Review: Stunning imagery, fascinating history!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 15, 2013
From the first page of this story, I knew I was not going to be able to put this book down. We begin on the savage Cornish coast with intrigue, danger and unanswered questions. Then move to the opulent ballrooms of the Ton. Selina Rosewall, an intelligent, artistic merchant seaman's daughter, begrudgingly attends a ball to celebrate the homecoming of Lord Penventen. Her sole purpose of attending is to assist her brother to further his business ventures and to engage in stimulating dinner conversation with the likes of Prime Minister Pitt and William Wilberforce. But a waltz in the arms of the handsome Lord Penventen stirs her heart to desire more than a dull future working as a lady's companion; although her head demands she repel his advances. Not least of all because he is all but engaged to the treacherous Lady Abigail, who will stop at nothing to get what she wants: Lord Penventen.Don't be fooled into thinking this is a light-hearted romance set in a historical period. The burgeoning love of the hero and heroine is set in an impeccably researched heaving political time for both France and England where post-revolutionary unrest in France, stirred to a fever pitch by the cult of Reason, spills over to England. Where lies, treachery and deceit are rife and not even one's closest acquaintances can be trusted. Carter's characters are deeply embroiled in the dangerous game of maintaining political balance while being one step ahead of those committed to betrayal and self-gain. The settings in both England and France are so vivid and real, you can smell and touch the streets of Paris, the wild coast of Cornwall and envisage the magnificence of the ballrooms alive with the shimmer of ballgowns in candlelight. The edge-of-seat adventure and intrigue did not abate until the last page.This impressive debut novel provides adventure, love, intrigue and a large dollop of history - thoroughly recommended for lovers of books that provide a feast for the reader.