After the Rising & Before the Fall: Centenary Edition

Orna Ross

Sep 2020 · Orna Ross

About this ebook

A love forbidden by family. A feud spanning generations.
A woman still yearning for freedom.

Twenty years after she was driven away from her family and the only man she ever truly loved, Jo Devereux has returned to the small Irish village where she grew up. And this time, she wants answers.

What happened to her family during the Irish Civil War? Did her great-uncle’s best friend really shoot him dead? And what did this “war of the brothers” mean for mothers, sisters and daughters?

Searching through papers bequeathed by her estranged mother, Jo uncovers astonishing truths about her grandmother and great-aunt – secrets of a cold-blooded murder with consequences that ricocheted down the generations into her own life.

Urged on by Rory O’Donovan, her lost love and the son of her family’s sworn enemies, Jo is tempted to reignite the fires of rebellion. Can she ever go back to the life she’d made for herself in San Francisco? Or will what she’s learning about her heritage incite her to cast off caution – and claim what should have been hers?

In this heart-breaking saga about a young woman, her doomed lover, and the war-torn history that threatens to destroy their future as well as their past, you’ll find almost 600 pages of romance, revenge and redemption by the bestselling and award-winning author Orna Ross.

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Ratings and reviews

The first book of Orna Ross’ Irish trilogy, After the Rising tells the tale of a family, with the vivid backdrop of Ireland’s struggle for establishing its identity as an island nation. As Jo returns to her native land and unravels the past, the readers get a glimpse into the Irish Civil War. The story covers multiple generations, detailing the involvement of her family in the war, a cold-blooded murder, her lost love, and the repercussions of revolution. Now coming to the second installment Before the Fall, the story dives deeper into the family history of Jo. The grief-ridden past of her foremothers gets uncovered before her, as she goes through the letters left by her grandmother and great aunt. The unpleasant family secrets take up a large chunk of the novel, while the other sections deal with issues like AIDS, immigration, and other social issues. The book raises significant questions about the consequences of freedom and the heartbreaking truths that lurk in the past. With these discoveries, Jo finally realizes that perhaps it’s not possible to detach herself from the haunting past that her family has been carrying across generations. In both these parts, author Orna Ross’s brilliant storytelling brings this historical romance story to life. This compelling family saga reaches great heights with the author’s careful characterization. Ross explores humanity through a unique lens and unravels the bitter mysteries and secrets of Jo’s family with wonderful literary flair. While the first book brings up the question of love, the second book delves deeper into it. The pain and agony of discovering and carrying along a painful truth have been brilliantly portrayed in this work. These novels take place in Jo’s homeland of Ireland, and others in the U.S.. The author clever and skillfully handles these multiple settings, with each having its own feel. The gripping narrative and powerful storytelling makes After The Rising and Before The Fall a fantastic historical fiction novel that was hard for me to put down. This is a thick book, because it comes with both novels, but it ensures that readers will have a much richer and fuller experience by the end. If you’re interested in learning about Irish history through a riveting fictitious account, you would thoroughly enjoy Orna Ross’s enthralling story.

About the author

Orna Ross is an award-winning historical novelist, poet, and founder-director of the global non-profit for self-publishing writers, the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi).

An international bestseller, she enjoys book sales in 120+ countries worldwide and her awards include the Goethe Historical Fiction Grand Prize Award for fiction, Gold Literary Titan award for poetry, the Romantic Novelists Association's Indie Champion Award, The Writers' Digest's Top Websites for Writers, and The Bookseller's Top 100 people in publishing.

In what she describes as “the best move of my writing life”, Orna took her book rights back from her publishers in 2011. The experience has made her a passionate advocate for the commercial and creative empowerment of authors through self-publishing and selective rights licensing.