I really enjoyed this book.

Most of my review will be in the "further comments" section so it qualifies for Dragon Vale rewards.

"Bestselling author Carla Kelly’s Regency seriesThe Channel Fleet continues, and the life-and-death stakes couldn’t be higher for this dashing naval hero!

Return to her respectable life…

Or take a scandalous path to marriage?

As her snobbish aunt’s companion, penniless vicar’s daughter Jerusha Langley is sent to take a donation to the local naval hospital. There she meets dashing surgeon Jamie Wilson and embarks on a secret mission—sneaking out to help him care for injured sailors!

With his life in peril fighting Napoleon, Jamie has never considered taking a wife, yet he’s impressed by Jerusha’s nursing ability—and beauty inside and out. Jamie knows she’s risking a scandal by helping him. Can he risk his heart and save her reputation with a marriage offer?

From Harlequin Historical: Your romantic escape to the past." Quoted material is from the book's Amazon page.

People who like history, romantic stories, details about what it might have been like on the British Navy's side of the war against Napoleon.

I liked most everything, except as outlined in the next section.

There were a couple times when the heroine was out of character. Even though it was true, insulting her brother seemed like not a good fit for the virtuous woman she was.

Read something happier - not that this wasn't great, but I cried a lot.

All the feelings.

About the Author: "I'm a long-time, award-winning novelist, perhaps best known for my Regency Romances, two of which have earned Rita Awards from Romance Writers of America. I've also been writing Mormon-themed novels, as well as historical fiction for Harlequin and CamelPress in Seattle. I have three Whitney Awards from LDStorymakers, and two Spur Awards from Western Writers of America, plus a Lifetime Achievement Award from Romantic Times (which makes me feel like I have one foot in the grave).

Current works available now are "The Christmas Angle," from A Country Christmas; "A Christmas Dance with the Rancher," from Harlequin's Western Christmas Proposals, and For This We Are Soldiers: Tales of the Frontier Army.

Out in February will be the fourth and final book in the Spanish Brand Series: "The Star in the Meadow." In March will be "Courting Carrie in Wonderland" for Cedar Fort, which I am writing now.

I'll soon be starting a series set at St. Edmunds School in Portsmouth, England in 1803, a direct result of my short story, "The Christmas Angle," which is newly available in A Country Christmas. I discovered I couldn't let go of those interesting characters.

I love to write. The whole process still fascinates me, even after many novels and short stories, and some non-fiction work. I'm still learning with every book."

It was great.

It gets gory at times. Of course, war is gory.

I borrowed this book from my local library. I was expecting a bit of fluff and a happy romance. What I got was an amazing novel that, by the time the heroine was volunteering at the Naval hospital, totally brought me in and engaged all my emotions. I didn't realize Harlequin published books of this kind.

This book is set in the Regency era. It told the romantic story between Jerusha, a, English lady but poor and with no dowry, and a family that was horrid to her and others, even though her father was a vicar, and Jamie, son of a working Scot who grew up to become a surgeon in the British Navy.

Jamie and Jerusha first met when she was about nine years old and he rescued her from drowning in a pond and told her to learn to swim.

Her parents repaid his kindness by slandering him and getting his father fired.

Years later, they meet again when she brings a charity basket to the Navel hospital on the orders of her selfish aunt, who had drafted her into servitude and decided that delivering such a basket was beneath her but wanted the social credit for it.

I don't want to spoil the romance or story... so I'll sum up the rest by saying Jerusha ends up volunteering and the things she learns and experiences and her tender heart were all amazing to me.

Then she has some experiences I never would have predicted that were amazing to read about (at least for me).

History was probably my least favorite subject in high school, and I'm an American, so I am especially impressed that this author drew me in so thoroughly to her story.

I'd not read a book by this author before but after reading this one I went and requested the other two books of hers that my library has.

I think it was 377 pages long. It's not a short read, but it's a good one.

And it wasn't all tears and drama. I laughed out loud a few times too.

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Created Sep 02, 2024 at 7:51pm • Submit your own review...