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The Flower of the Storm
Sterrin O'Carroll , proud daughter of Ireland's princes, flame-haired rebel mistress of Castle Kilsheelin. All her life she fought to free the turbulent land she loved--and hungered for the intoxicating embrace of a man she could never have...
Thomas Young , bold Irish patriot and adventurer, he roamed over half the world in pursuit of the wealth and fame that could win Sterrin for his bride. But when he returned to claim her - she belonged to another man...
Sir Jocelyn Devine , the richest man in Ireland, epicure in the arts of passion. He possessed Sterrin's body - but could never enslave her heart...
Thomas Young , bold Irish patriot and adventurer, he roamed over half the world in pursuit of the wealth and fame that could win Sterrin for his bride. But when he returned to claim her - she belonged to another man...
Sir Jocelyn Devine , the richest man in Ireland, epicure in the arts of passion. He possessed Sterrin's body - but could never enslave her heart...
686 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1969
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 4, 2019
Loved this one! Great love story and characters.
The author swept me away and took me back in time when Ireland was strife with famine and rebellion.
With great historical detail, and a feisty Irish heroine this story had so much more..intrigue, madness,
suspense and murder.
Two lovers whose paths are divided by devastating events that change the course of Ireland's history.
Bitterness and sorrow follow..but our heroine Sterrin's indomitable spirit never weakens in this story.
This book will go on my keeper shelf!
If you cant find this book (older version) with the lovely cover..it was re-printed as
in trade-back and kindle
June 15, 2014
I loved this book, which I read when I was 15. It was probably the kickstarter to my becoming a writer. The Irish Gone with the Wind is a fair comparison. I re-read it recently and it didn't disappoint.
November 17, 2025
The Big Wind's biggest selling point is its particular brand of historical fiction. Beginning in Ireland in 1839, the novel foregrounds its classic romance tropes in a somewhat obscure but no less pivotal era in Irish history.
Early 19th century Ireland's political landscape was coming to a tipping point that wouldn't be fully resolved until the start of the next century. The fight for self-determination through political means with leaders like Daniel O'Connell were undermined by the British at every opportunity, and the empire's malicious indifference was about to be brought to the fore.
A blight on one food source shouldn't have caused a famine, but Britian had created the conditions — and continued to maintain them as the body count mounted — necessary to allow such a calamity.
Britain's exploitation of the starving country never waned. Great portions of the native population were pushed to marsh lands, while the acres of arable land were handed off to incentivise British settlement to better subjugate and proselytise. This prevailing indigency led to an overreliance on a cost-effective crop that would turn the Blight's scourge into famine proportions. This event has rightly been revisited by historians and decried as an attempted genocide by the British.
With that historical context, it's certainly an interesting period in history to set a romance. One where our protagonists fate is seemingly set by the fraught night of her birth.
The story starts with the protagonists parents, Roderick and Magaret — two flawed individuals that combine into even worse parents. After giving birth during The Big Wind, Magaret's trauma prevents her from fully committing herself to the role of Sterrin's mother and Roderick's position as landlord in such tumultuous times means Sterrin's childhood is filled with neglect. The only time they see fit to include her is when they are fighting with each other and need a diversion, and once their second child arrives, Sterrin basically doesn't exist.
These circumstances allow her to strike up a close friendship with one of their servants, Thomas, that in time turns to a forbidden love with enough stops and starts to irritate even the most mawkish of readers.
The American Civil War is touched upon unpredictably, with Thomas even fighting for the Confederates. The war itself is portrayed and understood entirely from his perspective as an Irish immigrant, making it a matter of loyalty to their adopted land and haphazardly sidestepping the true instigating issue: slavery. While, yes, this may have been the case for the Irish participants in the war, the casus belli of the war itself does seem a curious omission.
The setting is its biggest strength, but is let down by a tepid romance.
Early 19th century Ireland's political landscape was coming to a tipping point that wouldn't be fully resolved until the start of the next century. The fight for self-determination through political means with leaders like Daniel O'Connell were undermined by the British at every opportunity, and the empire's malicious indifference was about to be brought to the fore.
A blight on one food source shouldn't have caused a famine, but Britian had created the conditions — and continued to maintain them as the body count mounted — necessary to allow such a calamity.
