Smuggler's Bride by Darlene Marshall
Aug. 6th, 2006 07:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jmc_bksI promised I'd post this the other day, so here it is:
I bought the ebook, Smuggler’s Bride by Darlene Marshall, after reading a review at Smart Bitches. The description intrigued me – a romance novel set in Florida during the 19th century. You don’t see many of those these days in the romance genre.
Set in the swamp and wilderness outside of St. Augustine, Smuggler’s Bride is the story of Rand Washburn and Julia Cooper. Julia is the daughter of the aristocratic owners of Delerue-Sanders, a shipping business based in England. She’s working at Ganymede’s Cup, an inn owned by her “uncles” Richard and Robin, trying to discover who has been hijacking shipments of their goods.
While posing as Julia Cooper, barmaid, she is kidnapped. Her kidnappers are a bit simple; they take her to Rand Washburn – he has been ill, out in the bush, and needs a woman to care for him. Rand is a bit of mystery. Julia had heard his name spoken at the inn, and included him at the top of her list of suspects. He lives on a little freehold settlement, but he isn’t a farmer. He hunts a bit and fishes, as well, but doesn’t seem to work otherwise. How does he manage to live without visible means of support?
Now that Julia is out on his little farm, he can’t take her back to town. So they are stuck together for the time being. They are attracted to each other, but don’t trust one another. And both are lying about who and what they are. Or, if perhaps not lying outright, then not telling each other the complete truth.
After being forced to marry, they settle in and seem to be a more or less happily married couple, with two major caveats. First, they both have reservations about how their new spouse will fit into their real lives when they return to them. And they are still lying to each other about who they are. Julia continues to try to learn about the smuggling that Rand seems to be involved in. Rand keeps trying to learn the truth about Julia and continue with whatever nefarious deeds he is planning. Will they ever figure out how to trust one another and tell the truth?
Ms. Marshall includes many details about the history of Florida, naval life, and the daily life of settlers in colonial Florida. The story manages to include information about geography, history, banking, and politics, without an infodump. It’s all relevant to the plot, and never just blurted out on the page.
I liked the book a great deal -- the setting and plot are quite distinct; the characters likeable; the pacing good. The only knock that I have was against Julia: I thought she was a bit unreasonable. After the truth is revealed, she went on and on about how Rand lied to her . . . without ever once considering that she lied to him, and her lie was no smaller or less important than his.
B+ for me.
I think I did a brief book report (not review) of Marshall’s Captain Sinister’s Lady, which I liked also. And I’m reading The Pirate’s Price, the prequel to Smuggler’s Bride now.
I bought the ebook, Smuggler’s Bride by Darlene Marshall, after reading a review at Smart Bitches. The description intrigued me – a romance novel set in Florida during the 19th century. You don’t see many of those these days in the romance genre.
Set in the swamp and wilderness outside of St. Augustine, Smuggler’s Bride is the story of Rand Washburn and Julia Cooper. Julia is the daughter of the aristocratic owners of Delerue-Sanders, a shipping business based in England. She’s working at Ganymede’s Cup, an inn owned by her “uncles” Richard and Robin, trying to discover who has been hijacking shipments of their goods.
While posing as Julia Cooper, barmaid, she is kidnapped. Her kidnappers are a bit simple; they take her to Rand Washburn – he has been ill, out in the bush, and needs a woman to care for him. Rand is a bit of mystery. Julia had heard his name spoken at the inn, and included him at the top of her list of suspects. He lives on a little freehold settlement, but he isn’t a farmer. He hunts a bit and fishes, as well, but doesn’t seem to work otherwise. How does he manage to live without visible means of support?
Now that Julia is out on his little farm, he can’t take her back to town. So they are stuck together for the time being. They are attracted to each other, but don’t trust one another. And both are lying about who and what they are. Or, if perhaps not lying outright, then not telling each other the complete truth.
After being forced to marry, they settle in and seem to be a more or less happily married couple, with two major caveats. First, they both have reservations about how their new spouse will fit into their real lives when they return to them. And they are still lying to each other about who they are. Julia continues to try to learn about the smuggling that Rand seems to be involved in. Rand keeps trying to learn the truth about Julia and continue with whatever nefarious deeds he is planning. Will they ever figure out how to trust one another and tell the truth?
Ms. Marshall includes many details about the history of Florida, naval life, and the daily life of settlers in colonial Florida. The story manages to include information about geography, history, banking, and politics, without an infodump. It’s all relevant to the plot, and never just blurted out on the page.
I liked the book a great deal -- the setting and plot are quite distinct; the characters likeable; the pacing good. The only knock that I have was against Julia: I thought she was a bit unreasonable. After the truth is revealed, she went on and on about how Rand lied to her . . . without ever once considering that she lied to him, and her lie was no smaller or less important than his.
B+ for me.
I think I did a brief book report (not review) of Marshall’s Captain Sinister’s Lady, which I liked also. And I’m reading The Pirate’s Price, the prequel to Smuggler’s Bride now.
