rameau's ramblings

This is one of my NetGalley picks. As you can see, I went for the pretty cover, but the blurb isn't bad either. A historical romance. A choice between servitude and nunnery. The Beauty and the Beast. What's not to love?The year is 1352 and the place is a small village in England. Annabel Chapman's rich merchant father lost his fortune and died of pestilence–The Black Death I imagine–few years earlier. Her mother, unwilling to accept her newfound poverty, forbade her children to participate in the harvest and has thus condemned them into dept to the Lord Ranulf le Wyse. Now, one of her children must work for their new lord to pay off that debt. Annabel's brothers hope to marry her off to the Bailiff Tom, a widower old as their father would have been, and not known for his honestly. He's promised to pay the Chapman family debt in exchange for a young bride, but Annabel has other plans. She has had a dream of joining a nunnery for as long as she can remember. A dream that appeared to die with her father's wealth for convents are sanctuaries for the rich. Perhaps there's another way, perhaps the village priest will let her read his Bible, for is her dearest wish: To read the Holy Writ. This is a quiet story, a description of a place and age long since forgotten. It's a description of people easily swayed by superstition as well as the foreboding sermons of the priests. It's a story about people who lived and breathed their daily duties as much as the word of God. For someone who grew up secular, these things give hives–why, just look at that reddish skin of my arm. I admit it's a knee-jerk reaction that usually keeps me away from all Christian literature, but I'm glad I read this one. Melanie Dickerson succeeds in where others have failed. She manages to make Annabel's and Lord le Wyse's beliefs an intricate part of their characters without crossing the very fine line to a preachy tone. I never once did feel like flouncing the book until the very end, and even then only briefly. These characters' values aren't the same as mine, but I can respect them and how they entwine with the story–and hide my eye rolls from unsuspecting passers by. For a quiet story there are few dramatic twists. There's an arson, a battery, and a lynch mob. Oh, almost forgot. There's a romance too, the quiet, convincing kind.If I were in the habit of giving half stars, this would get one. Alas, we must content ourselves with full ones. I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.