Kregel Blog Tour: Underestimating Miss Cecelia by Carolyn Miller

Regency Brides: Daughters of Aynsley 1

23rd July 2019, 352 Pages, Kregel Publications 

Print and Ebook 

 Will a shrinking violet and a prodigal son come together to better their world?

Cecilia Hatherleigh has many secrets in her shy, sweet heart--but none bigger than her unrequited love for Edward Amherst, the earl's son next door. Her love has persevered over many years, even when he grows to be a bit of a rake. Yet despite his fondness for females, he never seems to see her as anything more than the quiet younger sister, and nothing Cecy does has changed that. Rather than pining after his perhaps unworthy love, she decides to turn her focus toward living out her newfound faith. Now she's determined to follow God's leading to make a better world for the poor and dispossessed around her.

A London riot awakens Edward to the responsibilities due his family name. It's time to turn his life around to please his noble father--and that means restoring his abandoned legal career and making a marriage of convenience. Neither will be easy, given his past and the prejudices of the upper echelons of society to which he belongs.

When misadventure strikes at a house party, these two are thrown together even as their lives are upended. If Cecy can't trust God, overcome her shyness, and find her inner strength, the good work they've both done may be for naught-and neither will ever find true love . . .

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Another great Regency from Carolyn Miller. Cecelia Aysley, the Middle child of her family is not he shrinking voilet she appears to be, but actually quite a determined young lady with the courage of her convictions. She just needed some encouragement to discover a cause to fight for.

She doesn't give up because it’s easy or comfortable: except in the case of Edward Amburst. I think she gave up on him rather too easily, and because of misunderstandings that could have been easily resolved.

Edward was I think my favourite character: he made a brief appearance in the last novel of the last series 'The Making of Mrs Hale' as a rakish aristocrat who courted scandal by stepping out with a married woman. Now he is transformed and has found faith: with Cecelia's inspiration he decides he wants to help the poor and marginalized people of Regency society. Including Gypsies and Irish migrants.
For much of the book though, Edward believes he must earn forgiveness, from God as well as his family to make up for his past misdeeds. He avoids Cecelia despite feelings for her, because he believes he doesn't deserve happiness.

One of the strengths of this author's books is the way the characters must work through real struggles and problems like this. This theme did allow for adding of certain historical details which enrich this series, including the Peterloo massacre of 1819.
It’s a very good book overall, I just wonder if too much was squeezed into it with all the political events and social commentary. Some of this involved a lot of telling rather that showing, just came across as a bit simplistic or not fully developed. Some events and people were just mentioned for a few scenes and then forgotten about. Perhaps the story was a little too ambitious in blending all the politics with a simple Regency romance.

That romance between Cecelia and Edward was probably the best part of this story, developing and burning slowly. I also enjoyed reading about Ceclia deepening her relationship with her younger sister Verity, seen as the Black Sheep of the family. Apart from Cecelia’s immediate family my only other minor niggle is that there were rather a lot of characters to keep up with in this novel, many of whom enter halfway or two thirds of the way through.
This book was still a four-star read, which fans of Carolyn Miller and Inspirational Regencies will enjoy.

I signed up for the Kregel Blog Tour of this book and was sent a copy. This did not influence my review and all opinions expressed are my own.

First Line Friday: The Number of Love by Roseanna M. White

Welcome back to First Line Fridays here at Romances of the Cross. 

Its been far too hot here in Britain. Yesterday London reached record heights of 38 degrees Centigrade. Which is 100 Degrees in American. Maybe all this staying in will allow for more reading time if the heat persists? I almost hope it doesn't though.

The book I'm featuring today has already been featured by several other members of this group in previous weeks, so not much introduction is necessarily. I will however include a synopsis of this wonderful book.

I love Roseanna White's writing style: descriptive and illustrative with just the right amount of detail. Not enough to bog the reader down, but enough to really create a picture. Add to this fascinating characters and some interesting historical details. I've been lapping up her books since her Ladies of the Manor series concluded 2 years ago. 

Her latest novel, the Number of Love follows Margot de Wilde, a minor character from the second book in her last Shadows Over England series, which came out in the spring of 2018. 

Three years into the Great War, England's greatest asset is their intelligence network--field agents risking their lives to gather information, and codebreakers able to crack every German telegram. Margot De Wilde thrives in the environment of the secretive Room 40, where she spends her days deciphering intercepted messages. But when her world is turned upside down by an unexpected loss, for the first time in her life numbers aren't enough.

