Enslaved
By Hope Tarr

Have you ever lost touch with an old friend or lover? Most of us probably can answer "yes" to this question, and thus will be able to relate immediately to the sorrow felt by Gavin Carmichael, the male protagonist of Hope Tarr's new historic romance, ENSLAVED, set in 19th century London. As the book opens he has come to the end of a six-month search to try and locate Daisy Lake, the young girl who was his closest childhood friend during the time they spent at a Quaker orphanage. Since this is a romance novel, though, and not a tragedy, you can rest assured that the friends, separated for 15 years, do find one another again and realize that their childish affection has grown into something substantially more, ah, adult, shall we say, with the passage of time.

Some of you may have read Hope's previous romance, THE HAUNTING, which was also reviewed in these pages [May 2007]. Like THE HAUNTING, ENSLAVED is a good, fast read, and the characters (handsome, raven-haired Gavin, an upperclass barrister, and lovely, voluptuous Daisy, a struggling actress) are easy to like. However, while THE HAUNTING is split between Fredericksburg of the 21st and 19th centuries, Gavin and Daisy's story takes us across the Atlantic and is set entirely in the latter part of the 19th century. Given the broiling summer weather that we've been experiencing here in Fredericksburg, a virtual trip to England in a cooler century was a welcome relief... Then again, this sometimes explicit love story could also warm up the reader who chooses to enjoy it in the fall or winter months. Speaking of which, any local readers who wish to purchase either book can head to the Central Park Border's, where, at last check, plenty were in stock. But back to the story...

Once Daisy and Gavin are reunited, they must, of course, overcome a series of misunderstandings and much miscommunication before they can attain the expected happy ending. After all, as one of the greatest storytellers ever known (Shakespeare) put it in A Midsummer Night's Dream, "The course of true love never did run smooth." These twists and turns kept me turning the pages, all the while rooting for the final, blissful embrace between hero and heroine.

While ENSLAVED can be read as a stand-alone romance, it is actually part II of a trilogy, THE MEN OF ROXBURY PLACE. The first installment of the trilogy is referred to a few times, enough to pique my interest, and the upcoming finale is foreshadowed a bit. So, those readers who become especially fond of Gavin and Daisy can reference Hope's other books for more about them. Perhaps I'll see some of you at Border's then, when I stop by to pick up a copy of the first in the series, VANQUISHED.

Mary Becelia, a freelance writer from Fredericksburg, writes about books and parenting life for Front Porch.