The Baron’s Quest (The Barons of the Cinque Ports Series, Book 1)

Muriel Draper and her brother Isaac are thrown out of their house by the Clothmaker’s Guild after their father is killed peddling his goods in a different town. To make ends meet, Muriel sells the family’s last possessions, save for her mother’s ring. When she makes a spectacle of herself along the docks, she is seen by Nicholas Vaughn, Lord of New Romney. He is also Muriel and Isaac’s landlord, to whom they owe rent. Vaughn decides he needs a clothier and takes Muriel and Isaac into his employ until they pay off their debt. But things become steamy between the Lord and the spinster.

This story started interestingly enough. One thing a writer needs to do is not to give everything away. For readers to become engaged in the story there must be space for them to deduce what is likely to come next the moment they turn the page or the moment they read the last sentence in the chapter. Giving everything away in the story will only make one believe they know what will come next. When this happens, the reader may either lose interest in reading the entire story or deem the story as something to return to after reading more interesting ones. As this is the first in the series, the author can perhaps step back and assess in what areas she can make the story tighter or increase the tension to make readers want for more.

M.P. Ceja