Drake Elton returns wounded from the field, followed by an enemy who just won't give up. He's smitten quickly by the intelligent Margot, but how can he convince a girl who lives entirely in her mind that sometimes life's answers lie in the heart?

Amid biological warfare, encrypted letters, and a German spy who wants to destroy not just them but others they love, Margot and Drake will have to work together to save themselves from the very secrets that brought them together.

My First Line today comes from Chapter 13. I'm working my way through the Audiobook, because I only have a Netgalley version on My Kindle, I didn't download it onto my computer. 

 "Look Sharp Men!" One of the patients who was a day or so away from being released back to his unit scurried into the ward.

Now You Can Join In. Comment with your own First Line, or Click the Link to see what other members of the group are reading. 

 

She Walks in Love by Marylu Tyndall

Protectors of the Spear #2

310 Pages, June 17th 2019, Ransom Press

Print and Ebook  

 She must protect the Spear of Destiny at all costs
He must bring the lady safely home
But the powers of darkness chasing them have other ideas

Lady Cristiana D'Clere, the new protector of the Spear, is on the run from the steward of her estate, who has kept her drugged for years. All she ever wanted was to be safe, marry well, and raise a bevy of wee ones. Instead, she is far from home, chased by men intent on killing her and stealing the Spear of Christ for its incredible powers.

Sir Jarin the Just has never forgotten the woman who stirred his heart like no other. Determined to find and restore her to her proper place as Lady of Luxley Castle, he sets out on a journey fraught with more dangers than he ever could have foreseen. The biggest danger is to his heart, for he has vowed to remain unfettered and never surrender his freedom to a woman.

Though the Spear protects the couple along their journey, Cristiana must learn to trust the One whose blood stains the relic, while Jarin must learn to rely on powers far above his own knightly skills. For the dark magic that is chasing them may take all the powers of heaven to defeat. 

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

3 Stars is the highest rating I've ever given a novel by this author. Its not that I've got anything against her personally, its just that I really didn't care for the other books of hers I've read. I borrowed this one on Kindle Unlimited because read the first novel in the series 3 years ago.

On the plus side, this was an enjoyable and adventurous story about good vs. evil and spiritual warfare. The faith themes about forgiveness and repentance are very strong and unequivocal, and that's not a bad thing: I just don't think this story needed 310 pages to be told.

I also commend the author for the note in the front, which clearly states this story is fantasy, and advises readers against learning history from it. Good on her. Many authors aren't that upfront and the setting confuses readers into thinking its 'real' history or an accurate representation of the historical past in a certain country. Honestly its needed because the story is anything but historically and culturally accurate.

My first issue the story is written in a sort of pseudo-archaic language that I think was intended to make the dialogue seem more authentic, but instead just makes the story read as clunky and frankly rather strange in places.
Is 'nimbycock' even a real word? And what on earth does 'peace froth' mean? The characters keep coming out with that kind of thing, presumably as a clean Christian alternative to actual swearing. The other problem is that the archaisms are in the narration: not just the dialog.

Second, I am going to avoid a History Lesson about a fantasy novel, but I'm going to comment on several details which I felt were plain silly.
To start with Leather clothing and armour. The makers of TV shows and movies ignore historical accuracy and dress characters in historical Dramas in leather outfits because it looks cool. Novelists don't need to do this.
So why do the characters clad head to toe in leather like some kind of Medieval biker gang?

One of them wears what is called a 'leather hauberk'. I know what a hauberk is: and they're not made of leather.
Google it, its defined as long tunic of chain mail. Metal armour is generally better than leather, but the characters don't seem to have grasped this. Especially when they wear plate armour that apparently has convenient joins in it above the chest. No solid metal breastplates there.

In some places, in does become clear that the author has done historical research, such as the use of the odd Latin terms or phrases, but in other places, I just despaired.   

 
Almost everyone is sick or dressed in rags. Every single village is filthy and squalid and smells of 'rotten meat' and other disgusting things. No: its well known that Medieval people preserved their meat by salting or smoking, or else they just ate it long before it went rotten. And seriously, anyone who keeps pigs could tell you they have to be kept in a pen: Medieval people had enough sense to realize they could not just let large and potentially aggressive animals run amok in the streets among children. Give them some credit Mrs Tyndall. My Medieval forbears were not barbarians who wallowed in mud with pigs, as this novel literally makes out. 

