Have you ever heard of Valerie Jean Routhieaux
?She's a very talented writer of historical fiction that deals with the lives of strong-spirited women who lived in times when women were still kept on significantly-short leashes by men. Her first novel is called Scarred, which I'm now reading.
Scarred is her first (though, according to her, not her last by any stretch of the imagination!) novel for adults, and I've found it to be a real page-turner. I'm anxious to read her future writings in this genre as well. She told me about the main character of the novel on which she's working now that about made my eyes pop right out of my head. I'm not going to give away what that is at this time, but I will say that it was something pretty neat--a decision she made before she even met me, which made it even more uncanny!
Okay! My lips are sealed! You're just going to have to buy this book and be on the look-out for her next one--and, of course, all books following that one, as I have the feeling that you'll also be hooked when you read Scarred.
This is the description of it over at Amazon:
Jo-Ann Carter is a disillusioned young woman who decides the best thing for her is to leave. Leave school, where she has been for seven years since the tragic death of her parents, which left her an orphan at the age of ten. Leave England and a society that forgot about her. Leave everything she knows, except her best friend, who insists on going with her-plunging them both into the dangers found on the high seas, with pirate battles, slave markets, and the hardships found in Colonial America. Quentin Alexander, Earl of Thurgarton, learns he is Jo-Ann's guardian through a message from the headmistress of the school she attended. With permission from the Crown, he determines to bring Jo-Ann and her companion back to England. Both Jo-Ann and Quentin are determined on seeing their objectives met: she to stay in the Colonies, and he to take her back. Who will win the battle of wills, and at what cost?
And, on this note, I'll sign off...
