Julie Wright’s A CAPTAIN FOR CAROLINE GRAY – A Bluestocking Sails from Regency London to India to Find Love

  

Set in the early 19^th century in the Regency era, this is the story of Caroline Gray, whose outspoken opinions and well-displayed knowledge kept her from finding a proper husband. Due to her family’s sudden dwindling income, she is offered only one way out—to sail to India where a man waits who her family approves of. She boards a ship (named Persistence, but never described) with other young women on the same path.

Captain Thomas Scott commands one of the ships of the Fishing Fleet (“fishing” as in brides fishing for husbands). The voyages pay well, but he questions why families would allow young women to be matched with total strangers so far away, and he finds most of the young ladies insipid.

Caroline is the first woman to catch Thomas’ eye. He likes that she has a brain and can converse on many subjects. But the rest of the passengers are shocked by her behavior and Caroline finds herself an outcast, except for two other young women who become her friends.

 

The story is well written, the scenario plausible, and the jealousy of other women believable. But the story before they reach India, it could have moved along at a faster pace and could have had more atmospherics. There is no sense of being on a ship, no creaking of timbers, no rolling and pitching on the open ocean, no difficulty getting up and down ship ladders in long gowns, and save one day, almost no weather. This despite the fact they sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, which is famous for its storms and heavy seas.

 

The young ladies—never on a ship before—never get seasick, never have difficulty walking on a moving deck. They might as well have been in a hotel. There was one storm where everyone got wet, but for the most part, there are very few descriptions of the sea...which seemed unrealistic. Also, in the early 19th century, while passenger ships from London to India used lookout platforms, they were generally called tops or crosstrees, not crow’s nests, a term used for observation capsules on whaling ships.

 

Two-thirds of the way through the story, they get to India and the pace picks up. Caroline meets the man who is waiting for her, a nefarious captain aligned with bad guys bent on revenge against Thomas. There are some exciting scenes that lead to the satisfying romantic conclusion.

 

Review: Meredith Duran’s THE DUKE OF SHADOWS - Stunning, Complex Love Story Will Sweep You Away to India!

Let me say at the outset, I loved this book. It kept me reading late, late into the night, so you know it's intriguing. It's also different, an emotionally rich tale of love lost and found, set in India (and London) in 1857 and 1861. But I wasn't far into the first half when I realized I needed the following: (1) a glossary (for terms like patois, zenana, sepoy and grisaille), (2) an Urdu-English dictionary (or at least a translation of the phrases and dialog in that language), and (3) a map of India. If she ever does a deluxe edition, I recommend she include those things. But even without them, the story was amazing, more complex than her others.

It begins as Emmaline Martin travels to India to join her fiancé, a self-absorbed, cruel colonel in the British East India Company's army and an impoverished man of noble birth who only wants Emma for her money. The marriage was her parents' idea—her parents who are killed on the ship bringing Emma to India.

Emma arrives in Delhi emotionally bruised but fascinated with the country. She finds the life of an Englishwoman in Delhi's British society to be boring and, as an artist, she wants to see the colors and people in the bazaar but it's just not safe. She meets Julian Sinclair, cousin to her fiancé and heir to a dukedom and is instantly attracted to the handsome British nobleman who has Indian blood and understands the unhappiness of the Indian people living under the rule of the British.

Julian believes there will be an uprising, but he can't get the attention of the British. Of course, he isn't wrong. Much of the first book deals with the uprising and the horrible things Emma witnesses and experiences during that time. Julian and Emma have already realized their love for each other when they are separated in the ensuing battles.

The second half takes place 4 years later when, back in London, Emma and Julian are living as empty shells, he believing she was killed in India and she believing he didn't come for her.

There are many twists and turns in this unique first romance of Duran's as she immerses us in the tumultuous times in India when the Indian soldiers in the British East India Company's army (the sepoys) mutinied in various parts of the country. But in this tale, there is also treachery in the British ranks based on greed.

Duran introduces us not only to a wonderful hero, who loves Emma consistently throughout the book, and a heroine, who is sensitive and brave, but also to some great secondary characters who give you a feeling for the time and the place.

It's a story of survival in war, of learning to understand another culture and its effects on the people who are exposed to it, and of true love that marks you for life. The emotion feels real, not contrived. And the love scenes fit the story. Highly recommended!

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