Friday, April 11, 2008

Captain Wentworth's Diary-Amanda Grange

Captain Wentworth's Diary
Amanda Grange
Berkley, May 2008, $14.00
ISBN: 9780425223529

In 1806, naval officer Frederick Wentworth is on leave as he knows he must return to duty with the Napoleonic Wars ravaging the continent and threatening England. In Somerset to visit his brother, Frederick meets and falls in love with Anne Elliot. She feels as strongly as he does. They become engaged, but heeding the advice of her godmother Lady Russell, she persuades Anne to break off with Frederick the next day. Stunned and outraged the now acrimonious sailor returns to sea no longer innocent in affairs of the heart.

Eight years later, affluent Captain Wentworth has come home to find a bride who shows the slightest deference to the navy; any female except Anne. However, when he sees Anne for the first time since she informed him she changed her mind, Wentworth knows he still loves her. He does not want to pursue her, but cannot help but chase after her. Anne regrets her error as she never stopped loving Frederick, but fears it is too late for them.

Her second dairy historical romance (see MR. KNIGHTLY’S DIARY) is an engaging second chance regency romance told mostly by Captain Wentworth in a log like manner. The story line breaks into two periods in which the audience sees the young unsure Anne and the gentle Frederick fall in love but split and the more mature couple still in love. Readers will appreciate Amanda Grange’s fine tale.

Harriet Klausner

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