Georgana's Secret by Arlem Hawks

In Georgana's Secret by Arlem Hawks, Georgana Woodall's father had no choice but to protect her from the grandmother who beat her and told her she was worthless. But, as a sea captain, the only solution he was able to come up with was to take her to sea disguised as a boy. Three years later, Georgana is safe from her grandmother but growing weary of life on the sea and the other boys on the Deborah, a British Naval frigate on its way to Antigua sailing as protection for a group of merchant vessels. 

Dominic Peyton's calling is the sea and he very well could be a captain, by now. But, he hasn't the money to care for his mother while awaiting a position on a vessel. So, he's turned down the promotion and joined the crew of the Deborah as First Lieutenant. On board, he finds a disgruntled second lieutenant, a captain who seems disinterested in his crew or in fighting except when absolutely necessary, and a strange, skittish, viciously bullied young boy without friends who stays in the captain's quarters. 

Young George doesn't know how to defend himself, so Dominic takes it upon himself teach George to hold his own in a fist fight and offers his friendship. He's pleased when he can draw a rare smile from George and George (aka Georgana) finds herself falling in love with Dominic Peyton. But, she spent her childhood waiting for her father to come home from the sea. When the truth comes out about her identity, will she be willing and able to live that life, again?

Highly recommended - Swashbuckling fun with a romance that begins as an unlikely friendship. I love the way the heroine grows from a terrified and bullied girl with a secret identity to a spunky and daring person who saves the day. There are some terrific action scenes but the final challenge in which Georgana is the only person who can save the day is so exciting I barely took a breath while reading. 

My thanks to Laurel Ann and Shadow Mountain for the review copy!

©2021 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

The Tutor's Daughter by Julie Klassen

The Tutor's Daughter by Julie Klassen 
Copyright 2012
Bethany House - Historical Fiction/Regency 
409 pp.

The Tutor's Daughter is a novel set in Regency England, on the Cornish coast, and I think it was probably the setting that drew my interest when I read about it.  Wow, great choice, by far one of the most engrossing, entertaining books I've read, so far this year!

Synopsis:

Emma Smallwood's father, a tutor, has slowly lost interest in life since the death of his wife, two years past.  With his small boarding school now trickling down to nothing, Emma is concerned and takes it upon herself to write to Sir Giles Weston.  His two eldest sons attended her father's school but the younger ones have not.  Perhaps he would be interested in sending the twins?

Sir Giles responds with an offer to pay Mr. Smallwood twice his normal fee if he'll move into Ebbington Manor to teach his youngest sons for a year.  Miss Smallwood is invited, as well.  Eager for a change of pace, Mr. Smallwood accepts.

But, strange things are afoot at the manor on the cliff.  Everyone seems to have a secret and mysterious happenings are a part of daily life.  Is a ghost playing the pianoforte at night?  Why isn't Emma allowed into the North wing of the manor?  Who is sneaking into her bedroom, stealing things and leaving frightening messages?  Is that shifty man who occasionally appears at the home a wrecker who watches men die on the rocks then sells their possessions?

Questions, questions.  And, I haven't even addressed the main characters.  Emma and two of the sons, Henry and Phillip, seem to be involved in a love triangle. But, maybe not.  What about the Weston's ward, Lizzie?  Who is she in love with and what is she hiding?  And, ugh, the nasty stepmother who wants to marry off Henry or Phillip to her wealthy friend's eligible daughter!

What I loved about The Tutor's Daughter:

Things happen.  Lots of things happen.  But The Tutor's Daughter is not only plot heavy but also has beautifully developed characters that you'll either love or love to hate and they don't all turn out to be quite what they seem.  There are some truly exciting moments.  Danger!  Action!  The setting in Cornwall is likely the same area you read about in some of Daphne DuMaurier's books, like Jamaica Inn, a dangerous coastline notorious for causing shipwrecks and where "wreckers" would lurk to claim goods from the ships as they washed to shore.

The romance in this novel, such as it is, develops slowly and realistically.  There's the usual, "But, she can't possibly end up with either of the brothers because she's nothing but a lowly tutor's daughter!"  We all know how that always ends, but . . . well, let's just say this is my first book by Julie Klassen but it will definitely not be my last.  I was so impressed.  There are plenty of little twists and turns and surprises.

I think it's worth mentioning that Emma also has a crisis of faith.  One of the characters gets a tiny bit preachy with Emma, but he's genuine about his beliefs and if The Tutor's Daughter didn't happen to be a Bethany House novel, I don't think I'd have given it much thought.  I'm always looking for the God references in Christian publications because I know some people get freaked about about them.  I didn't personally find the Christian aspect dominant although, as I said, the one character does have his moments of preachiness. They tend to occur at times that reflection on faith is common.

What I disliked about The Tutor's Daughter:

I have absolutely nothing to criticize, although a couple Americanisms did manage to sneak into the narrative.  Just a couple.  In general, the dialogue and writing was otherwise utterly convincing - among the best I've read.  I don't think I can take off even a fraction of a point for such slight errors.

The Bottom Line:

5/5 - Highly, Enthusiastically Recommended - A delightful, adventurous, romantic, sometimes creepy, often sweet and refreshingly clean tale with highly-developed characterization, believable dialogue, a rocking fine setting that is well-described, and an extraordinarily satisfying conclusion.