 
I get it. Medieval fiction is just an excuse for prolonged descriptions of filth and nastiness, but really. At least make it plausible. I mean how is it that every single building the characters are in smells of mould and filth except- the cave they live in where they store an array of books. Books that would have been written on parchment (sheep skin), which is very vulnerable to mould and damp? 

 

Also, although I don't mean to be disrespectful and I do believe in miracles and angels and the like, I think these things were overdone. Half of this novel literally read like an extended commentary of a healing crusade by a modern charismatic televangelist.
With the characters travelling from place to place, and Christiana using The Spear to heal people of every illness or malady known to man from plague to syphilis (apparently there weren't many healthy people in them bad ol' Medieval days), all the while reminding them that God loves them and cares for them. Yeah, but Medieval people did believe in the healing power of relics, but I guess that's a bit too much like Catholicism, and makes modern people feel uncomfortable. 

Finally, I felt that Jarin's reasons for turning his back on his faith were really cliched. Its obvious it was only set up that way to allow for his salvation and reconciliation to Christ at the end. OK, yes, authors need to be relevant, and it makes Jarin's character arc more interesting, but I think this has become an overused formula.    

So its kind of enjoyable as a fantasy novel, but there were things that could have been a lot better. The author has done her best, but I think she made some rather poor choices with this novel. However, I enjoyed it more than the 3 other books I've read of hers. So that's something

The Noble Guardian by Michelle Griep

Bow Street Runners #3

Shiloh Run Press, June 1st 2019,  320 Pages

Print, Ebook and Audio 

 A Cross-Country Trip through Regency England Brings Intrigue, Rogues, and High Adventure 

Life couldn’t be better for Abigail Gilbert—but it’s been a long time coming. Having lived with a family who hated her, love is finally within reach. Abby sets off on a journey across England to marry one of the most prestigious gentleman bachelors in the land—until highwaymen upset her plans and threaten her life.

Horse patrol captain Samuel Thatcher arrives just in time to save Abby. But to him she’s simply another victim in a job he’s come to despise. Tired of the dark side of humanity, he intends to buy land and retire.

Abby pleads with him to escort her on the rest of her journey. He refuses until she offers him the thing he desperately needs to achieve his goal: money. Delivering her safely will earn him more than enough to settle into a quiet life.

So begins an impossible trek for the cynical lawman and the proper lady. Each will be indelibly changed by the time they reach her betrothed, if they don’t kill one another first—or fall in love.

My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

 
Its very rare to find a novel in this genre that shows the male hero on the front. Usually, they depict women in posh frocks, but I think the cover image fits the story. Michelle Griep doesn't write typical quaint Regencies: they usually delve into some aspect of social life, or little known historical details. In this series, its the Bow Street Runners, the forerunners of the modern police force.

There aren't many ballrooms, dances or parlours to be had here. Instead the Noble Guardian follows Daniel Thatcher and Abigail Gilbert on a journey across the country with every problem conceivable (and some more inconceivable) thrown at them along the way: bad weather, highwaymen, unreliable staff and guides. Much of the action takes places in Coaching Inns, an important part of the transport network before railways: peopled with some very colourful characters both savoury and unsavoury.

Daniel and Abby were both well written characters, a perfect contrast to each other. With Daniel's icy, no-nonsense cynicism coming up against Abby's sunny and optimistic personality.
Abby, despite her difficult family life tries to see the best in everything: although I think at time this made her too trusting and naive, even when it was obvious something bad was going to happen she's barrel straight into the situation.
Daniel I think was better developed. He could easily have become a common trope of the inspirational genre: the essentially admirable character rejected belief/lost their faith because of bad things happening and has to be bought around by the heroine. Daniel is not that. Despite being jaded, he does retain a strong faith throughout.

Also, whilst the Noble Guardian is a rollicking good read, full of romance and adventure, the plot is sort of contrived, and there are a lot of romantic tropes, as another reviewer has mentioned. Whilst the activities of the highwaymen added excitement and drama aplenty to the story, the secondary villain was just flat. More of a caricature and it was so predictable he would turn out to be that way.

My only other objection was that there were a couple of scenes that had this Brit cringing. I've mentioned before that one of my pet peeves in many Christian Fiction novels is social conventions, customs or little cultural details which are wrong.
One of the most common mistakes American authors make with the British setting, is having characters eating with only a fork in the American manner.
Nope. The social convention in Britain is to use a knife and fork. Now, I can overlook that if its only the odd passing reference, but here it was mentioned several times, and once apparently in the context of dining in a grand house among the gentry. There's no way the 19th century British aristocracy would have eaten that way.

