Friday Reads - THE SERGEANT'S LADY by Susanna Fraser

[Julia Spencer-Fleming]

The first thing you need to know is that I am very, very choosy when it comes to Regency romances. It's a genre overcrowded with pelisses and superfine Hessians and starched cravats, populated by characters who act like 21st century Americans in fancy dress.

 

The Sergeant's Lady isn't one of those Regencies. In fact, I'm tempted to describe it simply as historical fiction with a can't-tear-your-eyes-away-from-it love story at the center. The publisher has handily provided this summary for me to steal and repost here:

 

Highborn Anna Arrington has been "following the drum," obeying the wishes of her cold, controlling cavalry officer husband. When he dies, all she wants is to leave life with Wellington's army in Spain behind her and go home to her family's castle in Scotland.

Sergeant Will Atkins ran away from home to join the army in a fit of boyish enthusiasm. He is a natural born soldier, popular with officers and men alike, uncommonly brave and chivalrous, and educated and well-read despite his common birth.

As Anna journeys home with a convoy of wounded soldiers, she forms an unlikely friendship with Will. When the convoy is ambushed and their fellow soldiers captured, they become fugitives—together. The attraction between them is strong—but even if they can escape the threat of death at the hands of the French, is love strong enough to bridge the gap between a viscount's daughter and an innkeeper's son?

 

The writing is excellent. The characters act and react like real human beings, not like romance automatons. The conflicts are real--war is violent and capricious, Will Atkins doesn't suddenly discover he's the long-lost son of The Duke of Earl, and most of the people who find out about the couple are appalled.  Anna and Will themselves know that love is not, in fact, enough to bridge the gap between a viscount's daughter and an innkeeper's son. I was biting my nails as the book raced to its conclusion, and I can't wait to read her upcoming A Marriage of Inconvenience.

 

You can download The Sergeant's Lady at Amazon or at Carina Press. There are links to several more outlets at Susanna Fraser's site