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Virginia
Marcombe is a merchant’s daughter, and as her
father has no son she gets to help him run the business. The
new century is bringing change, and the West India Dock
is being built but although this might mean more money
for the Marcombes it could mean the end for many lightermen. One
such man is young Edward Allerdice, an apprentice lighterman,
who meets Virginia one day when he rows her and her
father out to look at the new developments. It
is love at first sight with the pair, but there is a
vast social divide between them.
Most
of the romances set at this time I read are about high
society and the London Season; this one is about star
crossed lovers across the classes. I liked
the unusual setting of the docks and the chance to read
about more ordinary folk, who work for a living. It
is entertaining enough reading about the love affair
of the protagonists as well as the various tangles their
families and friends get into, but largely missing is
the main reason I enjoy historical fiction
a sense of time and place. I felt most of
the time that we could have been in any large British
city with a dockside at any point in the 19th century,
and apart from one mention of Napoleon, nothing placed
it in 1800. I wanted to learn more about
it all, but anybody who enjoys a traditional romance
ought to enjoy the story, which does manage to convince
the reader the protagonists are in love, something many
other romances (even ones with lots of historical detail)
manage to miss. |
