Author: Julianne Donaldson
Published: 2013 by Shadow Mountain
Genre: Romance; Fiction; Historical Fiction; Women's Fiction
Format: Paperback
Source: Library
Length: 275 pages
Goodreads' Rating: 4.18 / 5 stars
My Rating: 💜💜💜💜
Goodreads' Synopsis:
Kate Worthington knows her heart and she knows that she will never marry. Her plan is to travel to India insead - if only to find peace for her restless spirit and to escape the family she abhors. But Kate's meddlesome mother has other plans. She makes a bargain with Kate: India, yes, but only after Kate has secured - and rejected - three marriage proposals.
Kate's journeys to the stately manor of Blackmoore determine to fulfill her end of the bargain and enlists the help of her dearest childhood friend, Henry Delafield. But when it comes to matters of love, bargains are meaningless and plans are changeable. There on the wild lands of Blackmoore, Kate must face the truth that has kept her heart captive. Will the proposal she is determined to reject actually be the one thing that will set her heart free?
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Book Review
This book was on my Goodreads TBR shelf for a long time and when I was going through and deleting books that I knew I was never going to read, I came across it and thought that I would reserve it from the library.
First of all, I love the cover of this book! It is simple and elegant, and without reading anything about it, you automatically know that it is a historical fiction.
I will admit that this book was a little bit slow to get into, and in the beginning there is a lot of interaction of Kate with her mother (and her mother is beyond awful). But as the story unfolds and there are more secrets revealed it makes more sense and it is more enjoyable.
We follow Kate (who her family calls Kitty, even though she insists on being called Kate) who is a young woman trying to find her way and follow her dreams. She is determined that she is not going to get married, she is simply going to see the world and be independent like her Aunt. She dreams of travelling to India with this particular Aunt.
Other than India, Kate dreams of going to Blackmoore, the home of her childhood friends' grandfather, in which they travel to each summer as children. Kate has never been allowed to join these childhood trips and now that she is older, Henry, who promised to take her one day, is fulfilling his promise and they are set to leave.
Kate's mother decides to make a bargain with Kate that if she wishes to go to India, then she is to receive three proposals and reject them, then she would be granted permission to go. On arriving she decides that she agreed to an impossible bargain and she would need to ask Henry to propose to her three times and then she would have succeeded. Henry, who is supposed to be courting a young miss St. Claire, agreed to this if she would give him three truths of his choosing in return.
As their time at Blackmoore continues we learn a lot about Kate and the reasons that she is the way she is - why she decided not to marry, why she now wants to be called Kate instead of Kitty. As she is telling Henry the truths, we get a flashback to the event or time in question so we know what is coming.
Kate and Henry are very close, but you want them to be closer. They are completely perfect for each other, they just seem to be blind to the fact. As time goes on and they share proposals and truths, it becomes clear that they are in love they either just don't realise, or they are pretending not to be.
I found the romance in this book to be frustrating, but in a good way. All you want is the two of them to fall in love and live happily ever after, even after you know the reason why Kate wont let it happen, even though she wants to. We share a secret with Kate that Henry doesn't know. and it is enough to break your heart.
I really enjoyed this book and I would encourage all readers who enjoy a good romance and historical fiction to give this one a go!
Thank you for reading my review of Blackmoore and until next time, happy reading!
About the Author:
Julianne Donaldson grew up as the daughter of a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot. She learned how to ski in the Italian Alps, visited East Berlin before the wall came down, and spent three years living next to a 500 year-old castle. After earning a degree in English, she turned her attention to writing. She writes historical romance when she is not busy with her four young children and husband. (Goodreads)
Reading Progress:
