Acquire The Randolph Family Saga, Book One: The Ballad Of Tam Lin (Tam Lin, #1) Constructed By Patricia A. Leslie Edition

I started reading this book I felt swept into a lyrical world through the medium of articulate writing, which I enjoyed, but as I continue reading, I am impressed by the historical accents that relate the world of human society of the timewith the magically conjured world of Summerland.
An enjoyable read on many levels, Elves. Gotta read it. Slipping into the faerie realm is a delightful way to spend time, I am a fan of the Outlander series and the layered stories of Sir Terry Pratchett and this story lives in the same literary sphere.
The Ballad of Tam Lin kept me turning pages, It pulled me into the story of lovers, gods, goddesses, and magical creatures Patricia has a sweet way of describing her cast of characters, even those with less wholesome traits.


The book has women of strong and weak moral character, their lives defined by expectations and roles that are defined by the times, as well as the rebels and rulebreakers.
There is a wildness in the book and a love of nature too,

I am looking forward to reading the entire series to find out what happens to the members of the Randolph family.
First, I received a copy of this book through Goodreads First Reads, Second, I loved it! The writing was gorgeous quite Austenesque and the world building was fantastic! Mrs, Leslie certainly spent some time on the mythology of Summerland, and this novel was all the better for it! Of course, I am a feminist myself, so I suppose it was mostly just preaching to the choir, lol! I loved Janet's character throughout the novel, and I appreciated John's character growth and maturity.
I also quite enjoyed this incarnation of the old Ballad of Tam Lin, Even though I knew where the story was ultimately going, just from having read the ballad before reading the novel, I greatly enjoyed the way the story was fleshed out here, and again, the building of this world! I'll definitely be thinking about this novel for a long time to come!

UPDATED: For a much longer review of this book, please visit my new blog at sitelinknymphanddragon! The Ballad of Young Tam Lin is a lyrical and highly descriptive story of the way the land of the faery interacted with the harsh world ofth century Scotland.
While there were a few lapses in language given the time and place, overall the book created a magical atmosphere of life in rural Scotland, rough as it could be.


Overall I give this/stars, as by the end I was not happy with how easy John had things while Janet does all the suffering and takes most of the risks.
And I'm not sure why she is so very open to the world of the fae, given how she suffers in the story.
Overall, the men don't look too good in this book, excepting young Mik who is a minor character, They tend to be either overly rigid, unimaginative, womanizing, cruel and petty, or greedy and murderous,

I received this book through the Good Reads First reads program, The Ballad of Young Tam Lin is at its core a love story, I generally don't go for pure love stories because I find on the whole that they are too predictable, too sappy, and the characters are too ridiculously ideal that I just become frustrated with them all.
This book appealed to me at first, even as a romance, because it is set in thes, in Scotland, and includes elves.
As a fan of historical fiction and fantasy, this really sounded like it would hit the spot including both genres,

It did not disappoint, I did enjoy the setting of the story, as I thought I would, but the biggest thing this book had going for it was the characters.
I felt that the characters were really well rounded, easy to relate to and had their faults, so that I could truly enjoy them.
While I would not say that the story was wholly unpredictable, there were enough moments of suspense that I wanted to keep reading.


I should mention that this did not feel like a fast moving, can't put the book down kind of book for the most part.
It was more like a summer day kind of book, where I was able to relax, and enjoy and just picture the world and drink it in and enjoy the story.


If you enjoy a good love story, and can appreciate a story with elves and magic, then I would expect you to enjoy this book.


Note I did receive this book as a first reads win, A nice twist on the traditional fairy tale, which takes one into a wonderful otherworld, Some of the images and lessons of this world are

still with me, Lush, thoughtprovoking, and grounded in reality, The Saga debuts with an inspired retelling of the centuriesold Scottish folk ballad Tam Lin, This insightful comingofage story, set in the Scottish Borders country, takes the youthful and very human protagonists on a fairytale journey of imaginative twists and turns through both humourous and risky plot complications.
On May Eve of, Janet, a very sheltered but wilful twentyyearold Earl's daughter, wanders into Carterhaugh Wood, Handsome, seductive Tam Lin, who has been nineteen for the past seven years, appears and accosts her in a glade that burgeons with black roses.
While navigating an evershifting maze of love, doubt, trust, fear, honour, passion and laughable human foibles, both lad and lass mature and learn much about themselves.
But will the young man end by choosing the naïve girl who loves him, or another, who is the ideal embodiment of passionate womanhood I have to admit I was skeptical when I bought this I usually am about selforindiepublished books.
Granted, things are better lately than they were a couple years ago, but there's still a lot of dreck published that way! However, this book was really quite good.
And nice and long :