Britain's exploitation of the starving country never waned. Great portions of the native population were pushed to marsh lands, while the acres of arable land were handed off to incentivise British settlement to better subjugate and proselytise. This prevailing indigency led to an overreliance on a cost-effective crop that would turn the Blight's scourge into famine proportions. This event has rightly been revisited by historians and decried as an attempted genocide by the British.
With that historical context, it's certainly an interesting period in history to set a romance. One where our protagonists fate is seemingly set by the fraught night of her birth.
The story starts with the protagonists parents, Roderick and Magaret — two flawed individuals that combine into even worse parents. After giving birth during The Big Wind, Magaret's trauma prevents her from fully committing herself to the role of Sterrin's mother and Roderick's position as landlord in such tumultuous times means Sterrin's childhood is filled with neglect. The only time they see fit to include her is when they are fighting with each other and need a diversion, and once their second child arrives, Sterrin basically doesn't exist.
These circumstances allow her to strike up a close friendship with one of their servants, Thomas, that in time turns to a forbidden love with enough stops and starts to irritate even the most mawkish of readers.
The American Civil War is touched upon unpredictably, with Thomas even fighting for the Confederates. The war itself is portrayed and understood entirely from his perspective as an Irish immigrant, making it a matter of loyalty to their adopted land and haphazardly sidestepping the true instigating issue: slavery. While, yes, this may have been the case for the Irish participants in the war, the casus belli of the war itself does seem a curious omission.
The setting is its biggest strength, but is let down by a tepid romance.
January 7, 2016
This book has been sitting on my shelf for a while now. As we are approaching March, I always like to read a book about Irish history or set in Ireland. Here goes!
Well, I finally finished this incredible book! It took significantly longer than I would have liked because I had to keep putting it down to read book club books in between! The interruptions made reading The Big Wind more difficult because I would forget what proved to be important details!
I loved how the author deftly moved across the generations linguistically. The story of the O'Carroll family intertwined with the Great Hunger, landlord tenant relations, the Anglo Irish and Irish aristocracy plus a juicy love story, made for a tremendous and extraordinarily entertaining read. It was very funny in parts, but also heartbreakingly sad. I loved it and will definitely read it again when I can read it the way it was meant to be read!
Well, I finally finished this incredible book! It took significantly longer than I would have liked because I had to keep putting it down to read book club books in between! The interruptions made reading The Big Wind more difficult because I would forget what proved to be important details!
I loved how the author deftly moved across the generations linguistically. The story of the O'Carroll family intertwined with the Great Hunger, landlord tenant relations, the Anglo Irish and Irish aristocracy plus a juicy love story, made for a tremendous and extraordinarily entertaining read. It was very funny in parts, but also heartbreakingly sad. I loved it and will definitely read it again when I can read it the way it was meant to be read!
September 12, 2020
This is a very interesting book to review. At heart, it's a simple story but told in epic detail, over many continents and several generations. Its beauty lies in Beatrice's ability to paint a very compelling scene of life in 1840. You can tell it's painstakingly researched, and she has managed to fit in every major event in Irish history that occurred during that period. However the downside is that this is a slow book, the plot takes a long time to develop, and when it does it follows exactly the course that you assume it will. Very slowly. The characters have very little depth, they are either good or bad and then act that way accordingly for the entirety of the book, taking away any chance of the reader being surprised. On the whole, though, the positives outweigh the negatives, it's a fascinating look into what 19th-century life was like in Ireland.
March 29, 2011
Historical Fiction...Ireland 1830-1860s....Irish bad luck in the 1800s with Big Wind storm to Potato Blight to failed independence, and a love story. Took me 100 pages and nearly quitting before I got into this book with real interest. Oddly, the last 100 pages also bored me. Read over St Patrick's day, which was fitting.
May 4, 2009
An Irish Gone with the Wind. I reread this one every few years because it's so good. I couldn't wait to see some of the places when I took a trip to Ireland. The story helped me to understand more about Irish history.
March 23, 2020
This was an interesting book, even if it was a bit slow. Learned about Ireland's civil war, but have to warm you this is a thick book with small print and about 600 pages. It can bog down in some places.
August 31, 2009
An amazing story of the true tragedy of the Irish famine
September 15, 2013
Interesting family saga about an interesting period in Irish history - a bit like the Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times".
January 22, 2020
A good enough story but I found it really far fetched in parts and really drawn out dissapointed in the way it ended I did come to live steerin through the book though
April 30, 2020
It was like Gone with the Wind for Ireland.
February 1, 2022
Review coming
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews