Review: Behind the Scenes by Jen Turano

A New Series from Jen Turano

Jen Turano is one of my favourite Christian historical romance authors. I love her characters, her witty dialogue, and the underlying truth (Truth) in her novels. And Behind the Scenes is no exception.

The main character is the unfortunately named Miss Permilia Griswold, member of New York’s elite, and well-known (or perhaps unknown) wallflower. The story starts at the famous 1883 costume ball given by Mr and Mrs William Vanderbilt II, an event which let the media into New York society for the first time, for better or worse. The descriptions of the ball are excellent, and my initial suspicions that the descriptions might have been a little over-the-top were allayed when I did a little research. If anything, Behind the Scenes is understated.


The story has touches of Cinderella, with Permilia as the motherless girl, a self-centred stepmother and an even more self-centred step-sister, an absent but loving father, and Mr Asher Rutherford, the owner of one of New York’s biggest department stores, as Prince Charming.

But there is also a suspense element, after Permilia overhears a death threat against Mr Rutherford … and he doesn’t believe her. This leads a quirky troupe of characters on what is best described as a merry chase as Permilia and Asher spend more and more time together as they attempt to find the source of the threat.

My one issue was that there were parts of the story I didn't quite understand, almost as if I'd missed something ... I had. I'd missed At Your Request, the free novella introducing this new series (partly because the novella didn't release until January 2017 and I couldn't resist reading this as soon as the review copy was available. In December 2016). Anyway, I suggest you don't make the same mistake.


Recommended for fans of witty historical romance.

Thanks to Bethany House and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

Review: A Hope Unseen by Nerys Leigh

Excellent!

The first book in this series, No One’s Bride, was one of the best books I read in 2016, so author Nerys Leigh had a keen volunteer when she was looking for reviewers for A Hope Unseen, the second novel in her Escape to the West series … but she’d also given herself a hard act to follow.

But she managed it.

Sara Worthing wants a marriage where she is loved for herself, not for her dowry. She becomes engaged to Daniel Raine, a man she has met only through his letters but who she is confident doesn’t want her for her money. When she meets she is pleased to find he’s as attractive in person as he was in his letters. And he seems just as attracted to her.

But, at the risk of using a cliché, the course of true love never did run smooth and it’s practically a rule of romance novels that trouble must come. As it does. And while I’m not going to spoil the story by telling you what happens, I will say it was great to see both characters turn to and rely on God in their difficulties.

Despite the romance, I think my favourite character was Will, Daniel’s brother who lives on the farm with Daniel and Sara. He is a loveable reprobate who provides a lot of the comic relief in the drama with lines like this:

I do hope Will gets his own happy-ever-after at some point in the series …

The unusual thing about this series is that the books aren’t sequential – A Hope Unseen takes place on the exact same timeline as No One’s Bride. This does provide a few moments of confusion when it references No One’s Bride—while I thought it was excellent, I don’t remember every plot detail and I’ve read dozens of books since then. On the plus side, this concurrent setting means it doesn’t matter what order you read the books in.

Recommended for fans of Christian Western romances, especially mail order bride stories.

Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review.

Review: A Loyal Heart by Shelley Gray

Not Gray's Best

Amazon Description

Robert came to Galveston to fulfill his promise to a dying man and look after his widow. He didn’t expect to find love in the unlikeliest of places.

Robert Truax, former Second Lieutenant and Confederate officer in the Civil War, made a promise to his comrade Phillip Markham. If anything happened to Phillip, Robert would look after his beloved wife, Miranda. She was his life, his world, his everything.

After the war, Robert is left to pick up the pieces and fulfill his pact. When he arrives at Miranda's home in Galveston, Texas, things are worse than he imagined. Phillip's name has been dragged through the mud, everyone in town believes him to be a traitor, and his widow is treated as an outcast. Even more disturbing is her emotional well-being. Miranda seems hopeless, lost, and so very alone.

Robert had thought his duty would be simple. He would help Miranda as quickly as possible in order to honor a promise. But the moment Robert laid eyes on her, his plans changed. He's mesmerized by her beauty and yearns to help her in any way he can.

He makes it his duty to protect Miranda, turn her reputation around, and to find some way to help her smile again. But it doesn't prove to be an easy task—Robert knows something about Phillip that could shake Miranda to the core and alter her view of the man she thought she knew so well.

My Review

Shelley Shephard Gray writes Amish fiction under her full name, and historical romance with a touch of suspense as Shelley Gray. I’m not a fan of Amish fiction so haven’t read any of those, but I’ve read several of her previous historical romance novels and been impressed. I watch out for her new Shelley Gray releases, and was pleased to be given the opportunity to review A Loyal Heart.

But I have to say it wasn’t up to the standard I have come to expect from Shelley Gray (or from her publisher, Zondervan). The plot was an excellent combination of romance and suspense, but I was underwhelmed by the plot twist which revealed who was behind the threatening letters widow Miranda Markham had been receiving for the last year, and that meant the novel ended with less than a bang.