I would recommend this to fans of the author and the genre with some reservations. I think its better to read this as part of the trilogy, and not just pick this one up first.

I requested a PDF of this title from Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions expressed are my own

First Line Friday: She Walks in Love by Marylu Tyndall

My first post for a few weeks. I have an excuse. Last week I was commuting and then staying with a relative.
Deciding which book to include today has been a bit difficult. I was going to do The Number of Love by Roseanna M White, but another person in this group has included that book.

So, I'm going to include another book which I have started reading on Kindle Unlimited. Its Marylu Tyndall's latest She Walks in Love, which is a Medieval Fantasy Romance.


I have to confess, I've haven't liked the novels I've read from this author before, but I thought I would give this one a try, especially since I borrowed it for free.

I don't much care for the quaint, pseudo archaic language used in the narration, and in the blurb (below the graphic) although I understand its used to try and make the story seem more ''authentic".

My First Line is from Chapter Eight  

 She must protect the Spear of Destiny at all costs

He must bring the lady safely home

But the powers of darkness chasing them have other ideas

Lady Cristiana D'Clere, the new protector of the Spear, is on the run from the steward of her estate, who has kept her drugged for years. All she ever wanted was to be safe, marry well, and raise a bevy of wee ones. Instead, she is far from home, chased by men intent on killing her and stealing the Spear of Christ for its incredible powers.

Sir Jarin the Just has never forgotten the woman who stirred his heart like no other. Determined to find and restore her to her proper place as Lady of Luxley Castle, he sets out on a journey fraught with more dangers than he ever could have foreseen. The biggest danger is to his heart, for he has vowed to remain unfettered and never surrender his freedom to a woman.

Though the Spear protects the couple along their journey, Cristiana must learn to trust the One whose blood stains the relic, while Jarin must learn to rely on powers far above his own knightly skills. For the dark magic that is chasing them may take all the powers of heaven to defeat.

Don't Forget to Click the Meme to see what everyone else is reading.  Or share your Own First Line 

The Heir of Logres by Suzannah Rowntree

The Heir of Logres #3

May 13th 2019, 174 Pages, Ebook 

 Camelot is falling. Can she save it?

Blanche braved the perilous realm of Logres. She survived Morgan le Fay’s assassins. She saved the Holy Grail from desecration.
Now she’s all set to face the court of Camelot and claim her rightful place as Blanchefleur, King Arthur’s daughter and the heir of Logres.

Until disaster strikes. Queen Guinevere is accused of adultery, throwing Blanche’s parentage into doubt...and plunging the kingdom into a civil war which could destroy everything she has come to love.

As the Round Table splinters, young Sir Perceval is torn between Sir Gawain, the father he idolises and Blanche, the lady he loves. Justice demands he take a side and fight against his swordbrothers. Will Gawain ever forgive him...or will Perceval have to fight his father, too?

When they learn that a single shadowy figure has been steering Logres toward destruction, Blanche and Perceval have just one chance to save Arthur’s kingdom. But as they try to unearth their enemy, courtiers and knights whisper the deepest, darkest secret of all.

Even if Camelot could be saved, is Blanche the one to do it?

Or is someone else the Pendragon’s heir?

 My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Heir of Logres provided a beautiful and suitably epic ending for Suzannah Rowntree's retelling of the Arthurian Legends 'The Pendragon's Heir'. It comes with generous helpings of romance, twists and turns, and some unexpected allies.

Its Camelot, but perhaps not quite as we would know it: Mordred, Lancelot, Percival and Morgan le Fey are here, but their roles and personalities might not quite be what we have come to expect. Above all I think Heir of Logres was a story about new beginnings, second chances and redemption. One of my favourite quotes was:
“Tell us not to burn down a house before a better can be built. Tell us not to despise the day of small beginnings, or consider ourselves less fallible than our fathers.” 

Modern people too often have the tendency to think we are better and superior than those who came before, and that we can build a perfect world by sweeping away the imperfect. How wrong we have been.

So really, I would conclude that this novel, and the Trilogy it concludes is an Arthurian retelling which has important resonances and carries lessons for a modern audience. The author has done a fabulous job of retelling the Medieval source material. Well and truly recommended.

I signed up to be an Advanced Reader of this title, I was not required to write a review and all opinions expressed are my own.