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    In the Land of the Long White Cloud
    In the Land of the Long White Cloud
    In the Land of the Long White Cloud
    Audiobook22 hours

    In the Land of the Long White Cloud

    Written by Sarah Lark

    Narrated by Anne Flosnik

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Helen Davenport, governess for a wealthy London household, longs for a family of her own—but nearing her late twenties, she knows her prospects are dim. Then she spots an advertisement seeking young women to marry New Zealand’s honorable bachelors and begins an affectionate correspondence with a gentleman farmer. When her church offers to pay her travels under an unusual arrangement, she jumps at the opportunity.

    Meanwhile, not far away in Wales, beautiful and daring Gwyneira Silkham, daughter of a wealthy sheep breeder, is bored with high society. But when a mysterious New Zealand baron deals her father an unlucky blackjack hand, Gwyn’s hand in marriage is suddenly on the table. Her family is outraged, but Gwyn is thrilled to escape the life laid out for her.

    The two women meet on the ship to Christchurch—Helen traveling in steerage, Gwyn first class—and become unlikely friends. When their new husbands turn out to be very different than expected, the women must help one another find the life—and love—they’d hoped for.

    Set against the backdrop of colonial nineteenth-century New Zealand, In the Land of the Long White Cloud is a soaring saga of friendship, romance, and unforgettable adventure.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    TranslatorD.W. Lovett
    Release dateAug 21, 2012
    ISBN9781469211732
    In the Land of the Long White Cloud
    Author

    Sarah Lark

    Sarah Lark, born in Germany and now a resident of Spain, is a bestselling author of historical fiction, including the Fire Blossom Saga, the Sea of Freedom Trilogy, and the In the Land of the Long White Cloud Saga. She is a horse aficionado and former travel guide who has experienced many of the world’s most beautiful landscapes on horseback. Through her adventures, she has developed an enduring relationship with the places she’s visited and the people who live there. In her writing, Lark introduces readers to a New Zealand full of magic, beauty, and charm. Her ability to weave romance with history and to explore all the dark and triumphal corners of the human condition has resonated with readers worldwide.

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    Reviews for In the Land of the Long White Cloud

    4/5

    117 ratings6 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This was a wonderful book. I was drawn in immediately by the characters and the setting. A lovely mixture of drama and history. This book was so well written. I would like to read more of Sarah Lark's work. I think the research was thorough and accurate. I didn't realize it was translated until I finished the book.
    • 4/5
      This book in my opinion was really good.

      Which makes me want to clarify something. The reviews for this title were all over the place. Some hated it, some loved it.

      It is not an easy book, first of all it rather long and some of the content is rather disturbing.

      However I would like to point out the reasons why I really liked it.

      One.
      The setting-

      Almost the whole story, except for in the beginning take place in New Zealand. Now for those of you who have seen The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, know what a beautiful setting this land has to offer. However to see it through the eyes of these two young women, you come to appreciate it more. The land plays apart of the story as well as the characters, you find it isn't an easy place to live.

      Two.
      The two main characters-

      You will love the two main characters which are polar opposites but find a friendship that they both will cherish while living in a new surrounding.

      Helen is a respectable woman who longs for a family, she is a governess when she answers an ad in a newspaper to marry a complete stranger in New Zealand. She is not very rich, so her prospects are limited and plus she is 27 (which is considered old when it comes to marriage in 18-century England)

      Gweyneira is from a well to do Welsh family, whose father lost her in a card game against a "sheep baron" of New Zealand. She takes the chance to escape a life that she finds rather boring for what she sees as an adventure of a lifetime.

      These two met for the first time on the boat taking them to New Zealand, where you also meet some orphans which Helen has been put in charge.

      You see New Zealand was lacking in respectable woman at the time and those who lived there wanted to have English maids instead of the natives.

      (Oh well you will see what happens in the book)

      Three

      The natives

      I didn't know anything about Native New Zealand before reading this book, the author did her research well in this respect.

