Rainy Daze

I have very fond memories of reading the Sadie and Kevin series of books when I was in my early teens and I was a bit wary of a revisit in case it turned into one of those best left in the past moments. The first novel The Twelfth Day of July was part of the school curriculum in my first year of high school and I fell so much in love with the series, I read all five books over the Christmas holidays. That year it was a very cold winter and the school boiler broke down which meant three extra weeks of holidays for us. Since my parents were both working, my brother and I spent the time at our grandparents house and I remember sprawling out on the rug in front of the fire being totally engrossed in these books.

Strangely enough, I never did have my own copies back then and have only recently purchased the books and I’m glad to say, I still enjoyed reading them as an adult. I won’t lie and say that as an adult reader I didn’t wish there were parts fleshed out more because it’s true but the books were written for young adults so that has to be accepted.

The books were written in the early Seventies and concentrate on a young couple, Sadie and Kevin, who become friends and later fall in love in Belfast. Nothing wrong with that, but when you consider Sadie’s a Protestant and Kevin’s a Catholic in the heart of the Troubles, everything becomes clear.

In The Twelfth Day of July, thirteen year old Sadie is looking forward to taking part in the upcoming Orange Walk but everything changes one night when two Catholic boys deface the mural of King Billy which is painted on the gable end of Sadie’s house. Sadie and her brother give chase and when one of the Catholic boys stumbles, Sadie captures him and has her first introduction to Kevin McCoy who is a year older than her. There are a series of pranks from both Protestant and Catholic kids in the community throughout the book with tensions increasing between both sets of children until the eve of the Walk when the children gather on their respective sides spoiling for a fight. However, the fight is over before it’s really started when Kevin’s sister, Brede, is injured when hit on the head with a brick. The kids all scatter except for Sadie and her brother, Tommy, who rush to her aid. With Brede seriously ill in hospital, Sadie and Tommy refuse to participate in the Walk, much to the fury of their parents, and spend the day with Kevin in Bangor instead when they hear Brede is going to make a full recovery. At the end of the book, the children are firm friends despite their differences.

In Across the Barricades, three years have passed when Sadie bumps into Kevin one day and we learn the friendship established in the first book was short-lived as the youngsters were pulled apart by the pressures of keeping their friendship a secret. The Troubles have escalated in this book and British soldiers now patrol the streets, making Sadie and Kevin’s renewed acquaintance all the more dangerous, especially when friendship turns into love. Sadie and Kevin soon discover that childhood friends have become enemies with neither community prepared to accept their relationship, forcing the young couple into secrecy. However, secrets can’t stay buried forever and a terrible chain of violence is soon unleashed. Tired of the violence, Kevin decides to leave Ireland to find work in England and Sadie leaves with him.

The rest of the books, Into Exile, A Proper Place and Hostages of Fortune, follow the teenage newlyweds as the struggle to cope with the realities of married life and to make a living in a new country. Sadie and Kevin endure a lot of hardship and soon discover they can’t completely escape their ties to Ireland, but at the end of the day, their love for each other is strong enough to endure the trials.

When I started reading these books again, part of me thought they were no longer as relevant since things have changed a great deal in Ireland over the past decade or so, however a throwaway comment from one of my young co-workers made me realise that sectarianism is still very much alive today and that’s just sad. You could also remove the Protestant/Catholic elements and replace them with any number of other religions, and have a relevant story. It seems Romeo and Juliet are still struggling to find their place.

I started watching a new show called White Collar a few months ago and fell completely in love with Matt Bomer. He is simply beautiful. Not only on the outside but on the inside too which is far more important. He also has the most amazing eyes I’ve ever seen: sometimes blue, sometimes grey and then sometimes sea green.

Everytime I see a lock of dark hair fall across his forehead, I can’t help thinking he was robbed of the Superman role in Superman Returns but then again it was a disappointing movie so maybe he was better off out of it.

Matt has that special, indefinable something that I associate with old time movie stars and I hope he does become a huge star over the next few years.

Best of all, he keeps his personal life strictly private and that is so damn refreshing in this day and age. Love ya, Matt!

It’s a happy day for me when I become addicted to a new author and for the past few weeks I’ve been totally immersed in the world of Karen Rose. The books are crime novels with romance thrown in for good measure with the male and female protagonists discovering they are in love with each other as the story progresses. Our hero and heroine usually come with a lot of baggage which needs to be sorted out but that’s okay because I hate perfect characters.

The crimes in the books are violent and somewhat graphic so it may not be to everyone’s taste but I find them totally absorbing. While the books mainly stand alone, they do have recurring characters so it is better to read them in order to avoid confusion. However that wasn’t an option for me, I couldn’t get the books in the right order since I had to buy what was available in the shop but it didn’t spoil my enjoyment and in fact, it’s a great excuse to read them all over again.

My favourite books, Die For Me, Scream For Me and Kill For Me, do need to be read in the correct order though as they form a trilogy and it wouldn’t make sense to read them otherwise. They are known as the Vartanian trilogy and they are simply chilling but spellbinding. I can’t really go into details because it would spoil the reading but I found them really disturbing and my heart went out to Daniel and Susannah as their story unfolded.

I have one more book to read, Nothing To Fear, before I run out of released paperbacks so I’m kinda savouring it. Nothing To Fear is an earlier book and refers to characters I’ve already met in later books so I know there is a happy ending in sight. Speaking of which, Karen Rose generally ends her novels with little epilogues which revisit our characters after the trauma is over and they are usually getting married or having kids. I love that and I like how we meet them again in other books, even if they are minor characters.

So far, my favourites are Aiden Reagan and Daniel Vartanian – heros you can’t help but fall in love with. Check out Karen Rose’s website to discover the books for yourself.