REVIEW: The Cornish Widow by Fil Reid
A vulnerable young widow falls for a charming but ruthless smuggler.
When Harriet Penhallow is left widowed, she and her two children are forced to accept the charity of her late husband’s aunt. Having uprooted themselves from their life in Bath, they move into a comparatively isolated and rundown cottage on the south coast of Cornwall, nestling above a little inlet known as Prussia Cove. Little does Harriet know, but it’s the center of Cornish smuggling.
One of the ringleaders is the charismatic Jack Trevelyan, captain of The Fly and only son of Harriet’s kind new neighbor. It doesn’t take her long to work out Jack is a smuggler, despite him being a gentleman and despite the fact that she’s beginning to have feelings for him. For his part, Jack, even though he’s immediately attracted to her, suspects she might have been sent to spy on his activities.
Then, one night, Caroline’s twelve-year-old son sneaks down to the cove where The Fly is anchored, and she goes after him. When they hear the crew returning, they hide—before they know it, they’re at sea and too frightened to reveal themselves. When daylight comes, they’re discovered, but it’s too late to take them back to Cornwall. They’re forced to continue on to the smugglers’ rendezvous in Brittany.
However, being part of this crew, even inadvertently, does not come without its dangers, and on the way back to Cornwall, The Fly is spotted by a revenue cutter…
CW – The heroine was a victim of domestic abuse by her bullying (now dead) husband.
Dear Ms. Reid,
It’s been a while since I read a book with smugglers so I basically read the blurb and thought “why not?” The blurb though is a bit misleading as there is a lot more that happens earlier in the book before any smuggling bit and Jack isn’t as ruthless as most who warn people to “watch the wall my darling, while the gentlemen go by.” On the positive side, I think the historical details and manners were well done.
Widow Harriet arrives at the rundown cottage on the Cornish shore that her late (and not lamented) husband’s great-aunt is letting her stay in rent free. Fifteen year old daughter Lydia is horrified by it while ten year old Theo is looking for adventure. Nurse Bertha and Harriet rally the children with brooms and dust rags but when a neighbor arrives then sends servants to help, things look up a bit.
Jack Trevelyan is bemused to see his mother’s servants headed out on a mission of mercy but less amused when he discovers that an abandoned cottage near where his ship anchors to unload contraband is now inhabited. Harriet Penhallow intrigues him but her personal defenses slam down whenever he asks questions or gets too near. Spending time with her increases his interest but he’s also got a revenuer on his tail and his family “situation” as part of his background. Can Harriet overcome her past and let love into her life?
There is a lot going on in this story which includes little snippet scenes with most of the characters from the earlier novels in this series. I’ve not read them and the characters contributed to the actions in this book so I didn’t mind but a lot of time was spent on them. Jack is the bastard son of a local baronet. He and his mother are accepted in most Society but Jack now has bitter feelings towards the man who only tossed off a few hours here and there for him. One of Jack’s friends and one of his enemies were in the same regiment with Harriet’s husband. I kept expecting these men to say something about Ben Penhallow (dead hubbie) but nothing ever came of this.
Enemy Hussar is now a revenue man who sends shivers of unease down Harriet’s back. Harriet has some suspicions about Jack and what he does and realizes she needs to keep her wits about her when the revenue guy shows up fishing for information. Then Theo’s exuberance gets them stuck on the boat and we spend a long time learning how smuggling is done (not as exciting as Theo thought yet it does give Jack and Harriet time together) before a tense scene that builds up then deflates. I expected more excitement from this but it didn’t happen.
All along, Jack has been (frankly) prying trying to find out exactly what happened in Harriet’s past marriage to make her so wary and skittish. Turns out getting her tipsy (not Jack’s intention) gets her to spill the beans on a toxic marriage that poor seventeen year old bride Harriet walked into and then thought was her duty to accept. I appreciate that while Harriet thinks all along that Jack is easy on the eyes, she still has no initial intention of ever getting married again. Her change of heart is a long time coming and mainly due to how Jack behaves towards her rather than quickly falling in love.
The ending scenes of the book are what actually brought the grade down a bit. Something Happens in Jack’s family that I frankly didn’t see the need for except if this series is to be continued. Then Jack arrives to offer his heart and hand to Harriet who decides that she needs to see how Jack would behave if they got married. I applaud the fact that Harriet is doing the decision making here but she was fooled once so I really don’t see this one experience as being long-term proof of Jack not being like dead-husband Ben. These issues plus the build up/let down of some expectations hampered a book that could have been a lot better. C+
~Jayne
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