My thanks to Christen at Litfuse for the review copy.

©2013 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

A Darcy Christmas by Grange, Lathan & Eberhart

A Darcy Christmas is a set of three Christmas novellas, all spin-offs of Pride and Prejudice but written by three different authors. I passed up the opportunity to review A Darcy Christmas in 2010 but promptly added the book to my wish list at Paperback Swap. A copy arrived in November, just in time for the Christmas season.

The first of the stories is a Pride & Prejudice version of "A Christmas Carol", in which Fitzwilliam Darcy is visited by the ghosts of Christmases past, present and future. He has given up on Elizabeth Darcy, thanks to pride and hurt feelings. The ghosts naturally convince him that his life will suck without her. I liked the first story, once I managed to shut off my internal editor. Most spin-off authors make mistakes, inserting the occasional modern or even American wording (depending upon the author), so you really have to be able to ignore those things if you want to read a spin-off.

Midway through "Mr. Darcy's Christmas Carol," by Carolyn Eberhart, I was in the groove. The second story is "Christmas Present" by Amanda Grange. It's Christmas season and Elizabeth is heavily pregnant but determined to visit her sister Jane and the newborn Bingley. There's not much to the story, but it's a sweet, lovely tale of a family gathering and new life.

The third novella, "A Darcy Christmas" by Sharon Lathan, is actually a set of short stories about Christmases throughout the years of Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth Darcy's courtship and marriage. It's a good overview of one author's imaginative progression through the lives of the characters.

Each story requires a bit of adjustment as every author endows the various families with a different set of children and her own name choices and some family members may die in one story and reappear in another, but I enjoyed this little tribute to Austen's Pride & Prejudice world. A Darcy Christmas is not, however, a book I will return to. Recommended for fans of Austen who enjoy reading alternate tales of the Pride & Prejudice characters. No previous reading of the authors is necessary.

©2012 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Georgette Heyer's Regency World by Jennifer Kloester

Georgette Heyer's Regency World
by Jennifer Kloester
Copyright 2010
Sourcebooks - History/Reference
374 pages

For those who have never read Georgette Heyer's fiction, Heyer was a prolific author who wrote books set in the Regency period. I'm not sure how many of them I've read -- maybe 5? I've got years and years of Heyer reading ahead of me. Her books are absolutely delightful. Those I've read have been light-hearted, romantic, adventurous reads with only one exception and that particular title leaned toward Gothic.

The problem with Georgette Heyer's books is that she was such a thorough researcher and worked so hard to maintain accuracy that if you don't know your Regency history her books can be a bit baffling, particularly the lingo. I've printed out a few lists of Regency cant and slang to help me with the reading. Like Shakespeare, eventually you will get the drift via context, even if you aren't able to define a word or two or fifty. But, I've wished for a lexicon for quite some time.

Georgette Heyer's Regency World is not a lexicon, although there are sections with definitions. The book, however, goes way beyond simple definitions and serves as an excellent history lesson on the Regency period. It includes such things as methods of transportation and entertainment, styles of both men's and women's clothing, marriage traditions, royalty and other real-life characters and lifestyles of the privileged. Within that text, Kloester uses examples from both real life and Heyer's fiction.

Truly, Georgette Heyer's Regency World is an amazing read. I learned so much about the Regency period that my admiration for Heyer has been multiplied ten-fold and I'm certain that, although I'll undoubtedly refer back to the book, I will go into future Heyer reads with an understanding of the time period that should make her books even more enjoyable.

The bottom line:

Highly, highly recommended for readers of Georgette Heyer's books, particularly those who know little about the Regency time period. My edition is an ARC and the index is not complete (the page numbers for the index portion had not yet been inserted) but the index looks very thorough and should make it an easy reference book. My only complaint -- and it's minor -- is that I would like to see a complete alphabetical lexicon section rather than one divided into topics like money, men's clothing, clubs, sport, etc.

In other news:

Little Isabel is sleeping behind my monitor. I can see her tail and a little bit of white fur body. How cute is that?

My high school is having a reunion, this weekend. It's a big-number reunion. It makes me cringe. I was on the list of "missing students" so I didn't hear about it till yesterday. That's fine. I'm still trying to plow through some books to try to catch up with myself, now that my summer slump appears to have ended and traveling would have nipped that in the bud.

It is still way hot in Mississippi but we've at least dropped from mid-to upper 90's to lower 90's. I'll party when it hits 78. We're also having quite a little drought here. If you know a good rain dance, please feel free to dance for rain for us. Does that work, doing a rain dance for someone else? Maybe I need to get up and dance. Just FYI, I am one awkward dancer. I'd probably end up getting Mother Nature to drop frogs or something.

One for the road: A photo of our little Isabel playing with a ball on her scratching post. When she arrived at our home, she had to climb the scratching post with all four legs to reach the ball. Now, you can see she just stands on her tippy-toes only three weeks after her arrival. She is growing ridiculously fast. I think Fiona wishes she'd hurry up and just turn into a boring old cat, but every day we seem to see a little improvement in their relationship, if that's what you call it.

What exciting things are happening in your world? Read anything fabulous, lately?

©2010 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are not reading this post at Bookfoolery and Babble, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.