Seeking Rachel (Seeking #4)

Josie
Riviera
Genre: 
Inspirational

HISTORICAL/REGENCY:  Governess Rachel Lockhart needs help. Her stingy, mean-spirited cousin plans to send Rachel back home to Rachel’s alcoholic gambler of a father at the end of the London season. At twenty-four years old, that will doom her to spinsterhood. Rachel’s smart and unconventional, two traits that jeopardize her future despite her abiding faith in God. Vadoma, the elderly Romany woman who is Rachel’s best friend, predicts that love is soon headed her way. A chance encounter with twenty-eight-year-old naval captain Nash Browning changes everything for him and for Rachel. 

“Seeking Rachel” hooks readers into Rachel’s challenges as an educated, unmarried woman without financial independence and with limited employment options. Her religious faith is smoothly woven into her thoughts and conversations with compassion for herself and others instead of preachiness. Sincere respect for Romany culture and its mystical aspects offers an interesting philosophical triangle when Nash’s crisis of faith is added to the story. Details about the Regency era’s structural and societal layouts provide an engaging sense of the expectations of the period. Rachel’s young cousin, who is Rachel’s charge, offers comic relief and innocent charm, which draws out Rachel’s and Nash’s playful character facets. Brisk pacing and layered characterizations for the featured characters establish a cheer-worthy web of emotionally connected people. Nash’s sudden philosophical shift may seem somewhat abrupt, and the villain may be a tad one-dimensional, but overall Rachel and Nash’s love story is a delightful read with thought-provoking substance. 

Cardyn Brooks