Book Review - Discerning Grace (Book One of The White Sails Series) by Emma Lombard @LombardEmma @maryanneyarde

 

Discerning Grace
(Book One of The White Sails Series)
By Emma Lombard

Publication Date: 22 February 2021 Page Length: 372 pages

Genre: Historical Women’s Fiction

As the first full-length novel in The White Sails Series, DISCERNING GRACE captures the spirit of an independent woman whose feminine lens blows the ordered patriarchal decks of a 19th century tall ship to smithereens.

Wilful Grace Baxter, will not marry old Lord Silverton with his salivary incontinence and dead-mouse stink. Discovering she is a pawn in an arrangement between slobbery Silverton and her calculating father, Grace is devastated when Silverton reveals his true callous nature.

Refusing this fate, Grace resolves to stow away. Heading to the docks, disguised as a lad to ease her escape, she encounters smooth-talking naval recruiter, Gilly, who lures her aboard HMS Discerning with promises of freedom and exploration in South America.

When Grace's big mouth lands her bare-bottomed over a cannon for insubordination, her identity is exposed. The captain wants her back in London but his orders, to chart the icy archipelago of Tierra del Fuego, forbid it. Lieutenant Seamus Fitzwilliam gallantly offers to take Grace off the fretting captain's hands by placing her under his protection.

Grace must now win over the crew she betrayed with her secret, while managing her feelings towards her taciturn protector, whose obstinate chivalry stifles her new-found independence. But when Grace disregards Lieutenant Fitzwilliam's warnings about the dangers of the unexplored archipelago, it costs a friend his life and she realises she is not as free as she believes.

Book Rating:

📚📚📚📚📚⭐ = A book in a million

📚📚📚📚📚 = I could not put this book down. I Highly Recommend.

📚📚📚📚 = A really great read.

📚📚📚 = It was enjoyable.

📚📚 = It was okay.

📚 = Um...! 😕

My Review

Discerning Grace

📚📚📚📚

Grace Baxter has fled her parent’s house, for they are forcing her to marry Lord Silverton. Lord Silverton has already assaulted her once, but Grace is determined never to give him a second opportunity. Disguised as a boy, Grace has no idea where to go. By chance, she runs into Lambert McGilney, a man who won’t take no for an answer. And before she knows what is what, Grace becomes a cabin boy on HMS Discerning!

This novel has a little of everything. In Lord Silverton, Lombard has given her readers a frightening antagonist who will stop at nothing to get what he wants—and he wants Grace. His cruelty is a stark contrast to Lieutenant Seamus Fitzwilliam, who falls in love with this courageous stowaway! And then there is Grace, the protagonist of this tale. Grace is young and naive, which makes her decisions seemingly rash and she certainly does not think through her actions and what consequences they could have on others. So it did take me a little time to warm to her. There were also a few moments in this novel that left me feeling a little bemused. For example, nothing is mentioned of her monthly menstruation when she is a cabin boy, nor is it explained how she hides the fact that she has a very feminine body and nor does she try to lower her voice. But I decided to just go with the story and imagined it as if it were a movie—they very rarely mention such things either.

Putting that aside, I thought the story was very compelling, especially the second half the novel when she crosses paths with O’Reilly. The story then really took off, and I could not turn the pages fast enough, and the ending, although not left on a cliffhanger, does hint that fate has not finished with Grace just yet.

I thought Discerning Grace was an enjoyable read, especially the second half of the book, and I shall certainly be looking out for more books by this author.

You can pick up your copy of this book at your favourite digital bookstore here!

Emma Lombard was born in Pontefract in the UK. She grew up in Africa—calling Zimbabwe and South Africa home for a few years—before finally settling in Brisbane Australia, and raising four boys. Before she started writing historical fiction, she was a freelance editor in the corporate world, which was definitely not half as exciting as writing rollicking romantic adventures. Her characters are fearless seafarers, even though in real life Emma gets disastrously sea sick. Discerning Grace, is the first book in The White Sails Series.

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