There’s this writers’ conference I’m going to in July called Realm Makers. It’s for authors of sci-fi and fantasy books aimed at a religious audience. This will be my first conference with this group, and I’m going because it has an amazing online presence on a site called the Realm Sphere. There’s a Facebook group that’s very worthwhile as well.
I’ve made it my goal to read as many books as I can by Realm Makers authors before I go to the conference. When I meet people, I can say, “I know your book! You’re the one who writes about that girl who is the junior assistant to the dragon dentist.”
So… the first of these books is A Convenient Sacrifice by Ann Elizabeth Fryer. It turns out that this one doesn’t have sci-fi or fantasy elements. I kept waiting for ring-wraiths to come galloping across the countryside, but that never happened. That’s okay, as it was still an engaging, excellent read just the same. This book is a Regency romance, a clean romance aimed at a Christian audience. The main character, Elaina Dawes, is a good-hearted young woman dealing with grief and family shame. Her family’s shipping business is ruined by a shipwreck that occurred under suspicious circumstances, her sister eloped several years earlier, her parents are dead, and her aunt forces her into a marriage of convenience with a tall, handsome, and mysterious baron. This union will save her numerous nieces and nephews from poverty.
As she and her new husband travel by carriage far away into the countryside, Elaina is faced with two mysteries — whether she can trust this new guy (she catches sight of him carrying a body at one point) and whether there has been a conspiracy at work against her family (spoiler alert – yes). The baron is trying to shield her as much as possible from knowing about the evil plot, but she still has to go all in to rescue people and unmask the bad guys, one of whom might be her brother.
I liked this book’s deft interweaving of the romantic and criminal plot. As a male reader, I can’t stand it when the heroine goes on for pages about the dude’s excellent shoulders, and this book was mercifully light on that kind of stuff. Despite the fact they’re newlyweds, this couple decided to still go on a courting process to get to know each other and to fall in love, which was heartwarming and inspiring. And I was pretty worried about what the bad guys were up to and whether they would kill someone else.
I got a little lost as the layers of conspiracy were peeled back, and I didn’t fully understand how the bad guys made their money. I also was a little put off by an aspect that frequently shows up in clean romance — the couple is having lots of snuggly time alone, they don’t have sex, and they don’t talk about it, either. A couple that’s not ready to have sex is a fine subject for a romance novel, but they have to at least talk about how far they want to go; otherwise, someone is going to end up assaulted, pregnant, or both. Okay, that’s enough ranting.
Clean romance sometimes sets up an unrealistic attitude towards sex… like how couples in the fifties slept in separate beds but somehow had children.
On balance, those are minor problems. The book is well-paced, and the characters develop in a believable manner, as does their relationship. Also, there’s a horse, and Elaina does get her wish to learn more advanced riding techniques. So it’s a good book.
The next book I’m working on is “Seconds” by Abigail Wilkes. It’s a more intense book. Someone’s fingers just got chopped off, and I am quite worried about that.
