The Particulars: Inspirational historical romance, Harlequin Love Inspired Historical #131, 2012, First book in multi-author Irish Brides trilogy, Out of print, Available digitally
Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: St. John is an autobuy. Also I was so intrigued by the premise that I bought the entire trilogy back in the day because why let one book languish in your TBR if you can let three?
The Review: I didn't start reading for this month's Challenge until Sunday evening and I ended up DNF'ing my first choice after the prologue (seriously, here's my GoodReads "review"). Panic officially setting in, I picked up my tablet and went diving through the digital Harlequin stash and stumbled across this book by St. John that fit this month's Road Trip theme to perfection. I had a number of issues with this story but I managed to finish it in one sitting.
Nora, Bridget and Maeve Murphy live in Castleville, Ireland (there's references to a "County Beary" which I've never heard of, but Castleville is in County Mayo so if anyone Irish is reading this let me know if the authors of this trilogy totally ran off the rails) and they've just buried their father, who perished thanks to old friend influenza. Their mother has been dead for a decade and it's 1850, right in the middle of the Irish Potato Famine. Times are hard and the landlord is throwing the girls out of the only home they've known. They have a few coins and are well and truly desperate when they uncover a hidden letter in their mother's trunk. A man, who talks like he's a former beau, who says he's settled in Faith Glen, Massachusetts. Along with the letter? A deed to a small cottage.
The girls have never heard of this man but with zero options they decide to take a flier. There's less than nothing left in Ireland, America at least offers hope. They sell a couple of things their mother saved "for a rainy day" and board the Annie McGee in Galway, headed to Boston Harbor. What money they had paid for their passage so the hope is they can find work on the ship. That's turning out to be difficult until divine intervention steps in.
A young boy is hurt when the ship's doctor's assistant overturns a load of supplies on the dock. Maeve was a midwife and healer (homeopathic, herbal remedies) back in Castleville and that training leads to her reacting quickly. By the time the ship's doctor arrives on the scene she's fashioned a tourniquet and slowed the bleeding, saving the boy's life.
Flynn Gallagher is the ship's doctor, is from a well-to-do Irish family and is running from his past, hence ship's doctor. He's also smart enough to fire his assistant on the spot and hire Maeve once he learns she's going to be a passenger on the ship. Even better? He has positions for her sisters as well! Nora helping in the galley and Bridget taking a governess post for a family left in a lurch. Jobs squared away, the sisters set sail to America, hoping for a fresh start, and to learn more about their mother's past.
Flynn and Maeve are the featured romance in this story, and if you're wondering why I buried the lede, there's a reason for that - it's rather thin, along with the characterizations. There's quite a bit of telling in this one and while Flynn and Maeve have baggage it all felt surface level. Also Maeve borders dangerously close to Mary Sue territory and while the couple spends time together I felt like it wasn't meaningful time together. I'm not sure how these two fell in love other than they think the other one is kind and nice.
But hey, marriages have been built on less in and out of romance novels and the story moves along at a good clip in large part thanks to the setting. St. John does a good job with it and features a light "found family" storyline and details about life on the ship. Think of it like a floating boardinghouse and you'll get a good idea of what to expect. There's trials, tribulations and plenty of personalities. This aspect of the story is definitely what kept me turning the pages, more so than the romance. In fact I was so invested in all these people I met on the ship that the next book I'm reading is the second one in this trilogy.
This is an inspirational romance so I'm going to talk about The God Stuff. Folks, it's heavy and clunky. I am capable of enjoying inspirational romance but I much prefer the ones where that aspect of the story comes through in themes and nuanced characterizations. Here it's a lot of dropped scripture and characters praying when they burn breakfast (OK, not literally - but they pray a lot). It all felt heavy-handed, which is probably a good thing since it was easy to see coming a mile off and I would know to start skimming.
There's a Mean Girl secondary character's redemption at the end of the book that left me unconvinced but at least this is an inspirational where the couple isn't dead below the waist (Flynn and Maeve share a few kisses) and truly, the "life aboard a ship" stuff was really entertaining. Even with all my issues I was invested enough to snarf down the book in one gulp. St. John has written better but after DNF'ing my first choice (after the prologue!), I certainly could have done worse.
Final Grade = C
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