The Unlikely Spy Catchers by Carla Kelly

The Unlikely Spy Catchers
St. Brendan #2

Carla Kelly
Historical Romance
Published in 2019

H/h - Durable "Able" Six/Meridee Six
Setting: England, 1804.

Read in November, 2019.

My rating:

                                                        [spoiler alert]

The Unlikely Spy Catchers is the book 2 of Carla Kelly’s ongoing historical romance series, St. Brendan. My love for this series began with a short novella that you can also call a prequel to the series, which was featured in an anthology. It was titled ‘The Christmas Angle’. Even though I’d bought book 1 first, I read in a few reviews that Able and Meridee’s love story began in that novella. I was really glad to have that nugget of information because I absolutely adored that story. It was just...... So good. :) Our hero is a nerdy genius but he’s also super hot and attractive. And our heroine is just the perfect match for him.

Born in a street behind a church in Scotland, where his supposed mother died right after his birth without even giving him a name, Durable Six has come a long way. The name he’s got is the aftermath of becoming a nameless orphan left unclaimed in a workhouse of Dumfries, where his life was everything that was never nice, loving or pleasant. He’d shortened the silly name to Able later in life to give it some semblance of normalcy. After his initial resistance to death–hence he surpassed the first 5 ‘Durables’ and became number Six that lived—Able fought to survive. He fought hunger, abuse at the hand of his so-called teachers but most of all, he fought death to stay alive.

Able joined Navy to escape the appalling workhouse so I doubt he had any big ambition but as Sailing Master Able Six at 26 he’d already climbed the ladder of success when it comes to HRM Navy. At least as far as success is concerned for a total nobody like him. No one ever heard a person becoming a sailing master at the age of 22 but Able had become what no one has been before. Hell, he’s someone so unique that no one probably had seen anyone like him in the past decades, maybe more, and likely won’t see another for a long time to come. Able Six, what you can describe in the simplest terms possible, is a genius. A polymath; Someone with photographic memory. He’d basically experience anything and remember every single crisp detail. His mind is always whirring. It never stops.

The Unlikely Master Genius by Carla Kelly

The Unlikely Master Genius
St. Brendan #1

Carla Kelly
Historical Romance
Published in 2018

H/h - Sailing Master Durable Six/Meridee Bonfort Six
Setting: England, 1802/3.

Read in January 2019.

My rating:

                                                            [spoiler alert]

After reading and loving a short story ‘The Christmas Angle’ by Carla Kelly in an anthology, I was anticipating The Unlikely Master Genius, book 1 in the St. Brendan series. The above mentioned short story is kind of a prequel to this one and I enjoyed it so much, I was totally invested in the series already. I mean, who doesn’t like a hero who is a nerd and a genius with a heart of gold? Who is also a gentleman that loves his wife to distraction? However, after reading it can’t say I loved it as much as I thought I would. I’ll try to elaborate as best as I can.

Born in a street behind a church in Scotland, where his supposed mother died right after his birth without even giving him a name, Durable or ‘Able’ Six has come a long way. The name he’s got is the aftermath of becoming a nameless orphan left unclaimed in a workhouse of Dumfries, where his life was everything that was never nice, loving or pleasant. He’d shortened the silly name to Able later in life to give it some semblance of normalcy. After his initial resistance to death–hence he surpassed the first 5 ‘Durables’ and became number Six that lived—Able fought to survive. He fought hunger, abuse at the hand of his so-called teachers but most of all, he fought death to stay alive.

Able joined Navy to escape the workhouse so I doubt he had any big ambition but as Sailing Master Able Six at 26 he’d already climbed the ladder of success when it comes to HRM Navy. At least as far as success is concerned for a total nobody like him. No one ever heard a person becoming a sailing master at the age of 22 but Able had become what no one has been before. Hell, he’s someone so unique that no one probably had seen anyone like him in the past decades, maybe more, and likely won’t see another for a long time to come. Able Six, what you can describe in the simplest terms possible, is a genius. A prodigy if you’d like that word too. Someone with photographic memory. He’d read/see/hear, basically experience anything, and he’d remember every single crisp detail.

One Step Enough by Carla Kelly

One Step Enough
Loving Vigil #2

Carla Kelly
Historical Romance
Published in 2018

H/h - Owen Davis/Della Anders Davis
Setting: Utah, 1900-1901.

Read in June/July, 2018.

