I recieved an advance readers edition of this book at 4:00 pm and finished it before I fell asleep! It had me hooked from the very first to the very last page.

From the author of Edenbrooke (which I also reviewed), Julianne Donaldson, Blackmoore is a gorgeous book full of love and conflict, tragedy and humor, heart vs. brain, and Miss Kate Worthington’s heart’s desire. This book has it all: an embarrassing mother, a forbidden love, a childhood romance, a beautiful estate, a dreamy love interest, and a heroine that can’t wait to get out of her mother’s house.

Katherine Worthington’s lifelong dream is to go to India. She wants to be out of her childhood home and away from her mother’s flirtatious behavior and sister’s scandals. She wants to be nothing like the rest of the females in her family. And she is so terrified of love after seeing her mother and fathers botched marriage, she swears to her neighbors that she will never get married. Her mother, however, is ready to see her second daughter married off and is ready to beg, barter, and steal to make an advantageous match happen. Finally, Kate and her mother strike a deal: Kate will be able to go to India as long as she turns down three proposals of marriage at the estate she is visiting for the summer, Blackmoore. Desperate, Kate agrees, never dreaming how painful, confusing, and alienating this bargain will make her.

I was turning pages frantically to try to finish the book, but once I was done I felt a bit out of sorts. Kind of as if I had lost a friend. It was a heartwrenching book with such gorgeous writing and amazing plot development. I was never bored. However, I have to remind you all again that I am an Austenite- I live for the scenes when its 4:00 in the morning, Mr. Darcy is coming to right the wrongs his cruel aunt has inflicted on his beloved, the sunlight is streaming in the background, and he proposes to miss Elizabeth Bennett, the love of his life.

So if you are not that kind of person (I haven’t met many of them), the love scenes might get you bored. If you are my kind of person, get ready! This book is a glorious emotional rollercoaster, and you want to ride it out until the very end!

Blackmoore will be published on September 28, 2013. Thank you to Shadow Mountain Publishing for the advance readers edition for this review!

-Becka O., 9th grade

Hello. Austenite here.

I am a HUGE fan of Jane Austen, and for all you people who had to read Emma in high school and are SO over it, think again. I am reviewing an amazing, spectacular book called Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson.

Edenbrooke is a Regency novel about a 19-year-old girl who is sent to live with her grandmother after her mother is killed. Because Marianne hates it there so much, her grandmother sends her to Edenbrooke, hoping that Marianne and the young man there will fall in love.

It is an intense plot with a reading level about 8th grade and up. The language is period-based, yet easy to understand and the plot has so many twists and turns you will hardly be able to keep it straight.

The characters include a highway man, a handsome man, a twin sister, an annoying twin sister’s BFF, and a main character who has a slight affinity for twirling (with her eyes closed). This book was a masterpiece of a Regency novel and one should sit on every home’s bookshelf. I think this one is definitely more for girls though. Sorry, guys. One day I will review a book for you. Probably.

-Becka O., 8th grade