Miss Whittier Makes a List

Rating:
Summary: A Kelly about which I have mixed feelings...
Review: Actually, to tell the truth, I have mixed feelings about virtually all her books. I am a hopeless sucker for them, keep buying them, and yet - and yet - some of them leave me dissatisfied.

MISS WHITTIER MAKES A LIST is one of those books. I had mixed feelings about the naval part of it, although it was beautifully done, and it awoke in me the desire to read more nautical fiction (after which I know a lot more about what a typical British captain in this period would be like). The heroine was spunky, funny, and a Quaker. I love Quaker heroines, starting probably with Laura Kinsale's Maddie in FLOWERS FROM THE STORM. [Heck, I like heroines whose religious and social background differ considerably from the heroine. Making the heroine the daughter of an (Anglican) vicar is easy. Making her a Methodist or a Quaker is a lot harder].

....

...

When I first read this, I knew little about the British navy, and thus I oohed and aahed over the book. After reading a series of fictional and non-fiction books (beginning with Hornblower and all the way down to a biography of Nelson), I have a better way to judge the merits of the book. And, I had to compare the book in my mind to Laura London's THE WINDFLOWER. Somehow, MISS WHITTIER does not stand the test so well. ...These were not well-addressed by the highly romantic ending. Things fell into place too neatly.
[Well, we do like happy endings in our romances, but still...]

I judge a romance by how well I respond to it initially, and by how well it stands up by itself ...and against other romances of the same type. I liked this book very much at the beginning, and if this were my first Kelly, I would have given it at least a 4 and maybe even a 5. But it is not. ...
This is not a bad book by any means, and it is well-written. But, if you are looking for one of Kelly's best, I would recommend her short story "A Christmas Ornament" in a recent Christmas anthology, or among her books, MRS DREW PLAYS HER HAND (for a heroine who is a widow) or the tear-jerking SUMMER CAMPAIGN, or perhaps LIBBY'S LONDON MERCHANT (with its comically bumbling hero) and the sequel ONE GOOD TURN (published recently).

Rated: 3.5 (downgraded from 4 stars earlier this year)

Rating:
Summary: A Kelly about which I have mixed feelings...
Review: Actually, to tell the truth, I have mixed feelings about virtually all her books. I am a hopeless sucker for them, keep buying them, and yet - and yet - some of them leave me dissatisfied.

MISS WHITTIER MAKES A LIST is one of those books. I had mixed feelings about the naval part of it, although it was beautifully done, and it awoke in me the desire to read more nautical fiction (after which I know a lot more about what a typical British captain in this period would be like). The heroine was spunky, funny, and a Quaker. I love Quaker heroines, starting probably with Laura Kinsale's Maddie in FLOWERS FROM THE STORM. [Heck, I like heroines whose religious and social background differ considerably from the heroine. Making the heroine the daughter of an (Anglican) vicar is easy. Making her a Methodist or a Quaker is a lot harder].

Hannah Whittier is the daughter of a merchant family, a family of American Quakers who make their fortune from shipping and overseas trade. She is American, a Quaker, very young, and somewhat naive. Captain Sir Daniel Sparks is English, presumably an Anglican, the younger son of a peer, somewhat older, and far from naive. (Or so I would assume). What could bring these two people together? How about a little spot of impressment, a method whereby the British navy resorted to manning ships out of desperation, with experienced seamen being at a premium. One of the best places to go looking was on British merchant ships; but American ships would do at a pinch, given that many British-born seamen took positions there. Impressing seamen off American ships was one of the causes of the War of 1812, and this book is set just a few years before that.

Hannah's ship (on her way to meet a suitor) is waylaid by Captain Sir Daniel Spark's ship, and some men are impressed. Hannah considers this atrocious, as do all the Americans. It is a fact of life, however, in the Royal Navy, and for that matter in the British merchant navy and British privateers. Later on, Hannah's ship is attacked by a French privateer, and Hannah is the only survivor picked up some days later by Sparks's ship.

The story takes place partly on shipboard where Hannah makes a series of discoveries about Sparks and his crew and wins their affections. It then moves to enemy territory where Sparks and his crew are taken prisoner. At some point, Hannah will meet the future Duke of Wellington (albeit under a slightly erroneous title, a rare mistake by the author). Don't worry; at the end, Hannah and her captain meet up and are presumably about to be married.

When I first read this, I knew little about the British navy, and thus I oohed and aahed over the book. After reading a series of fictional and non-fiction books (beginning with Hornblower and all the way down to a biography of Nelson), I have a better way to judge the merits of the book. And, I had to compare the book in my mind to Laura London's THE WINDFLOWER. Somehow, MISS WHITTIER does not stand the test so well. In the London book, the American heroine is captured by British privateers (pirates); in the Kelly book, the American heroine who is also a Quaker is captured by a well-born British captain of the Royal Navy.

The romance is intriguing, particularly the issue of whether Hannah can be happy so far away from her fellow nationals and her co-religionists, and whether she can be happy with a man whose career keeps him away for so long. I felt that the second issue was serious enough, without the complications of a different nationality and religion. These were not well-addressed by the highly romantic ending. Things fell into place too neatly.
[Well, we do like happy endings in our romances, but still...]

