“Royalty comes to Sidmouth, bringing unexpected danger and the sweet possibility of romance…
When the Duke and Duchess of Kent and their daughter—the future Queen Victoria—rent neighboring Woolbrook Cottage for the winter, the Summers sisters are called upon to host three of the royal couple's male staff in their seaside house. But they soon realize they've invited secrets and intrigue into their home.
Meanwhile, Emily Summers longs to become an author. A local publisher offers to consider her novel if she will first write a Sidmouth guidebook for him. Emily agrees and begins researching the area with help from the Duke of Kent's handsome private secretary. But a surprise visitor from her past shows up at Sea View, leaving Emily torn between the desires she's long held dear and her budding dreams for the future.”
Series: Book #2 in the “On Devonshire Shores” series. Review of Book #1 Here!
Spiritual Content- A few Scriptures are quoted, mentioned, & discussed; Prayers & Thanking God (including in a near-death moment and asking God to receive her soul); Talks about God, answered prayers, & His will; ‘H’s are capital when referring to God; Going to church services & a hymn (Emily gets distracted twice by a handsome man during the services); Sarah tries to get someone to help her by quoting Scripture, but it backfires and she’s called manipulative (which she feels defensive about, but quickly realizes that she was being hypocritical and apologizes to the Lord); Mentions of God & His will; Mentions of prayers, praying, answered prayers, thanking God, & blessings over food; Mentions of churches/chapels, church going, services, hymns, vicars, & sermons; Mentions of being blessed & blessings; Mentions of Christmas & St. Nicholas’ Day; A few mentions of godsends; A couple mentions of Christian faith & charity; A couple mentions of a cross necklace; A mention of Scripture reading; A mention of someone receiving her “eternal reward”;
*Note: Phrases like “heavens” (x7), “good heavens” (x9), “thank heavens” (x2), “heaven forbid” (x1), “what in heaven’s name” (x2), “merciful heavens” (x1), and ‘what the devil’ (x1) are said or exclaimed; Someone is also called a “devil”; There is a fortune-teller around town that the Summers girls are warned to avoid (as the “Scriptures warn us to have nothing to do with divination or soothsayers”); The fortune-teller talks to a man and Emily, warning them of the future and while the man brushes it off easily, Emily tries to do the same and prays for God to forgive her for entertaining the woman’s words for even a minute; Mentions of things (food, smells, being around a man, and a kiss) being described as “heavenly” and “divine”; A couple mentions of worshiping or idolizing someone; A mention of someone being in search of “his destiny”; A mention of something appearing to be fate; A mention of luck.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: an ‘idiot’, a ‘stupid’, a ‘what the deuce’, two ‘blasted’s, and two forms of ‘dashed’; Some eye rolling & sarcasm; Mentions of curses (either said, but not written or held back); Lying/Fabricating a story (to protect someone from punishment); A near-death moment, Being held at knife-point and threatened with death, Injuries, & Pain (up to semi-detailed); Some grief; A story is read that ends with the main character (a parrot) dying; Mentions of wars & battles; Mentions of deaths (including from an apoplexy & illnesses), a body, & grief (including for a wife, a husband, and & fiancé); Mentions of a near-drowning (Book #1); Mentions of weapons, someone planning to kill another, & threats of harm; Mentions of accidents involving guns & people being hurt (serious and minor); Mentions of stealing, stolen items, thieves, smugglers, & contraband items; Mentions of crimes, criminals, & arrests; Mentions of gambling, debts, & debtors prison; Mentions of injuries, pain, & blood/bleeding (including bloodletting); Mentions of estranged family members (including a father and son); Mentions of gossip & rumors; Mentions of alcohol, drinking, drunks, & taverns; A few mentions of possible assassination attempts; A few mentions of hunting & a hunting accident where someone is badly injured; A few mentions of lies, lying, & deception; A few mentions of pipes & smoking; A mention of a possible hanging (for a crime); A mention of a young boy being abandoned by his parents because of poverty and having other children to feed;
*Note: A side character tells about his strained relationship with his father and brothers due to a past accident and never living up to his father’s expectations (*Spoiler* At the end, the father apologizes to his son and there’s hope for their relationship to improve *End of Spoiler*); A young boy shoots at birds for fun (which one of the Summers sisters stops and says it’s disgusting to take “pleasure in killing”); Each chapter starts with a quote from a famous author (such as Jane Austen, William Shakespeare, Lord Byron, Ben Jonson, Thomas Gray, Robert Burns) or from a historical notice/ad (there is also one chapter that starts with a Scripture that is credited to King Solomon); Some of these authors/poets are also quoted by characters; Mentions of authors, books, & fictional characters (Shakespeare, Jane Austen, ‘Frankenstein’ ‘Northanger Abbey’, ‘Persuasion’, ‘Pride and Prejudice’, ‘Sense and Sensibility’, ‘Robinson Crusoe’, ‘Sketches of Juvenile Character’, ‘Waverly’, ‘Rob Roy’, and ‘The Heart of Mid-Lothian’); A mention of prejudice towards someone who was born with a “defect”.
