A Special Literary Friday: A Catch of Consequence and my *drum roll, please* 1,000th POST! Plus a Giveaway

Today I'm celebrating my 1,000th Post with you!  More about that later, but first I want to talk to you about the book I read this week:  A Catch of Consequence by Diana Norman.  Norman wrote the very popular Mistress of the Art of Death series under the pseudonym Ariana Franklin.  I absolutely love that series, and Adelia and Rowley are one of my favorite couples in literature.  The fourth book ended on a nail-biting cliffhanger, and I'm sad that I'll never know what becomes of Adelia and Rowley.

A Catch of Consequence is a historical fiction novel divided into three books: {Colonial} Boston, {Imperial} London, and {Machine-Age} Newcastle.  The protagonist, Makepeace Burke, is a colonial pub owner living and working on Boston Harbor, and The Roaring Meg is a popular meeting place for Sam Adams and the Sons of Liberty.  One early morning, Makepeace is checking her lobster pots in the harbor when she rescues an English Gentlemen from drowning.  Sir Philip Dapifer had been beaten and thrown into the harbor by the Sons of Liberty, and he isn't fighting for his life when 'Peace finds him. 'Peace hides him in the Roaring Meg while he heals, and she continually worries that she'll be discovered helping the enemy which in turn will ruin her business.  Unfortunately, Sir Philip is discovered, and 'Peace's brother Aaron pays the price by being tarred and feathered.  When the pub is attacked with missiles and catches fire, Sir Philip takes Makepeace and her entire household (including her injured brother, a former slave and her son, and an Indian) to London.

Makepeace and Sir Philip marry on the ship, and she is completely out of her element as the wife of an English lord.  However, she is a very quick study and learns what's expected of her and plays her part well.  But she has so many strikes against her: she's from the colonies, a Puritan, tall, and she has red hair.  Plus the first Lady Dapifer is calling Philip and Makepeace bigamists which isn't helping her standing in society at all.  Both of the first books, Boston and London, are fantastic.  The third one?  Not so much...  I found it to be completely unbelievable, and Makepeace's motivations for her actions seem so out of character for her.

Spoiler Alert:

Diana Norman wrote about women who are ahead of their time and highly successful.  There's nothing wrong with that, but it's hard for me to like or even sympathize with a mother who abandons her child for selfish reasons.  I see a pattern where the protagonist falls in love, is blissfully happy, becomes pregnant, is ecstatic about the pregnancy, has the baby, something tragic happens, and then she has an epiphany that she doesn't need a man and is happier "working."  Then she abandons her child.  I don't recommend this book as highly as I recommend The Mistress of the Art of Death, but if you enjoy historical fiction about Colonial America then you'll probably like this book.


I'm so happy that this is my 1,000th post, and I think it's appropriate that it's a Literary Friday post.  I've put together some fun stuff for a giveaway, and I'm hoping that it represents my blog.  I also hope that you'll like the prizes, too!

Included in the giveaway are: 
Neat little To Do list (I'm a list maker)
Two journals: One lined and one unlined
A recipe book that holds recipe cards
Recipe card set
Colored pencils
Two favorite books:  A special edition of Little Women and Garden Spells

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Good luck!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.  It's been a very busy week, and today we're celebrating my oldest daughter's 21st birthday.  Happy Birthday, Shanley Belle!  I'll have time to visit your blogs this weekend, and I can't wait to see what you've been up to this week!



Until next time...

Blessings!
Ricki Jill

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