Twas the moment deep
When we are conscious of the secret dawn
Amid the darkness that we feel is green…

Thy face remembered is from other worlds,
It has been died for, though I know not when,
It has been sung of, though I know not where…

Anya Seton has written here a dual-time tale of a girl, Celia Bohun, living in 1550’s Tudor England, and her reincarnated counterpart, Celia Marsdon, living in 1968. The Tudor story is three quarters of the novel and the modern day story only one quarter, which suited me well, since I usually seem to have more interest in the earlier time frames when reading such novels. We are told at the outset, so no spoiler, that the original Celia was walled up alive in a castle called Ightham Mote, after becoming pregnant at the hand of a monk, and this tidbit keeps the reader plowing ahead, after all, anyone would want to know how and why such a thing should happen to a young girl.

Unfortunately, that tidbit might have been the only reason I kept reading. I was vaguely interested in the developing relationship between Celia and Brother Stephen and Seton draws an intriguing picture of life for Catholics in the chaos of changing loyalties during the reigns of Edward, then Mary, and finally Elizabeth. However, I failed completely at feeling any connection or even concern for the two main characters. Much of their story made no logical sense to me. Perhaps I have become too old for stories in which the physical attraction of a body consumes one’s soul. I wanted there to be something deeper underlying this attraction, but Seton never gave me that, so the unrelenting nature of Celia’s love seemed naive and false and contrived. I was put in mind of a stubborn child who simply wants the toy and is pitching a tantrum for it. She did not receive the kind of encouragement that I would have thought necessary in order to take some of the ridiculous choices that she took.

I have read Seton before and enjoyed her writing, so this one was a disappointment for me. I have given it a 3✯ rating because I did “like” it, I just didn’t love it or think it would be very memorable. I suspect that if you asked me six months from now I would be hard pressed to tell you a single detail except the obvious one that comes early on and kept me reading.

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I enjoyed the vast majority of this novel; an historical romance set in Tudor England that is about 90% of the book. The front and end pieces with the modern characters and reincarnation seemed superfluous. Whatever was driving all of that didn't interest me. However, the Tudor romance was overall well done and an enjoyable, if overlong read. She did a good job of blending in history without making it too awkward and the place and characters felt very real. I'm not looking forward to dipping back into some Anya Seton.

Having picked Green Darkness up from the local library bookstore sale for only a quarter, I truly had no idea what I was getting myself into. Historical fiction, in any form, is not a genre that I've spent much time with, and coupling that with paranormal romance? Well, we can safely say that I was in for a ride.

Green Darkness shares the harrowing tale of forbidden love in mid-1500s England between an unfortunate peasant girl and a Benedictine monk, betwixt the reigns of King Edward VI, Queen Mary I, and Queen Elizabeth - a time when Catholicism and Protestantism (depending on the ruler) were met with persecution. It doesn't begin in that era, however; rather, the story starts in the 1960s, when Celia and her newly wedded husband, Richard Marsdon, arrive at his family's ancestral estate in Sussex. A baffling illness befalls the Marsdons, leaving the unorthodox physician, Doctor Akananda, to unravel the mysterious past that haunts the pair from hundreds of years before.

The twisting tale that unravels of that love affair is only a small part of what I enjoyed about this book, as romance is not typically my cup of tea. What truly enticed me was [a:Anya Seton|18930|Anya Seton|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1224813438p2/18930.jpg]'s faithfulness not only to history, but to location, legend, and use of historical figures. Cowdray House and Ightham Mote are real places, and an unfounded rumor regarding the Mote suggests that a female skeleton was found within its walls - which Seton used as a basis for her story. Through Seton, I discovered an unknown love for Tudor England, and undoubtedly I will read more books set in that time period.

Despite my praise for the book, I was unable to give it a five star rating because of its conclusion: it was as if Seton ran out of fuel. The idea of reincarnation takes a more ridiculous turn when Doctor Akananda hints at more pasts that conveniently interlock the same people. As if that were not enough of an affront, the resolution itself fell flat. With the Marsdon family tragedy conveniently wrapped up, Celia and Stephen seem aloof and their interaction felt a bit too forced. It is for this reason that I gave the book four stars. ( )

Interesting ... kept my attention (to my surprise).

Reincarnation; working off karmic debts;
the historic portion was quite well done I think, and nicely incorporated the political changes & the catholic/protestant tensions ( )

Although this story is set in two different time periods, Tudor England and 1968 very little of the book takes part in 1968 which i liked as I tend to prefer the historical parts of these types of stories.

While I enjoyed this book and thought it was well written I'm only giving it 3 stars as I found the central character Celia to be a selfish bitch. She claims to love the priest but sees nothing wrong in wanting him to give up the church which he loves, or he could give up his chosen religion and instead of being a Catholic priest he could become a Lutheran one instead and then they could get married. She also doesn't see anything wrong in giving him a potion that she got from a witch, a potion that was supposed to be used on her husband so that they would be able to have sex and she would become pregnant. She never uses the potion on the husband and after he dies she uses it on the priest because she wants him but he keeps pushing her away. When she was given the potion the witch warned her that it would be dangerous to use it for anything other than its intended purpose, and of course when you ignore a warning from a witch there is a price to be paid.

Celia initially gets what she wants, she becomes pregnant with the priest's baby and he agrees to leave with her. However the mistress of the house finds out about them having sex and murders Celia and hides her body. The priest thinks Celia has ran away with somebody else and he commits suicide. ( )