I judge a romance by how well I respond to it initially, and by how well it stands up by itself (are the hero and heroine compatible? are they going to be happy together?) and against other romances of the same type. I liked this book very much at the beginning, and if this were my first Kelly, I would have given it at least a 4 and maybe even a 5. But it is not. And I have questions about the hero and heroine's compatibility, and how well Hannah will stand up to her husband's long absences. There *were* happy marriages (think of the brothers of Jane Austen, for one) but these marriages rarely had so many complications. And, given the other romances and romanticized nautical fiction I have read more recently, I cannot say that this naval Kelly stands up so well.
This is not a bad book by any means, and it is well-written. But, if you are looking for one of Kelly's best, I would recommend her short story "A Christmas Ornament" in a recent Christmas anthology, or among her books, MRS DREW PLAYS HER HAND (for a heroine who is a widow) or the tear-jerking SUMMER CAMPAIGN, or perhaps LIBBY'S LONDON MERCHANT (with its comically bumbling hero) and the sequel ONE GOOD TURN (published recently).

Rated: 3.5 (downgraded from 4 stars earlier this year)

Rating:
Summary: wonderful read
Review: Carla Kelly has quickly become one of my favorite writers of Regency romance,and this books is an excellent example why. The characters are vividly drawn and the plot is not your standard Lord meets Lady. An absolutely delightful read.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: Carla Kelly has quickly become one of my favorite writers of Regency romance,and this books is an excellent example why. The characters are vividly drawn and the plot is not your standard Lord meets Lady. An absolutely delightful read.

Rating:
Summary: Unconvincing - far from being Kelly¿s best
Review: Hannah Whittier, a young Quaker from Nantucket, is travelling by ship to Charleston when the ship is attacked by the French and she is shipwrecked. A day later, she is picked up by the British Naval ship commanded by Captain Sir Daniel Spark, who had so rudely boarded the US ship she'd been on only a couple of days before, impressing some of the crew. Then the villain of the piece, now he has saved her life.

But he's on the way to the Caribbean, so there's no possibility of being taken back to America... it will be at least six weeks before she can get on a ship bound for America again, and so she has to endure weeks upon weeks of being the only woman upon a British war-ship - and the company of Daniel Spark.

I found this book amazingly unconvincing in many respects. First, there's Daniel Spark. When we first meet him, he is shown as ruthless and uncaring: he has no qualms about impressing into his service anyone he wants, even a fifteen-year-old boy who isn't even British and despite the pleas of the boy's father. We see a sailor who has jumped ship from Spark's vessel and has found 'a better master and a better country'. Yet the Spark we see on board the Dissuade suddenly becomes a caring captain who is respected by his crew. What happened?!

Spark's relationship with Hannah on board astounded me. This is a man in his thirties, an experienced captain who has been at sea since he was ten. A young woman on board would be nothing but a nuisance - and yet he takes time away from his other duties to escort her to her cabin, check on her welfare and so on. This is a warship, not a cruise ship! Far more ludicrous was the notion that Spark would become so distressed about the deaths of his crew members that he'd need Hannah to hold his hand, metaphorically speaking: with his experience and the dangers at sea, shipboard funerals would be a routine event. And just how a naïve seventeen-year-old could be of any help to a hardened, cynical man in his thirties, Kelly never explains.

And this is why, ultimately, the romance is unconvincing. I found it hard to see how Spark could see Hannah as anything other than an irritating child and a damned nuisance. In contrast to her other books, there was little or no romance here. A few kisses - and with a man who'd been on a ship for months, if not years, on end, that's not too surprising - and suddenly they're in love!

Oh, just a warning: don't get too attached to any of the secondary characters. This book takes place during a war, and Kelly doesn't hold back on description and consequence.

Finally, I have a real problem with this and Kelly's other naval novel, Mrs McVinnie's London Season. The heroes are Naval captains, and they will not give up the sea. So their wives will see them, at best, for a month or so every two, three or even four years. This may well have been standard practice for Naval wives at the time, but where's the romance in that?

Rating:
Summary: FANTASTIC PLOT, FANTASTIC WRITING, I FELL IN LOVE
Review: I read this book a couple of years ago, and it was so good, the writing so great, the characters so true, funny, and original, the plot so fantastic, I read it in one sitting, and began looking for more books by Carla Kelly. Am still looking. don't pass this book up.

Rating:
Summary: wonderful read
Review: I sat up until midnight reading this book because I had to know how the author would solve the problem of keeping these two together. I found the book very refreshing. It took a trite plot element - woman on board a sea vessel - and treated it realistically and effectively. I also like the Quaker angle. The ending was very satisfying.

Rating:
Summary: Bliss.
Review: I think this is one of Carla Kelly's better books. I don't think she knows how to write a bad book. I've no talent for writing these things. That said it's a sweet, believable, wonderful story with plenty of romance. On my keeper shelf it goes.

Rating:
Summary: Bliss.
Review: I think this is one of Carla Kelly's better books. I don't think she knows how to write a bad book. I've no talent for writing these things. That said it's a sweet, believable, wonderful story with plenty of romance. On my keeper shelf it goes.