Sexual Content- A fingers-to-lips touch, a handful of almost kisses (up to semi-detailed), three barely-above-not-detailed kisses, a border-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed kiss, two semi-detailed kisses, and a detailed kiss; Remembering almost kisses (up to semi-detailed); Wanting to kiss & Staring at lips (that could lead into kissing, up to semi-detailed); Seeing a married couple in a passionate embrace and kissing (barely-above-not-detailed); Touches, Embraces, Dancing, Hand holding, Tingles, Warmth, Nearness, & Smelling (up to semi-detailed); Remembering touches & nearness (up to semi-detailed); Wanting to touch (up to semi-detailed); Blushes, Winks, & Flirting; Noticing & Staring (including muscles and damp shirts, up to semi-detailed); Emily wonders about being kissed, reads poetry describing kisses, and asks her sisters about their experiences with kisses/kissing; Emily sees a man wearing only a towel wrapped around his waist after going for a swim (the man barely covers himself when getting partially dresses afterwards and shows his bare chest, barely-above-not-detailed); Emily is accidentally caught in a partial state of dress in front of a man (which makes her feel breathless); Emily falls asleep on a man’s shoulder in the parlor; Emily remembers her wish about wanting to share a man’s “life and bed…[and to] bear his children”; When Sarah taste testing a soup, it feels “strangely sensual” to her and she notes that the man cooking tastes the spoon from the same spot her lips were; Many mentions of kisses, kissing, almost kisses, & remembering kisses; Mentions of scandals, reputations, chaperones, & concern about an unmarried couple being alone together; Mentions of women being caught in impropriety & society being merciless on the woman (rather than the man); Mentions of two men fighting over the same lady; Mentions of flirting & blushes; A few mentions of mistresses (Duke of Kent living with his mistress “without the benefit of marriage” for years); A few mentions of jealousy; A couple mentions of seeing couples kissing; A mention of affairs; A mention of men swimming with no clothes; A mention of a teen girl ogling boys; Love, falling in love, & the emotions;}
*Note: The Summers’ girls have an older sister named Claire who was sent to Scotland to be a companion for a great aunt (however, the truth was that she tried to elope with a man and when the marriage did not happen, her reputation would be deemed ruined, so their father sent her to Scotland and said she was dead to him (forbidding his wife to having contact with her); The rest of the sisters wonder about her and miss her); Some conversations about Claire and her situation; A couple mentions of a woman’s menstrual cycle.
-Sarah Summers
-Emily Summers
P.O.V. switches between them
Set in 1819-1820
443 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
I wanted to enjoy this second book, but it ended up feeling much slower paced and dragging at times when compared to the first book in the series. This book is a long one—443 pages—and I honestly felt every single page when reading. Because of this, I had a hard time focusing on the book’s slice-of-life plot because not a lot happens throughout these many pages. Good if you want a calmer book, but I struggled at times. I think it didn’t help that my favorite character from the first book, Viola, didn’t have a POV in this book and instead it was mostly Emily, who I didn’t really care for in the first book.
I will say that I feel like I learned quite a bit about the regency time period in this book—such as “stargazy pie” is horrifying and you could never pay me to eat it! There’s a lot about historical foods, games, entertainment, and real historical figures in this book that I did a bit of researching about while reading that was interesting.
At one section of the book, there was a lot about kisses, almost kisses, kissing, and a character wondering about what it was liked being kissed. It felt like too much, in my opinion, as she also asked her sisters about their past kisses with beaus which was a little too “kiss and tell” for my tastes. Because of this and her interest in being kissed for the first time, I hesitate to recommend this book to teenagers as it can stir up those emotions/feelings before its time. Any romance books can be guilty of that, but how this part of the book was done brought it to the forefront of my mind while reading.
I’m currently unsure about finishing the series as these books are quite long and I haven’t rated them high for myself or for BFCG’s target ages. I know many who love this series and while I often enjoy the regency time period, the slow pacing and great length of these books are testing that for me. 😅
See y’all on Monday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
