Book Review: Leaving Ireland by Ann Moore

Goodreads Summary: Leaving Ireland: Forced to flee Ireland, Gracelin takes her young daughter with her on an arduous transatlantic voyage to New York City. As she tries to make a new life for herself and her daughter, she reunites with her brother and befriends a runaway slave, getting swept up into the volatile abolitionist movement.
Goodreads Rating: 4.59 stars with over 300 ratings (Rating is for full trilogy set)
Genre Listing: Historical Fiction, Irish Culture, Fiction
Previous Review on the series: Gracelin O'Malley
2019 Reading Challenge: #26 Read Book 2 in a Trilogy (Find the full challenge https://linzthebookworm.blogspot.com/2018/12/2019-reading-challenge.html)

Review:

I'm having a hard time figuring out how to start this review. I finished Leaving Ireland and went straight in to 'Til Morning Light, so I'm having a hard time separating them.  A lot of Leaving Ireland follows Grace and her daughter Mary's journey from Ireland to America. Getting to see Sean come into his own was interesting, and I felt like he thrived there. The O'Malley's are fortunate that they have friends willing to take them in and provide them with jobs.

As with the first book in the trilogy, I'm impressed with the details that Ann Moore provided. Right from Gracelin boarding the ship, there are a ton of details that make the book feel realistic. The months at sea are gross and filled with disease. A lot of the passengers become ill and die because of the conditions. Once Grace and her daughter arrive in New York City, they're met with a lot of discrimination because of being Irish. I felt that all of these details really made the story feel realistic.

Leaving Ireland definitely kept me interested. There are a lot of twists and turns, and I felt like Gracelin made a lot of enemies during her travels. It made it hard to put down, and I almost felt like she brought bad luck to the family who took her and her daughter in. I was definitely missing Granna from the first book, but the O'dogue? family kind of became her new family. I may have gotten their name wrong. I worked 10 hours today and can't think straight. 

Through the Captain, who Grace becomes friends with during her journey, she meets a woman who is a former slave. I loved the friendship that developed between Lily and Grace. I thought it was interesting to see Lily's story and how she conquered being a slave to being a successful businesswoman. This is kind of where I want to start talking more about their story, but I think some of the info may be in the third book. 

Long story short, I'm really enjoying this trilogy. I was craving a Historical Fiction, so this really worked out well for the challenge. I definitely recommend it for historical fiction fans. One thing I really appreciate so far is that while there is romance in it, it's not really the focus of the story. It's very much a subplot. The main focus is on Grace, her family, and her story.