My rating:

                                                    [spoiler alert]

One Step Enough is Carla Kelly’s latest release, and a sequel to her wonderful novel, My Loving Vigil Keeping. Book 1 was based on the 1900s Scofield mining disaster, but it also had a h and a H, whose lives entwined with the chaos of it all. Carla Kelly gave such vivid narratives of everything about a mining town, the lives of its inhabitants and how a tragedy can shatter hundreds of lives, that for me who had no idea about this disaster, it was an experience TBH!

My Loving Vigil Keeping was released in 2012 and I read it in 2015. Initially I thought it was 2017 but then I had to check the date of my review on goodreads to be sure. No wonder I had forgotten many intricate details of the story that had taken me time to remember! Don’t get me wrong, I remembered the story and what happened but this book had many characters so there were many details to remember, littlest things that seemed inconsequential at that time but had quite the profound meaning in book 2. I didn’t want to do a reread because I was too impatient to read One Step Enough. But can you blame me though? I thought book 1 ended very abruptly, yet, seeing the time that had passed since the publication, frankly I didn’t think there was any sequel planned for this book. I’m so glad that Ms. Kelly decided to give us another tour of Della and Owens’s life. I practically screamed when I saw One Step Enough on Amazon!

My Loving Vigil Keeping begins with the story of our h, Della Anders. She was an orphan whose father died, who had never met her mother but was told she ditched them when Della was an infant. At 12, after her father Frederick’s tragic death in a Colorado mine, Della came to live with her rich uncle Karl’s home only to find it no home of any kind. Frederick had loved her, and even poor, took care of her as best as he could but this house here was cold and cruel. Her aunt Caroline never took to her and found immense pleasure in taunting, berating or maligning Della to anyone she could find because she was poor; because her father was the proverbial family ‘blacksheep’ who brought ‘shame’ to the prominent Anders family; because she didn’t look like the tall and blonde Anders clan. But mostly because Della was illegitimate. Her tormentors included her two cousins as well. Della was never given a chance to mourn her father properly because Caroline forbade any such thing if she’s to live with them. Karl pretty much let his wife abuse the child and ignored it all so he himself can live in peace.

Courting Carrie in Wonderland by Carla Kelly

Courting Carrie in Wonderland

Carla Kelly
Historical Romance
Published in 2017

H/h - Sgt. Major Ramsay Stiles/Carrie McKay
Setting: Yellowstone National Park, 1903.

Read in May, 2018

My rating:

                                                      [spoiler alert]

I bought Courting Carrie in Wonderland last year, not sure why I didn’t read it right away. Carla Kelly’s books are auto-buy for me, and when I saw the cover, I wanted to read this one. Yet somehow I never got around to. So to amend that, I picked it up last week without reading any reviews, as I do for many of Ms. Kelly’s books. Have to wonder again, why I didn’t read it last year cause the story was simply amazing, heart-touchingly so!

TBH, I had no idea what ‘Wonderland’ in Courting Carrie in Wonderland stood for. I thought it was one of those titles with a touch of fancy, maybe the H and h went somewhere they liked calling wonderland? Seems like I was almost correct in that regard. This book is set in the Yellowstone National Park, a place I’ve never heard of (I don’t live in the US), which was known to be the Wonderland. Even while reading I didn’t check out anything in google. I just read on, seemingly trying to figure out the place through our H and h, Ramsay and Carrie’s eyes and Ms. Kelly’s narratives. I’ll be honest that I struggled to picture the Park and it’s specific attractions that were mentioned as they’re known: such as the Old Faithful, the Chittenden Bridge (previously the Melan Arch Bridge), the viaduct that linked the edge of the mountains creating a perilous road and many other descriptions of the scenery, the flora and the fauna. Even then I could tell it was a marvelous place. After I finished I couldn’t wait to find out how those noted areas looked like, and was blown away by the beauty of the Park. I could imagine why Ramsay and Carrie (or anyone for that matter) would love the place and want to stay there. Like, I had this urge to visit Yellowstone ASAP, though that dream may never materialize for me. :(

Miss Whittier Makes A List by Carla Kelly

Miss Whittier Makes A List

Carla Kelly
Historical Romance
Published in 2012 (originally 1994)

H/h - Captain Daniel Spark/Hannah Whittier
Setting: Early 1800s.

Read in September, 2017.

