THE
SMUGGLER'S GIRL
by
JENNIE
FELTON
THE
BLURB:
Cecile
has been raised to a life of privilege at Polruan House, by her
widowed father and aunt. Now she's of age, they are determined that
she make a proper match, but Cecile's heart belongs to their
coachman, Sam- most definitely not suitable marriage material.
When
Sam turns to his friend, smuggler Zach carver, for help eloping with
Cecile, Zach tells of a recent encounter with Lise, a beautiful but
poor girl in St Ives, who is the mirror image of Cecile.
And
so a daring plan is born to briefly swap the girls. But bringing
Cecile and Lise together will uncover an astonishing family secret of
a bold escape from a loveless marriage, a treacherous shipwreck and a
sister lost to the sea long ago.
THE
REALITY:
Penzance,
St Ives, Marazion, Cambourne, Mount's Bay... These are all parts of
the area of Cornwall I shall be seeing soon, as I'm going to be
visiting there. It was a bit of a coincidence that I read this book
at exactly this time, as they all get mentioned (although the novel
is set in a fictional town).
Featuring
(spoiler alert!) a long-lost twin sister, the theme of identical
twins is something that's frowned upon by a certain magazine in its
list of guidelines for the submission of short stories. Why on earth
is that? It's as viable a theme as any, and its use in this story
made for a poignant read, with cleverly crafted sister characters,
whose personalities clearly reflected their different upbringings. I
did like that this novel had a good mix of good and bad characters,
and I liked that sometimes you didn't quite know who possessed true
nasty character traits and who was about to redeem themselves, as in
the case of (another spoiler alert!) Aaron and Godfrey. Sometimes
things weren't quite as they seem throughout, and this made for an
exciting read. The historical feel for the area really came to life
through the accents of the working class mothers, and maternal
natures really shone through as a recurring theme throughout this
read- especially Marguerite's, whose back tale was dramatic but
reassuring. I did wonder, however, if the idea behind this novel
came from the modern television adaption of Poldark- a heroine with
long, flowing red locks? Another hero (Jean- Claude) with a scar
down his face? Hmmm...
Although
I struggled to start this novel (timing), it must have had something
going for it as I flattened it in two days. I enjoyed the evocative
way the area was depicted, liked the way the differences between the
classes were described through food and clothing and loved reading
about the smugglers, hiding places and certain pilfered trophies. I
also liked that happy endings seemed to abound for the “goodies” and that the addition of religion soothed rather than jarred (isn't that what religions are supposed to do?) But the one character who stood head and shoulders above the rest
was the wicked Cordelia- every book needs a villain and I'm glad the
main protagonist here was a woman, although there were clues as to her
nature throughout. A nod to being a woman who was undoubtedly in a
man's world at the time (18th century), I like how she
rebelled and set herself free from the mould that was set out for
her, not necessarily keeping her family happy. Everybody likes a
renegade! But one as wicked as this? She made for good copy, but
I'm glad she met with a dramatic comeuppance. Read it and see what I
mean for yourselves!
