KeturahBy: Lisa Tawn Bergren
Genre: Christian Historical Romance
Rating: 3.5 stars
Summary: In 1772 England, Lady Keturah Banning Tomlinson and her sisters find themselves the heiresses of their father's estates and know they have one option: Go to the West Indies to save what is left of their heritage.
Although it flies against all the conventions for women of the time, they're determined to make their own way in the world. But once they arrive in the Caribbean, proper gender roles are the least of their concerns. On the infamous island of Nevis, the sisters discover the legacy of the legendary sugar barons has vastly declined--and that's just the start of
what their eyes are opened to in this unfamiliar world.
Keturah never intends to put herself at the mercy of a man again, but every man on the island seems to be trying to win her hand and, with it, the ownership of her plantation. She could desperately use an ally, but even an unexpected reunion with a childhood friend leaves her questioning his motives.
My Thoughts:
I enjoyed this book well enough and read it in 3 sittings. I haven't been able to read a lot since starting my MBA program so it has been fun to get back to something that offered the familiarity found in the plot lines of Christian Historical Romance yet the difference of the time and place of 1700 Caribbean.
Keturah is a woman who is battered from her abusive marriage with her now deceased husband (a question I have is how did he die? and did she maybe help with that? That would have been cool to explore.) I did appreciate her strength and ability to rise to the occasion when her sisters needed her to. While stilted at times, she felt like an independent woman who was intent on trying to fix her own problems rather than sit back and let others take over. But at the same time she seemed to switch back and forth so quickly between being an independent woman who don't need no man to "oh my goodness he's so handsome!" I felt like that made her more shallow that intended.
I also appreciated the bonds of sisterhood between Ket, Verity and Selah. They were the things that rang the most true to me throughout the novel.
Overall, while this was a fun beach side read, it felt shallow. There were a lot of darker themes here that could have been explored. The ability to overcome abuse, the complexities of slavery in the 1770s and trying to reconcile with Christian beliefs, inherent sexism of the times. So many ways this could have gone deeper with an emotional payoff that almost was there but never seemed to come to fruition.
It was good enough for what it was, and if I see the sequels in the library I will probably snag them, but this wasn't something that was overly memorable for me.
