Six for Sunday

The March theme for Six for Sunday, hosted by A Little But a Lot is Around the world in 80 books, and today’s prompt is for Books set in the country you live. I’ve decided to change this a little and go for books set in Ireland as that is where I was born.

I have loved the first two books in this series, and can’t wait to read the final one. The setting for this trilogy is based on Arranmore Island which is on the West Coast of County Donegal.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Fionn Boyle, Storm Keeper of Arranmore, is facing the fight of his life. The terrifying all- powerful sorceress Morrigan has been raised from the dead and has sealed off the island from all help. Fionn is the only thing that stands between her and a dark future. He’s got to find a way to defeat her. But there are some terrible choices in store for Fionn as the dark sorcerer begins to take his nearest and dearest for her own. With only two candles left to burn, will Fionn master his powers in time to stop her?

I really enjoyed this timeslip story which is set in modern day Dublin and in 1950’s Dublin.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Two centuries, two children, one house. Beth didn’t want to move to Dublin – she misses her old life and her friends back in London. New home and new school is hard enough, but to make matters worse someone keeps messing up her room … At first, Beth blames her annoying brother, Cormac, but when she discovers a boy called Robbie, from the 1950’s, is slipping through time and into her room, then things start to get REALLY weird! The two create havoc together, learn about each other’s worlds and manage to help each other when they’re down. But the 1950s and the present day sometimes seem very far apart … Can their friendship stand the test of time? A mischief-maker from the 1950’s – a shy girl from today and a time-slip adventure like no other

I am going to be reading this as part of Reading Ireland Month. It is set in Donegal in 1976.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Donegal, 1976. When a dolphin takes up residence in Carrig Cove, Emer and her best friend, Fee, feel like they have an instant connection with it. Then Dog Cullen and his sidekick, Kit, turn up, and the four friends begin to sneak out at midnight to go down to the beach, daring each other to swim closer and closer to the creature . . . But the fame and fortune the dolphin brings to their small village builds resentment amongst their neighbours across the bay, and the summer days get longer and hotter . . . There is something wild and intense in the air. Love feels fierce, old hatreds fester, and suddenly everything feels worth fighting for.

I’ve chosen this one as the author has based the forest in The Wild Way Home on Mount Sandel Forest which is in Coleraine, Northern Ireland.

Goodreads Synopsis:

When Charlie’s longed-for brother is born with a serious heart condition, Charlie’s world is turned upside down. Upset and afraid, Charlie flees the hospital and makes for the ancient forest on the edge of town. There Charlie finds a boy floating face-down in the stream, injured, but alive. But when Charlie sets off back to the hospital to fetch help, it seems the forest has changed. It’s become a place as strange and wild as the boy dressed in deerskins. For Charlie has unwittingly fled into the Stone Age, with no way to help the boy or return to the present day. Or is there … ? What follows is a wild, big-hearted adventure as Charlie and the Stone Age boy set out together to find what they have lost – their courage, their hope, their family and their way home.

This is a Young Adult story set in a fictional isolated Irish town, Ballyfran. It is a witchy, dark read!

Goodreads Synopsis:

Everyone in Ballyfran has a secret, and that is what binds them together… Fifteen-year-old twins Madeline and Catlin move to a new life in Ballyfran, a strange isolated town, a place where, for the last sixty years, teenage girls have gone missing in the surrounding mountains. As distance grows between the twins – as Catlin falls in love, and Madeline begins to understand her own nascent witchcraft – Madeline discovers that Ballyfrann is a place full of predators. Not only foxes, owls and crows, but also supernatural beings who for many generations have congregated here to escape persecution. When Catlin falls into the gravest danger of all, Madeline must ask herself who she really is, and who she wants to be – or rather, who she might have to become to save her sister. Dark and otherworldly, this is an enthralling story about the bond between sisters and the sacrifices we make for those we care about the most.

This is part of a trilogy set in the times of the Great Irish Famine, and is an utterly engrossing read.

Goodreads Synopsis:

It is the late 1880s and the Great Famine has ravaged Ireland. The potatoes are black and rotten, and the people have nothing to eat. Eily, Michael and Peggy are alone in their cottage. Their parents went out in search of work and food, but never returned. Now the children must fend for themselves. Desperate to avoid being sent to the workhouse, they set out on a journey to find their great-aunts. On their journey they encounter the devastation caused by famine people scrabbling for food, abandoned children, soup kitchens, beggars, disease, wild dogs, death. Led by twleve year-old Eily, the children use all their strength and ingenuity to survive and find their way to Castletaggart.