Penelope Williamson’s ONCE IN A BLUE MOON – Heart-rending Story of a Truly Great Love!

If you've read Keeper of the Dream, you're already a fan of Penelope Williamson. Once in a Blue Moon, which was her next book is equally wonderful—and it’s one of my Top 20. It's the story of unrequited love that refuses to die no matter the tests it must endure. And nobody does unrequited love like Williamson.

 

The story was inspired by the love of Williamson’s grandparents who were kept apart for 6 years, but then came together to love for another 65 years. Here’s what she had to say about them (get out the Kleenex):

 

“It was in 1902 that Elizabeth and Peter first met and fell in love. But Elizabeth’s father forbade the match for six long years, until Peter could prove himself good enough for his daughter. Together at last, they had nine children and sixty-five wonderful years as husband and wife. They died in their nineties, within two years of each other, as much in love as they had always been. A love that wouldn’t give up…”

 

The story of ONCE IN A BLUE MOON begins in 1815 when Jessalyn Letty is 16—a wild flame-haired girl raised by her grandmother on the Cornish highlands above the sea, a young woman of character with a brave heart that never varies throughout the story. I loved her for that.

 

While Jessalyn is still a tall gawky teenager, she meets McCady Trelawny, then in his early 20s, and the youngest brother of the infamous Trelawny noblemen, known for living lives of debauchery and dying young and in debt. McCady was wounded while becoming a war hero defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. He returns home to Cornwall with a vision for a steam locomotive that can carry passengers, but he’s too poor to invest much in the idea. His cousin, Clarence, who could be his illegitimate half-brother, joins McCady in the venture, but stands in McCady's shadow, determined to one day gain great wealth that will bring him the status he craves and the woman he wants—Jessalyn.

 

But once Jessalyn meets McCady, her heart is lost forever to the handsome dark-haired rogue. And McCady wants Jessalyn but he is too poor to have her and too honorable to take what he knows she would give. Jessalyn’s love will be tested by years of separation and so much more as the story transitions into the early Victorian era.

This is a compelling, well-told tale with many twists and turns, all woven in with great characters and details set against the vivid beauty of Cornwall. You will feel like you're living it. You will laugh at Jessalyn’s 16-year-old antics, and you will cry as you endure her years of loving and losing McCady.

 

You simply must read this one. Trust me, you won't be disappointed! It’s a keeper and a classic.