      Now to some criticisms-

      This is not a happy book, oh yes everything ends well, but there is just one struggle after another to get there. It reminds you life is hard, especially if you don't know how to milk a cow or love a mule. Love is even harder, but you find it eventually.

      There is a love story in this book, but to tell you the truth, I wasn't even sure if I wanted it to happen in the end or not. Mostly because I was exhausted by the time I was done reading this. (My one thought, why don't these two give up and go on a vacation somewhere).

      However like I said everything ends well.

      I wanted to add that this was a translation, the original was written in German by the author and translated rather well into the English version.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      One of the longest books, I have read. It is 659 pages long, and I couldn't put it down. It is one in a series of three, and I can't wait to read the other two. Set in New Zealand between 1852 and 1877. The story is about two women going to New Zealand to meet their husband's site unseen. One is Lady Gwyneira, who is to marry a sheep baron's son. The other is a governess Helen, who is to marry a gentleman, farmer. The book tells the story of the two women and their adapting to New Zealand and their new homes and husbands. It was one of the best books I have ever read.
    • 1/5
      I stopped this audiobook in large part because of the narrator. Her voice had a forced, strained quality which grated – which is odd, really, because I listened to a lengthy classic a while back read by the same narrator, and she was the only reason I made it through that one. Which may have something to do with the fact that this was via earphones and that was not? I don't know. I do know I couldn't face another nineteen hours of that stressed reading. It wasn't entirely down to the reading, though. The writing was … questionable. A character "showered her husband" with a gaze? A horse is fresh "despite having ridden"? A girl liked to "Ride in the male position"? A horse attempted to "nuzzle her expressively"? Someone else was "green behind the ears"?? (Were they Vulcan?) A peer is routinely referred to not as His lordship or Lord Whatsit but as "the lord"? The girls featured in the story spent half their time blushing, and the other half being annoying, and it was with a little sadness that I relinquished the idea of the arranged marriage in a new land and all those other tropes I seem to be attracted to. Now if only I hadn't bought the Kindle edition as well.
    • 5/5
      Helen Davenport, governess for a wealthy London household, spots a church advertisement seeking young women to marry New Zealand bachelors and begins corresponding with a gentleman farmer. When her church offers to pay her travels if she will accompany a group of orphan girls to New Zealand, she takes up the opportunity. On the ship, she meets Gwyneira Silkham, her hand won in a game of blackjack for a New Zealand sheep baron's son. The two women have never met their prospective husbands, and things turn out very differently than they expected in this new land. I had my reservations about both a translated from German book and a book about my homeland by someone who doesn't live here - however I thought it was very well done and as I have just found out that it is part of a saga I'll seek out the next title.
    • 4/5
      This novel, translated from the German, centers around two women who emigrate to New Zealand. Helen Davenport, a governess who keenly hears her biological clock ticking and desperately wants a family of her own, responds to a letter in her church newsletter seeking wives for "well-established" gentlemen in Christchurch, New Zealand. Although she can't afford the passage, she is offered the chance to escort seven orphan girls destined to become servants in the new country, giving her the chance to join the gentleman farmer with whom she has struck up a correspondence. Gwyneira Silkham, youngest daughter of a Welsh lord/sheep baron, longs for adventure and a place where she can be free of the social strictures of her class. When her father loses several rounds of poker to a visiting New Zealand sheep baron, the man, Gerald Warden, offers to take the bet of asking for Gwyneira's hand--not for himself, but for his son--and she willingly accepts. The two women become friends aboard the ship bound for New Zealand. But, of course, once they arrive, all is not as rosy as the two women had hoped.Although this novel leaned a little more towards romance than I usually prefer, I enjoyed the details of life on a sheep farm--one more successful than the other--and the conflicts both women encountered with their husbands and the land and their relationships with the Maori. The story--saga, really--continues for about 20 years. This is the first of a trilogy, which continues with Helen's and Gwyneira's grandchildren in the second installation, which I plan to read soon. (But not before a break to read something entirely different.)