What a fantastic book! I loved the story line and the setting! The imagery in the book really brings each place to life. Brianna really touched me. She dealt with such loss and hardship yet she never gave up. I really liked Michael too. He was a true knight in shining armor! A definite must read! ( )

The story of the Maid of Ballymacool is bascially explined in the title. It is a sweet but predictable tale of Brianna Kelly and her trials and tribulations working as the unpaid help in a girls school in Donegal. She has been abandoned at birth and the story takes us through the solving of this mystery. It is populated with the standard Irish characters. The Irish landscape and Irish customs and nature are well featured in the narrative which I appreciated. Also the use of Gaelic in the conversations, as I am trying to learn Gaelic at the present time. I am from Ireland and one thing that diverted me from enjoying the story is the authors constant use of "ye" instead of "You" throughout the book. I surmise this is to emphasis the Irish accent but I found myself focusing on this particular pronoun and in my opinion it wasn't necessary. I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review. ( )

I found this story very intriguing! Brianna Kelly is a kitchen maid at the exclusive girl’s boarding school of Ballymacool House. She is severely mistreated emotionally, verbally and physically by the head mistress and owner, Maureen Magee. There are no clues as to way she constantly spews her venom at Brianna. She only remembers coming there to the care of Ms. Magee as a small child, and not as a boarder. It is the only life she has ever known. The head mistress’s abuse is not limited only to her servants but her students also suffer her wrath, yet no one to the degree Brianna does.
Michael Wray, son of a wealthy, elite family, is sent by his father to keep an eye on his rebellious young cousin to prevent her being expelled from the school. He loathes the task. He is immediately taken by Brianna, in sympathy seeing her horrible treatment and living conditions but also her beauty. He begins to develop a friendship with her but it isn’t easy. She is very shy and reluctant believing it isn’t appropriate given their stations in life.
Brianna won me over with her humility and sweet, gentle spirit in spite of her horrid situation. Though she did not understand why Ms. Magee hated her so she committed to doing her job well and accepting the life she had. I love the way she captured moments of joy in the simplest ways.
I loved that Michael was not haughty and think himself better than others because of his life of privilege. He was so kind and caring of everyone. I really liked it when he stood up to the headmistress not being intimidated by her anger. He did what I would have wanted to do! I enjoyed watching his and Brianna’s romance grow in the most unexpected ways.
There were so many twists and turns, that I was constantly surprised! I would think I had it figured out and BAM! Everything would change! I was sad when the story was completed but I loved the surprise ending. A book you will want to read!
I received a copy of this book from Revell Publishing. The opinions stated are my own.

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Brianna feels tied to Ballymacool House and Boarding House. She has worked there a long time and decides to try to make more of herself. She decides to go exploring and runs across a few bits of buried treasure. When she finds a platter she decides to find out the story behind it and turns to Michael to help her find its story and what the future holds. ( )

An easy read because it's so entirely predictable. All the standard tropes are here and Deibel uses them to decent effect. The pacing is good and characterization is simple. Overall, people who enjoy this sort of thing (Christian romance) will enjoy this but it's not my bag and if I'd realized how much god-bothering was in this I would not have requested an ARC. I was curious to read historical fiction set in Ireland but there was very little history, much to my disappointment; I appreciated the use of Gaelic however.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review. ( )