Customer Reviews

The Shivering Sands

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A couple years ago, I found this book in a box of other used books each selling for a couple quarters and decided I'd buy it for my mother's birthday. I guess I secretly wanted to read it myself, but it was lost in the shuffle of things before either of us was given the chance to read it. Recently, I went to New Hampshire, and found it in my family's cabin. If you're someone who, like me, does in fact judge a book by it's cover, you would have been drawn to this book immediately. The 1969 edition that I have (I guess my mother didn't want it after all) has a painting on the cover of a girl standing on a cliff over the waves smashing into the rocks below. This scene was what persuaded me into reading the first page.

What a mystery. A widow works incognito as a piano teacher to solve the mystery of her sister's disappearance. The title may give it away, but throughout the book, the reader is given many chances to figure out who, how, and why before it is actually revealed. There is an eerie "haunted" mansion, lots of shocking secrets, desire, and many disturbing encounters. This was a perfect introduction to Victoria Holt. Read it, you'll like it.

Victoria Holt does it again in yet another spectcular Gothic romance, full of suspense and chilling atmosphere. A very good read for those cozy nights by the fire...

This is really a great book! I had to read it for school and now I read it several times a year. It's was my second Victoria Holt book and I have read about 20 of her books after Shivering sands, but I still think this is the best. When you start to read it you can't put the book away. And the plot is such a surprise, I was really shocked. It's mysterious and romantic, it'a absolutely my favorite book! You have to read it!

This review is for the Doubleday & Company hardback edition, undated but probably 1969 312 pages of story. THE SHIVERING SANDS did not make the USA Today's Top 150 Best-Selling books list, as USA Today did not begin tracking book sales until October 1993. Victoria Holt has two later novels on this best-seller list.

Carolina Verlaine suffered tragedies. Her parents, both archeologists, died in a train crash in route to a dig. She forfeited a promising career as a pianist in deference to her husband Pietro who was more talented, but he dies, leaving Carolina a widow at age 28. Then Carolina's only sister, Roma Brandon, also an archeologist, disappears just as her team finishes excavating Roman ruins at the Lovat Stacy estate in eastern England. Carolina's former piano teacher who is teaching four young women at Lovat Stacy decides to retire and recommends Carolina to replace her, but without mentioning to her employer that Carolina is Roma's sister. Carolina, determined to learn what happened to her Roma, accepts the position without revealing her relationship to Roma.

The story, in the 1880s, is set in near Deal on the eastern shores of the United Kingdom. Four to six miles east of Deal, across the Downs channel, lays the Goodwin Sands, shifting quicksand. Over the past couple centuries, the Goodwin Sands became the graveyard for an estimated 2000 vessels. Although Lovat Stacy and the nearby village, Lovat Mill, are fictional, the actual village Martin Mill appears to be close to the fictional setting between the exiting Walmer and Dover castles.

The story gradually reveals the tragedies of the Stacy household over the past several decades leading to the conflicts and intrigues in the narrative present. SHIVERING SANDS is well written in the first person, giving Carolina the only point of view, which keeps the reader engaged in trying to solve the mysteries of Lovat Stacy along with her.

After reading three best selling contemporary romance thrillers, which I rated three stars, I found THE SHIVERING SANDS without a dust jacket amongst our books of unknown origin. I began reading it without knowing the genre. What a nice surprise. This is a five-star historical, romance, mystery, psychological thriller.

Victoria Holt (alias Eleanor Hibbert) is the neatest, coolest writer that I have read for a long time. She creates so many interesting characters in her books that one gets confused and must reread parts. In this story, two characters disappear. Finally on the last few pages one discovers who is the mysterious evil one (one never suspects he/she). I wanted to skip ahead but I refrained myself. Mrs. Hibbert makes each page so realistic. I could reread the book again tonight - since I have been buying as many of her books as I can afford, I must keep reading another and another. Wish I could afford the $400.00 ones, c.1941. What a shame she died;however, she left an indelible signature for generations. I have a list of all the books she wrote. If anyone would like my 9 page (small print) list, I would send it to them. [...]

Caroline Verlaine was alone in the world, her husband Pietro, a brilliant concert pianist had died soon after their marriage, but not before Caroline had given up her own chances as a performer. Her only sister, Roma, had now disappeared mysteriously while working on an archeological dig of Roman ruins in the English countryside. Roma had followed in their late parents footsteps and studied archeology, Caroline had always been the outsider in the family and pursued music. When an opportunity arose for Caroline to take a post as music teacher to the children of the estate where Roma had been working Caroline took it with the idea to find out what happened to Roma.

Caroline soon found herself enmeshed in the lives and scandals of estate and village of Lovat Stacey, including her students - shy Edith soon to wed Napier, the heir, quiet Alice, the housekeepers daughter, lively Allegra, Napier's illegitimate child and Sylvia, the vicar's daughter and the rest of the household - Sir William the patriarch of the family, his ne'er-do-well son Napier, Mrs. Lincroft, the housekeeper and Sybil, Sir William's sister as well as the ever present ghosts of Sir William's dead wife, Isabel and favorite son Beau. As Caroline began to sort out the truth from the lies and gradually uncover what had happened to Roma new complications arose in the unwanted attentions of Napier and the comforting ones of the new curate.

This is a romance novel in the finest tradition, young heroine with a sad past finds herself in a romantic isolated spot as teacher/governess/companion to a wealthy family swept into danger complicated by old scandals and pursued by two handsome men. The formula never varies, the appeal is the variations on the theme, the clever twists and turns the author inserts into the story. Few do this better than Holt, her heroines come to life, the twists in the plot come as a total surprise, keeping the reader guessing until the end.

When I read this book, I could not put it down. It starts out explaining exactly what will later be crucial in the plot, and turns unlikable characters into heroes, and good characters into villians. If you are the kind of reader that usually guesses "who-dunnit" before the end of the book, boy, are you in for a surprise! The end is so surprising, I had to look back in the book a few times to make sure everything added up correctly. For those of you who are very into mystery, romance and good literature, boy, are YOU in for a treat!

P.S. Don't look at the last chapter for bad guy, it'll ruin the whole book!!!

Victoria Holt in this book had really made me shivered. when I started reading the book I could not stop she has this way of attracting the reader to keep reading till the end, there are some parts of the book that really made my hair stood up especially when Caroline was sinking in the shivering sands, she made me really feel it. I liked her style very much and am looking to read more of her books. Read this book and you will ask for more, I am sure!

I really liked this book. I have read other Victoria Holt books, of which Mistress of Mellyn, The Captive, and King of the Castle were my favorites. This book is another one of them. If you liked any of those other V. Holt novels, you will like this one. Not a silly or boring read. Enjoy.

This is not the first Victoria Holt book I've read but probably one of the best. It has romance and a bit of mystery that isn't at all predictable! You won't be able to put it down.