June = brides

In my prowlings on Amazon, I've run across Madeline Brent's Moonraker's Bride several times. People seem to LOVE it. So when I found it at my local Goodwill, I bought it.

It was good! Lucy Waring, who shares the same name as the heroine in Mary Stewart's This Rough Magic, is an orphan living in a mission house in China. Lucy, the daughter of British missionaries who died when she was very young, has been raised basically Chinese. I really like Brent's characterization of Lucy--people from different cultures think differently and he reflects that nicely.

Lucy ends up being sent over to England right around the time of the Boxer Rebellion. She struggles to adjust and make a new life for herself. There is romance involved, but I wouldn't call this a romance novel (although the cover begs to differ with me--"a novel of romantic suspense").

Basically, it was an interesting and sweet historical read. All those Amazon reviewers ended up being right.

Rating: 9.5/10