Weekly Reader: Song for a Lost Kingdom Book 1 by Steve Moretti; A Beautiful Fantasy About Time Travel, Scottish History, and Music

Weekly Reader Song For A Lost Kingdom Book 1 by Steve Moretti; A Beautiful Fantasy About Time Travel, Scottish History, and The Power of Music

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

PopSugar Reading Challenge: A book that you were interested in because the title grabbed your attention

Spoilers: Music can do powerful things, including transporting you back to a memory by recalling other moments, earlier times, and fill your imagination with nostalgia, all figuratively of course. But what if music had the power to transport you to another time, literally?

That is the situation faced by Adeena Stuart, the protagonist of A Song for a Lost Kingdom, a beautiful fantasy about time travel and the power of music.

Adeena is an amateur cellist who longs to play for a major orchestra.  In the meantime, she works at the museum managed by her best friend, Tara. The latest museum exhibit features the Duncan Cello, a cello created in the 18th century by a former student of Antonio Stradivarius. Adeena has been rejected by the conductor and plans to reaudition and "borrow" the famous cello. 

While auditioning something strange happens. Adeena finds herself in 18th century Scotland in period costume, playing in front of an audience dressed in Highland garb and calling her "Lady Katherine." She is transported back in time into the body of Lady Katherine Carnegie, a noblewoman, musician, and female composer caught up in the Jacobite rebellion. She becomes involved in political intrigue and romance in the past while returning to a failed romantic relationship and potential legal troubles involving ownership of the cello and a plagiarizing conductor. Meanwhile, Adeena's parents travel to Scotland to visit her dying grandmother and learn that the Stuarts'  connections to the Duncan Cello and Lady Katherine are much closer than they previously thought.

It's easy to compare Song for a Lost Kingdom to Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series in that both involve time travel and romance between a modern woman and an 18th Century Scotsman. However, there are a few key moments that differ between them. One of the biggest is that Adeena goes back and forth in time between historical Scotland and modern Canada. This situation leads to some humorous moments when Adeena changes things in the past just by her mere presence. During one passage, Adeena's parents, William and Jackie, read the diary of Katherine's tyrannical brother, James. They read bemused as James wrote that during an argument, Adeena-in-Katherine referred to him as "King Konge, a line of royalty (he) is unaware of but is believed to be an insult to (his) person."

 The constant time hopping takes a tremendous toll on Adeena both physically and emotionally. Her returns often bring about fainting spells that require hospitalization. An X-ray reveals potential long term medical complications should Adeena continue to travel back and forth.

She also is confused by her double life, particularly when she develops feelings for John, a nobleman with ties to the Scottish rebels. This forbidden romance puts Adeena or rather Adeena-in-Katherine at odds with Katherine's stern brother who will do anything to stifle rebellion even if it means attacking his own family. This romance also complicates Adeena's modern relationship with Philippe with whom she already is uncertain about her feelings. 

Perhaps Adeena's off kilter emotions during her time travel could be a factor in some of her decisions. However, there are other factors that make her decisions unwise at best and reckless and dangerous at worst. She steals the Duncan Cello and recruits a friend to make a dummy copy for the Exhibit, jeopardizing Tara's career. She is blackmailed by Friedrich Lang, a conductor who is not only aware that she has the Cello but shamefully steals an unpublished composition written by Katherine. Adeena is naturally angered by Lang's blatant blackmail and plagiarism, but fails to account for the fact that she brought it on by performing with the Cello, practically boasting about it in front of Lang.

Sometimes, Adeena's actions make her incredibly irritating, but she also has a lot of spunk. She stands up for herself in front of James and others and is able to call Lang out on his deceit. She isn't always likeable, but she learns and is able to use that recklessness to defend herself and those around her.

The historical setting is well-written. People who are fascinated by Scottish history will delight in the cameos by such notable figures as Bonnie Prince Charlie. Thanks to Adeena-in-Katherine, we also get a birds-eye-view of the status of women in such a society. It's disheartening to read about a woman of such musical talent like Katherine go unnoticed for centuries until a modern woman like Adeena brings her to life.

There is a strong connection to music as the book features characters whose lives revolve around music. Music has the power to do many things: incite revolution, cause people to fall in love, and in this world causes people to travel in time.

Song For A Lost Kingdom is a strong fantasy with a real sense of time and place. It plays all the right notes and composes a beautiful symphony.