O’er the River Liffey (Power of the Matchmaker)

Niall Doherty is a displaced Irish gentleman, forced to making a living as a tutor to English nobility on their Irish estate. His father lost everything in one card game while he was at Cambridge. Knowing his lifestyle is better than it could be for a man of no money, he is stunned when a stranger tells him his father was cheated, and when and how he will meet “The One”. Caroline Fulton’s father is a self-made rich man who all but forces his only child to plan to wed a title. Meeting the Baron her father has picked has only one good thing about it; Niall is tutor to the Baron’s half brothers. She is not what the stranger foretold. He has no title.

A difficult thing for a modern author to achieve, this tale maintains an Austen-esque style (with a decidedly Irish flair) the entire way through. Never dipping to become salacious, as many historicals do, the longing and yearning of wanting what they cannot have will pucker heartstrings. Niall is a master orator and readers will fall in love with Irish lore as much as they will love Niall himself, as a true gentleman who realizes life is not always fair and what is right may break hearts. Caroline is as resistant and tough as she can be within the tight social and familial strictures of the time, yet she manages to escape and begin her own life, while still being proper. Their journey—together, apart, and together again—is tightly and beautifully woven with mirroring legends and myths, a superb tale. 

Julie York