I also wasn’t impressed by the editing. There were spelling mistakes, a couple of irritating anachronisms (especially strange, as Gray’s books are usually well researched), and lots of annoying dialogue tags—which perhaps shouldn’t have distracted me, but they did. I was left wondering if I was reading a pre-proofed review copy (which I sometimes do get, but which are usually marked as such). If not, are the spelling and writing errors the fault of the author, or of the editor and publisher?

So while the plot and writing weren't up to the high standard I expect from the author and publisher, the characters were excellent. Miranda Markham blossomed as she got to know Lt Robert Truax, who was a true hero and proved that there is more than being a gentleman than being born into money and influence. I found the growing romance between the two as interesting as the suspense plot, but the romance had a better and more believable resolution.

Thanks to Zondervan and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

Review: A Haven on Orchard Lane by Lawana Blackwell

Definitely Lives Up To Expectations

Amazon Description

Much-Loved Lawana Blackwell Delivers Another Charming Victorian-Era Tale

In difficult circumstances, Charlotte Ward, once a famed stage actress, tries to restart her career--only to experience disaster. Against her better judgment, her estranged daughter, Rosalind, comes to her mother's rescue and moves her to a quiet English coastal village.

Charlotte is grateful to get to know Rosalind after years apart. As one who has regrets about her own romantic past, it's a joy for Charlotte to see love blossom for her daughter. For Rosalind, however, it's time away from teaching--and now she must care for the mother who wasn't there for her. And what could be more complicated than romance?

Together, mother and daughter discover that healing is best accomplished when they focus less on themselves and more on the needs of others.

My Review

It’s been years since I read a Lawana Blackwell novel, but I loved her Gresham Chronicles and am thrilled to report that Orchard Lane in Stilwell, Devon, has all the charm of Gresham, and the characters are just as engaging.

Charlotte has been successful professionally, but has not made good choices in terms of relationships. Despite these hardships, she has retained her Christian faith and the desire to reunite with her one child, daughter Rosalind.

Rosalind had a difficult upbringing but has finally found her place as a teacher in a famed school for girls, and doesn’t care for this forced reunion with her estranged mother. But both women come to appreciate the attributes of the other, and to reach out to those around them.

Lawana Blackwell has never written “typical” romances. She always has a combination of older and younger characters (although, as one character takes great pleasure in pointing out, even twenty-seven-year-old daughter Rosalind is rather too old to attract male attention. Blackwell also shows characters who prefer to live out their Christian faith rather than merely talking about it. Her heroines show grace and kindness despite the hardships they’ve overcome, and it’s great to read.

If there is an overall theme to A Haven on Orchard Lane, it’s marry in haste, repent at leisure, as so many of the marriage relationships are sour and controlling, a result of marrying for the wrong reasons. Or perhaps the theme is marry for character and love, not money and title—as seems to be the common factor in the sour relationships.

I hope this is the beginning of a new series—I'd like to read more about the inhabitants of Stilwell. Recommended for historical romance fans.

Thanks to Bethany House and NetGalley for providing an ebook for review.

Review: Flirtation Walk by Siri Mitchell

Funny, Sad and Uplifting Historical Romance

Seth Westcott is the top cadet in his year at West Point Military Academy, a rank which sees him destined for a coveted position in the Corps of Engineers. When he finds his sister has been swindled of the money from the sale of their family farm, he decides a cavalry posting out West would be a better idea . . . somewhere he can protect his sister, and hunt down the swindler. To do that, he’s going to have to become an Immortal—ranked at the bottom of the class.

When Miss Lucinda Pennyworth’s father dies, she goes to stay with family in Buttermilk Falls, near the military academy where her uncle lectures. Here she learns that some of what her father told her over the years wasn’t true, and she begins to question the values he raised her with, and his views on the military . . . and on God.

Lucinda finds herself having to learn a new set of rules, rules in which she considers others and doesn’t do everything to best meet her own needs, but considers the needs of others and the lessons mistakes can sometimes teach us. It’s not an easy journey, especially as many of her father’s philosophies and sayings are as real in 2016 as they were for Lucinda in 1855:

“Most people are waiting for someone to give them hope. If you can do that, then they’re more than happy to give you their money in exchange.”

That might be true, but it doesn’t make it right. Lucinda also learns she doesn’t have to look and be perfect all the time:

“I would think that would be tiring, trying to make sure you were perfect all the time.”

Perhaps. But even today many people fall into the trap of believing that it’s enough to look perfect and behave properly, that our underlying motivations and beliefs are less important than the image we project. (Social media doesn’t help this perception, when people curate their lives to only show the nice bits). While this isn’t necessarily a Christian message, it’s still a strong message, one worth thinking about, and Flirtation Walk did it well. I’ve found some of Siri Mitchell’s novels push a theme at the expense of the story, but this didn’t.

I liked the way Flirtation Walk emphasised that God is a god of love, not rules, but I would have liked to have seen the characters show some faith in God, rather than merely attending church (which seemed to be more of doing the right thing). But I did like the overall theme about the balance between obeying the rules and doing the right thing.

Thanks to Baker Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

Read the first chapter here: