Love's Reckoning

Wheesht. One of the worst books I've read and the worst of this year. The gripe list is so long on this one! If you're not in the mood for a rant, folks, move along. I don't feel like discussing it. There are a lot of positive reviews out there if you like the book. Prior to this book I was recommending this author but I cannot. This is not historical fiction. This was a mess of historical time travel and grave historical inaccuracy. And then the huge shocker was tawdry and out of the blue and the effects weren't even gone into with the character. Overall, not only am I stopping reading this author (and other than this book there were only three of her books as of 2019 that I hadn't read, most of which were highly rated) but I'm also not going to be recommending others I had liked in the past. Because she captures the flavor of the period well, I never looked up the details until a few showed up in The Lacemaker which were clearly wrong but which didn't “kill” the book enjoyment for me. In this one I got annoyed enough to look things up. But it was the plot twist that has me actively mad about the story.

Trigger warning: Rape

Okay, long version below. Spoilers. Read at your risk.

First, the huge disconnect between what the characters had and what they didn't have. Keep in mind that the country has just survived the Revolutionary War and is deep in a depression which would only get worse. Only 1/3 of the people supported the war in 1776 and by 1783 50% did. There would have been Tory neighbors but instead everyone's universally happy about the new country. Also there's lots of cash circulating. And people drinking tea. Nope. In the 1780s common folks aren't drinking tea. It's coffee or chocolate if it isn't alcohol.

Second, the setting. It's written like it's a bit of a backwoods town with low population and only one important family and one Presbyterian church. Instead it was a vibrant community that would have numbered 25,000 within a decade after this story, temporary home to no other than Thomas Paine and visited by none other than Lafayette, Anthony Wayne, Baron von Steuben, Count Pulaski, and even a lot of English prisoners from Camp Security nearby. It also boasted of having hosted the Continental Congress during the war and was where a printing press was located, actively printing $10 million of worthless currency during this period. But paramount was the fact of 2/3 of the Articles of Confederation being drafted right there in York County and ratified only three years before the story. For nine months it was the Capitol of the new USA! This wouldn't have been a non-issue in the story, and the dad would have absolutely not have been the only blacksmith in town. (more county facts at https://yorkcountypa.gov/about-york-county/york-county-history.html) (Which also means the girls wouldn't be picking from only a handful of suitors.) Also, while Pennsylvania outlawed slavery in 1780, a contemporary survey states the existence of no less than 471 slaves in York county in 1783 (the year before the story), so even with some wiggle room in that number, slavery was still present and real with about 2% of the population still owned by others. But this book is 100% white. (Slavery facts here https://yorkblog.com/universal/york-county-slavery/)

Bullet points for the signs of poverty in the blacksmith's family:
-wearing castoff clothes
-unable to afford to buy a full suit for the indentured man
-doing all their own housework
-unable even to hire a boy to run the bellows for the forge, instead having the pampered daughter of the family do it
-begging necessary items from a friend (razor kit)
-not even able to have a kitchen girl to help with the heavy work

And for the top-notch luxuries they enjoy:
-Piles of sheet music: music was not commercially printed until the first music printer began in 1776 in Vienna. The publishing company took off between 1780-1800...in Austria. If they had the music in Pennsylvania that fast, it would cost a mint.
-Feeding a baby vanilla sugar: Yes, Thomas Jefferson first introduced vanilla in the Colonies, but it was a very rare spice because it's so labor-intensive. Even now that we have commercially similar synthetic vanilla (for the last century or so), only 2% of the supply worldwide is real vanilla, and even today it's the second most costly spice, second only to saffron.

Silas Ballantyne has even more discrepancies. For some reason (we aren't specifically told why) he has to be indentured. He, however, has several books and a master violin (nope, that's no fiddle, unless it's a cheap copy). And he speaks of skipping the banns by using a special license. Those licenses cost more than a year's earnings and also needed a male relative or close friend to “go bond” that the man was free to marry, with a huge fine if the man wasn't fit to marry. He also speaks some Scots that isn't defined in most cases and which in some cases is a more modern term entirely (a “smirr” of rain was first recorded in use in 1808.

Then at the 80% mark, Eden is raped. Without warning. The guy isn't portrayed as bad, just a little shifty, and he was her closest childhood friend. There is no motivation for this act. Even worse, he turned out to be her biological half brother. WHAT! This is so gross. And did it do anything in the story development? No. It had no use except to part the hero and heroine. If you're going to use gross in a story, make it relevant. Don't throw it in with the force of a bomb and then walk away from the story for nine years. This was an outrage of plotting.

Various other historical misses and factual errors:
-Silas has an old and well-used Gaelic Bible (not just a Testament). While the Testament was translated in Scotland in the 1780s (geographically impossible for him to get one), the full Bible was not available until 1801. Scots of the time would have used an Irish-language Bible.
-“Very last of the Ballentynes”...uh, “Coral Island” author, anyone??
-Said his family had Sheltie dogs for herding sheep. Those were started in the late 1800s and recognized by the AKC in 1909 for the first time as a “promising new breed.”
-Silas plays a “fiddle” and then it turns out he's playing his father's expensive Guarneri violin. This is described as “having the phrase Soli Deo Gloria engraved within, a permanent branding mark burned into the wood inside.” Now do tell..that's one way of spotting a fake “Guarneri.” First, no violin maker worth his salt would “brand into the wood” with a phrase of length because it would affect the final sound. Second, that's not how Guarneri branded stuff. He used slips of paper, handwritten, pasted inside the body of his violins. They did not say “Soli Deo Gloria”—meaning “all glory to God”—but instead read “I.H.S.” which is a term referred to as the “nomina Sacra” and which means “Jesus alone.” That stamp/phrase is directly related to the modern sign of the fish or the IHOYE Greek term used by early Christians. It is not in any way related to the Soli Deo Gloria statement.
-Eden rattles off a cornbread recipe complete with “cups” for measurements. Cups were a part of an effort in the late 1800s to be able to standardize recipes, and were first introduced to the general public in a scientific recipe book in 1896.
-Heavy use of “headache powders” in a couple of chapters. In the mid-1800s, headaches were commonly treated with vinaigrette sniffing, but I couldn't find an earlier treatment. What I did find is that headache powders were invented just before 1900 and patented in 1906.
-Women's clothing: Eden feels the “heat of his hand” at her waist while wearing stays. Very unlikely, unless she's the Princess and the Pea
-Men's hairstyles: Silas cuts off his tied-back hairstyle in favor of the “shorter styles worn by gentlemen”....uh, you mean the gentlemen spending loads of money on the perfect tied-back wigs? That didn't change until the young men in the early 1800s began to “wear their own hair” and even then it was supposed to be in the styles of the wigs. President Washington (not elected for a few years yet after this story's first section) was considered “quite daring” to wear his own hair. David Greathouse, young buck, would absolutely not be “in the height of fashion” and wearing his hair like it's described, hanging natural and loose above his collar.
-Men's fashion: Silas goes to the dance “looking like a gentleman” in a linen shirt and cravat which “buckled at the back of his collar.” First, he'd be wearing at least some form of jacket. Shirt sleeves without jacket were considered an insult to polite parties and to the company of unrelated ladies for any gentleman before 1960. Tying a buckled cravat around one's collar isn't just ungentlemanly, it's also historically impossible. First, the cravat was the collar; second, only shoes had buckles; third, a cravat is only and has always been defined as “a long, thin strip of white linen.” In fact, Silas and Leige and all the other guys would have used one as a daily piece of their dress during work.
-Quaker speech: Margaret speaks to Eden saying “Thee are...” instead of “Thee is...”

It's just so half-baked. I skimmed over the 1790s part at the end because the plot twist had just made me SO mad and because it was completely out of the blue and did nothing for character development or anything. And yet somehow there's still a vengeful sister lurking out there somewhere? Ugh.

Also, the continual feelings of blatant lust and the spine-tingly, heavy, deep kisses really wouldn't have done any favors to Eden's reputation. And Elspeth's motherhood, if suspected by a single person, would have been trumpeted easily from the watchtowers by the town gossips. Speaking of which, how did Elspeth get her super-Scotch name if they were so ignorant of all things Scotch?

Anyway, I'll stop ranting. Anyone want dibs on my mint-condition Ballantyne Legacy series? (*note: someone has now called dibs and the books are in a happier home.)

Coming into reading this book I already knew a handful of things. One, I already consider Laura's previous books to be on my keeper shelf and consider her a favorite author. Two, Courting Morrow Little was an incredible read and perhaps one of my ultimate favorites. Three, The Colonel's Lady has a palpable romance (like Julie Lessman good!) that keep me turning pages even soon after having a baby (and many distractions). Four, this is a new series and I love series beginnings! Five, have you seen the cover image?! Now, here's the problem (for one it is just after 2:30 in the morning!)... At about 125 pages in I did not have a clue where the story was going to go. Usually after reading so many novels I can take my little guess and then nicely see things unroll before my eyes as I turn the pages, but not here. I was tense, I was sad, I was elated, I was so angry, I was ridiculously giddy as if in on a secret myself, I was hopeless, and then I was so full of hope I was ready to scream outloud (but it's two am by this point and the little blossoms are sleeping...). The fact that there were so many possibilities kept me completely enraptured with pure (delightful!) agony that I just had to turn and see what might happen. What's coming next? – This was just as engaging a read as Rita Gerlach's latest series is turning out to be!

Now seriously. Could you authors quit trying to keep vying for my favorite book position, I shouldn't have to keep changing! This is enchanting with a hint of Jacob's wives and Cinderella. My heart screams run runaway! Who needs sleep when you have novels such as this?! Eden is such a character and so real. She is seemingly a perfect good girl, but watching her grow through over the course of the two parts of this story is incredible. As a reader it is very easy to get behind her and cheer her on, and want to shake her silly at times. Silas Ballantyne is just wonderful as well. Already I have become very fond of Scottish heroes in my fiction through other authors and Silas is just, sigh fabulous.

This one is not a light read, not just something to waste time with, but this is a read that will enrapture your heart and hold on. It brings through a wealth of emotions and the characters and their lives come off the pages and into your imagination and their story unfolds. Reading the epilogue and then the sneak peek into book #2 in the end of the novel just leave me antsy. How in the world can my heart stand to wait for 2013?

“Available September 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.”

Thanks to Revell Books for providing a copy for review.

posted: http://creativemadnessmama.com/blog/2012/09/08/loves-reckoning-by-laura-frantz/

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: http://creativemadnessmama.com/blog/2012/09/07/laura-frantz/