The switch between past tense for the inScotland parts and present tense for the Summerland parts was a bit annoying at first, but I know that's just one of my pet peeves.
However, I got over it, This was a pretty charming retelling I liked how the Queen of Fairy was an actual sympathetic character and not just The Bad Guy.
Most of the characters were great strangely, it was Tam Lin himself who was my least favorite, I was pretty much ok with the idea of him being dragged off by the Hell Thing, Alas, not to be which is not giving anything away, as you all know the ballad, I'm sure,

Anyway, this is a worthy read, It's nowhere near as wonderful as Pamela Dean's version which I am going to go reread for at least theth time now, as it's grey and chilly, and such weather makes me want to go to Blackstock, but is quite good.
For me, the book started kind of slow, But I persevered and it was worth it, Patricia Leslie has done a remarkable job of retelling the old story of Tam Lin or The Fairie Queen, as I first learned it.


Usually in this story, only one of the two main female characters can be the hero, while the other is reduced to some form of villain.
In Ms. Leslie's version, however, both Daniu, the Faerie Queen, and Janet the plucky mortal girl are easy to fall in love with, The male lead, while often dense, is still a pretty good guy, and lots of fun to read, Literary eye candy Maybe, but why not

In addition to evolving into an outstanding love story, the book delves into the more serious topics of the nature and origin of evil, gender politics and religious corruption.
But what really makes it work are the well drawn characters and the relationships between them,

Highly recommended!
I didnt know the ballad and not much about the lands of the fairy queen and its myriad creatures, but after I caught on and the authors Voice took over the action, I really enjoyed reading the story.
Where do I start I have had this sitting on my Kindle for months possibly tens of! waiting for me to get round to it.
Now that I have finished it, I have to decide if I liked it!

On the good side, . . for anyone not familiar with the Legend of Tam Lin or corresponding legends of the Seelie Courts and Thomas the Rhymer, etc it might be a good idea to look them up briefly before reading.
These stories will generally already be familiar to British readers, This book is a good retelling of the tale, well fleshed out, with good characterisation and plenty of detail including some references to actual places mostly in the Scottish Borders, which helps to add atmosphere, though the places themselves are not described in detail.


On the bad side, . . it runs to a little overKindle locations, suggesting something overwords, Editing down toor so would have been a improvement,

And a possible mistake The story is given a fixed set of dates, in the lates, Now the descriptions of the lifestyles of the main characters the human one, that is, for that part of the world, seem reasonable.
Reference is made to Puritanism and Presbyterianism and John Knox and the dates check out, The weaponry used mostly swords and daggers, one mention of a firearm seem OK for that time and place, But then there is reference to our heroine 'reading a novel', This made me stop and look at some history, but slightly to my surprise, for her social background and level of education, it is entirely realistic.
It just didn't feel right and the reason for that was that the legend on which the book is based goes back at least a furtheryears, maybe more.
So whilst this book is internally consistent, it might have been a mistake to put a date on it at all, This sort of legend can stand outside time, unless the author decides to retell it in modern terms,

In conclusion: This was a long, slow read, and needed some editing to improve the pace, and that has taken it from four down to three but as a retelling of a traditional story, the author has done pretty well! I was worried when I read the first page.
It was an author's note explaining some aspects of the book, Bad start all that information should either be selfevident, which most of it was, or explained in the narrative,

The story launches with a toolong conversation between a heavilyaccented man and his somehow accentfree daughter, The girl has no apparent personality traits besides being easily swept off her feet, And ultimately, I didn't care to meet the man who had impregnated her I need more than what we're given to be drawn in.


What's available on Kindle for free is enough to keep me from buying the book, It's so bland. I do like that it's Scottish that's interesting but I was bored mere pages in, Give me something more to sink my teeth into,

It's nice that your husband's doing so much advertising for you, though, Good man. very very unique and interesting plot!! must read for sure! This edition is no longer in print, It has been republished, as of July, as "The Randolph Family Saga, Book One: The Ballad of Tam Lin, " Patricia A. Leslie, a lifelong enthusiast for British Isles literature, writes speculative fiction in several sub genres, largely set in Scotland and England inspirations include Shakespeare, Austen, Dickens, Burns, Grahame, and Pratchett.
With a broad background in the arts, she is an eclectically talented woman, University research on revitalisation movements and Neopaganism became the catalyst for starting to create fiction, the ideal synthesis of her fascination with folklore, sacred nature, and cultural anthropology.
She is married to an ESL teacher they have always had dogs instead of children, Past:Artistic Director, West End Repertory, Berkeley, CAAnimal portrait artistPresent:NovelistFreelance proofreaderFilksingerDog momVegan,