I first read this book back in 1999 and I have to say that I didn't think much of it, the ending annoyed me and I put it aside on the top shelf where it remained, gathering dust until recently.
A couple of weeks ago people in my book club began mentioning it and raving about it as a wonderful read...I thought I would give it another try and I am glad I did.
This time around I was enthralled and couldn't put it down, I read it every chance I got. The story of the reincarnation of two kindred spirits through the ages held me in it's spell and this time I loved the ending. Perhaps knowing that there is now a sequel out there made it more acceptable? I was not left hanging and wondering what Gally would do now...with no answers.
Ferney still annoyed me somewhat, the way he stepped in, discarded Mike as of no importance and trampled on Gally's marriage as having no significance made me angry! Her insipid acceptance that Ferney was right also peeved me but the historical, twisted story won me over in the end. ( )

I loved this tale, ranging back and forth thru time, of 2 people who have been reincarnated over and over, for hundreds of years, generally in the same locale in England. This cycle is somehow affected by the ancient Bag Stone, a menhir-type erection in the area. In the present life, Gally deals with fears from unrecognized past lives, and the conflict of discovering her longstanding lover, now an old man, when she moves to her historic locale with her present husband. The author adeptly brings us into the emotions of the novel while also intertwining some history. ( )

I missed this book when it was first published in 1998 and so came to it with some anticipation. I was not disappointed. Set on the Somerset/Dorset border, it tells the interlinking tale of Gally, her husband Mike and elderly countryman Ferney. It’s difficult to review without giving away too much of the story, suffice to say it combines modern and ancient love stories in a setting so evocative of this mythical magical part of the world. It makes you believe in the power of true love.
Young couple Mike and Gally find a rundown cottage at Penselwood and move into an old caravan next door while the builders renovate. The countryside seems to dispel Gally’s nightmares and her sadness at a miscarriage, in fact the countryside seems to be a character in itself and is an integral part of the story. History, folklore and nature are woven into a love story across the centuries.
I know and will read it again and again, it is an uplifting story stuffed with history from Saxon times via witchcraft and rebellions. Just when you think you have worked it out, something unexpected happens. It is tender, touching, and right up until the last page you wonder how the story will be resolved.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/ ( )

I picked up Ferney as the third book in my '3 for 2' offer, without knowing the first thing about it. The cover drew me and the blurb on the back sounded interesting so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

I'm so glad I was tempted because it's such a fantastic book. A love story spanning countless years (and lifetimes), and I really, really felt for Gally and Ferney, imagining how they must have struggled to find each other in some of their lifetimes. I loved when they managed to get together at the same time in their lives and hated when they overshot each other through no fault of their own. Their very first lifetime together actually moved me when it was revealed exactly what caused them to be so intertwined.

I had a real problem with Gally's husband though......what a misery he was...........but then I wonder how my own spouse would be if I were in
Gally's position........probably no different.......however, still can't 'take' to him *shrug*. I just wanted Gally and Ferney to be together forever and it pained me when they weren't or had interruptions.

I didn't see the 2 big revelations at the end coming though. It came as such a shock. I almost wept when I found out where Gally had been prior to being 'this' Gally (that makes no sense, I know......you'll HAVE to read it) and the end twist was so beautiful but bittersweet at the same time. It left me thinking how that would work out for them both, for days on end after finishing the book.

Such a beautiful, thought provoking book and one that is definitely worth the read, even if it's not your usual type of reading material.

I keep wondering now if I share my present life with loved ones I've spent time with in other lifetimes. I'd like to hope so. ( )

I read Long's second novel, Silence and Shadows (2002), for review when it first came out, and liked it enough that I went out and bought myself a copy of its predecessor. Shamefully, it's taken all this while for Ferney to jump off the shelf and into my hands. More or less, the wait has been worth it.

Young couple Mike and Gally Martin are searching for a new house somewhere in the country to offer Gally a change of scenery so she can forget a miscarriage and the subsequent breakdown. They find a cottage in the English Southwest, in rural Somerset; it's a fixer-upper that's more fix than currently up, but Gally is instantly drawn to it As By An Arcane Force and insists that none other will do. Associated with the house is an elderly local called Ferney, who seems to recognize her; and soon Gally is drawn to him, too, as if she has known him for a long time . . . a very long time.

Reincarnation fantasies are comparatively scarce and good ones even more so, so Ferney is a fair treat. That said, there were occasional longueurs; I'd have been happier had the book been some 25% shorter. At the same time, the slow build does definitely add to the power of the later sequences, so who knows? The characters of Gally and to a lesser extent Ferney are pleasingly complex and real; I wish the same could be said of Mike's. (The book's essentially a three-hander; all other characters are peripheral, although their influence on the plot may not be.) Overall, then, the book's not a masterpiece -- and there are a few resoundingly Thog's Masterclassish lines -- but it certainly has enough by way of the very good to be worth the reader's time. A keeper. ( )