome great odds to come to America, only to find life just as hard. I recommend this book to any young girl who is interested in a time gone by. I have saved all 32 Sunfires books published for my own two little girls.

It's 1847, and 16-year-old Kathleen O'Conner has just arrived in America from Ireland. Her parents died during the long sea voyage, and her younger brother and two younger sisters died in Ireland because of the famine. Kathleen is alone. She has nothing else to do but work so she gets a job as a maid to the wealthy Thornley family. Only she falls in love with the 18 year old son of her wealthy employers, and it could cost Kathleen her job.

I love this book because it shows poverty and wealth in all aspects. Kathleen is so strong and brave it makes me think, a girl who has lost almost all and still has hope. From famine in Ireland to hope in America, Kathleen shows how a very special girl survives to many things. I checked it out of my school library thinking maybe I didn't like it, but I absolutely loved it! I recommend it to EVERYONE who is 12 and up.

This is the first SUNFIRE book I've ever read. I think it is the best. Especially towards the end. It's about a poor Irish girl who has to move because of a potatoe famine. Her parents die, and she is all alone. She works for the wealthy Thorneley family and must choose between two wonderful men who love her.

Kathleen O'Connor is your stereotypical Irish lass, raised on tales of fairies and little people, and clings to romantic notions about the moon and fair Irish breezes. She also is smack in the middle of the Potato Famine and it's one tragedy after another. All her siblings die, as does the love of her life, Rory. Then, to top it all off, the landlord boots them off their land and gives the O'Connor family one-way tickets to America, during which both parents die. (These aren't spoilers. It's all on the back of the book, which annoyed me because there was no suspense at all during the long voyage.) So what's an orphan to do in a strange and scary country? Well, luckily, Kathleen knows English, which puts her in reluctant good stead with those who think of the Irish as a bunch of illiterate bogtrotters. After a scrappy few weeks on the docks (a plot that is the first in the Sunfires I can recall of deliberate criminal lawbreaking), Kathleen ends up as maid in the home of a very rich Boston family - both in money and dysfunction. Kathleen harbors hatred of wealthy people, the root of her family's miseries, but the son of the family is just so gosh-darned HANDSOME! And he's a poetical loner, misunderstood by his narrow-minded family. Quelle romantique! She's compelled and repulsed by turns, but you just know one has to win out eventually.

I liked this one, for the most part. It was another one of those Sunfires that are welcome changes from the more formulaic ones. Kathleen, though she finds herself attracted to David Thornley and the rich objects around him, is driven to succeed on her own terms, leading her to contemplate the life of a tradesman, a craft she has a slight knack for but which isn't exactly ladylike. Phooey to that, she says, and though she allows that she might not be able to continue it, she'll work it to her advantage in the short term. It's a nice plot device, much more affective than the usual Vivien Schurfranz device of having her heroines be the ridin'-est, rootin', tootin', shootin'-est gals in Old West/Old South/Colonies from page 1. (Yes, I do like to dump on Ms. Schurfranz. Guilty, but it is ever so much fun.)

Kathleen learns and grows over the course of the book and, since this is Candace Ransom, the "rivalry" of suitors really isn't one at all. One gets sidelined early on (even if he doesn't know it, in this case), and so more attention can be placed on one romance. Sure, it goes against the Sunfire formula, but it makes for a better read. I wanted to hit David Thornley repeatedly for being such a wuss about his writing career, but, seriously, his FAMILY. He was working against quite a bit there. If he'd taken to hobbling around on crutches in his jammies and guzzling booze by the gallon, I wouldn't have been surprised. All that was missing were Gooper and the no-neck monsters.

Ransom has a great eye for detail of the era, though the descriptions of furniture and clothes may get tedious after awhile. IMO, it fits in with the vast difference between Kathleen's old life and her new one. She's had so little, that her eyes absorb everything. However, for a promising start, this one eventually descended into typical romance territory with deliberate misunderstandings and obtuseness for the last quarter between our good hero and heroine, and the pleasure I got from reading it decreased in proportion. The finale wrapped up too nicely, with Change of Hearts And All That, but this is teen romance, not wrenching tapestries of the soul. Even so, the story could have used one less bright package with a tidy bow at the end. Still worth tracking down, as it's one of the rarer ones and the majority of the story is a cut above the norm.

I've noticed, with the many Sunfire Romances I've read, that you can pretty much figure out who the main character is going to end up with. There arent any real 'love triangles', because one guy ends up not even liking the girl, or vice versa. This makes me mad! This also happened in Kathleen, but it was still good. This book was pretty good, not the best Sunfire i'veever read, (i've read about 7 Sunfire Romances, Victoria by Willo Davis Roberts being my favorite)but still interesting to read and it had substance. One of the reasons i didnt want to read this series back a while ago was because i thought it wasnt going to have an actual plot line, i was pleasently surprised! I would recomend this book for a vacation, good for reading in the car or a plane.