Go find a copy of Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson. Find it right now because you will like it. Think Jane Austen time period with a feisty, funny, intelligent heroine and a dashing, determined hero.
You will laugh and laugh, especially with the dairymaid song.
You may cry (I did) at the heroine's vulnerability and honesty.
And you will get your fix of the Regency period as you haven't done since PBS remade all the Jane Austens.
But one thing you won't do, but I did . . . is remember the courtship of the woman who recommended this book to you.
Because the woman who recommended this to me acted very similarly as the heroine acted towards the hero as he was trying to court her, when my recommendeder was being courted by her husband-to-be.
I liked the guy all along, and cheered for him all along.
So here's to the woman who recommended this book to me, and her husband who proposed once by writing a note to her and putting it on the library bulletin board, "(Name withheld) . . . will you marry me?"
Here's to me when I said, "I think he really likes you" and here's to her who said, "No, he's just kidding."
And here's to their marriage and the adorable children who followed.
Here's to women who are hard to woo. And the men who catch them in the end.
Here's to Donaldson for bringing it all back, for writing such a great debut book, and for not killing off her characters in the end---a common misstep of new writers.
And here's to you . . . find a copy and enjoy.