My rating:

                                                     [spoiler alert]

The latest Carla Kelly that I read, Miss Whittier Makes A List, was one of those I was finishing up from her “Miss” series. Well, there’s no series titled like that but she’s got quite a few older Regency romances having titles with a “Miss this or that does this or that” (if this even makes any sense to anyone ;P). *facepalm* Sooo, I liked how it was, the storyline, the characters too. However, not as mind-blowing as I had hoped it would be after reading the first few chapters. As a result, it took me a while to finish it because I wasn’t sure what to write in my review or how to structure it; my feelings were that ambivalent. I don’t want anyone to dislike the story, but there are things that need to be mentioned.

Miss Whittier Makes A List isn’t a badly written novel. Not at all! I mean I keep saying this, and it’s true. I love Ms. Kelly’s writing and I loved most of her backlist thus far. This one begins with a h with a little different background. Hannah is a Quaker, a background not often explored in the arena of HR that I generally read. But even though she’s meant to be lived under strict rules of the ‘type’ of Christianity they followed, Hannah was anything but meek and biddable. Oh she gives that impression quite well, but inside Hannah something... different. Something preferably more exciting. Things that she won’t even acknowledge to herself, let alone to anyone else among her Quaker Friends. I mean, they don’t even call each-other anything but ‘thee’ and ‘thy’. :/

Safe Passage by Carla Kelly

Safe Passage

Carla Kelly
Historical Romance/LDS
Published in 2013

H/h - Ammon Hancock/Addie Hancock
Setting: Mexico, 1912.

Read in August, 2017.

My rating:

  
                                              [spoiler alert]

A full review of Carla Kelly’s Safe Passage would be kinda difficult to do for me, not because it’s a badly written book (I finished it in 2 days, a record for me TBH!) but because the historical facts integrated in this story. It’s very difficult to comment on war or revolution or whatever and the loss of the absurd amount of human lives in the process, to justify the horrifying affects it has on humanity. I’ll do neither in my review.

Carla Kelly has done amazing books where she included tales of war and its aftermath. But she’s always careful to be as subtle as possible while incorporating it with the storyline. Safe Passage is no different, yet there were moments where I felt like putting down the book and take a deep breath. This has a little different setting and background—Mexican Revolution of 1910 (setting here is 1912). The prologue introduces our h, Addie, who has been reminiscing about her past, and her marriage, which seems to be a done thing at this point. Addie lives in Mexico and was married to Ammon for 2 yrs. One sad incident, which led Addie to say some horrible things, had led to their break up. Ammon returned home from his freighting business where injured himself, only to find his wife enraged. He already had a broken leg to deal with, a broken heart now added to the mix. Addie, though, had a reason behind it, and I could try to understand her mental state, still the whole incident was really heartbreaking. Ammon left, heartbroken and in tears, not knowing what he’d done wrong. He had tried to communicate with Addie the first year but she was determined to keep her silence. I have no idea why she treated him so badly, but in the year since then she’d come to regret her action. So much so that she often thinks of Ammon but she doesn’t know how she can do anything to change their circumstances.

Miss Billings Treads the Boards by Carla Kelly

Miss Billings Treads the Boards

Carla Kelly
Historical Romance
Published in 2013 (originally 1993)

H/h - Henry Tewksbury-Hampton, Marquess of Grayson/Katherine Billings
Setting: Regency.

Read in July, 2017

My rating:

                                                          [spoiler alert]

Miss Billings Treads the Boards, a clean regency romance, is another one of Carla Kelly’s single novels where I went in blindly. I liked it for the most part because there were some really witty dialogues throughout. However, it won’t be my favorite. Somewhere along the way, the story fell short of being amazing, which I thought it could’ve been.

In the beginning, we’re introduced to a Marquess, who is also a war veteran. Henry Tweksbury-Hampton, the Marquess of Grayson is filthy rich and lives the life of a laze about peer. Over the 7yrs since he’d been off the army and took his “role” of a peer seriously, Henry’s gone mellow. Even with a tall physique, these days his paunch shows. A thinning head of hair does his looks no good either. So, all in all, even though he’s one of the most sought after bachelors because of his title and wealth, Henry knows his shortcomings. He had a vague feeling that no one wanted him for himself but for what he can offer to them. The feeling though, has grown tenfold since he’s been taking care of his sister’s family too, and made his only nephew Algernon his heir. Algernon, who goes by as Algie, is really something of the sort. He’s a super-dandy, spendthrift and completely empty in the brain-box. To say that Henry worried over the future of his title is a gross understatement. But when, to allay that niggling suspicion, Henry ends up asking Algernon if he likes his uncle, things began going downhill. How exactly? Let’s see if I can elaborate in the following...