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MY REVIEW

Estranged from her family, Claire Summers has been living in Scotland as companion to an elderly aunt, but when the stern woman dies, Claire travels south to Sidmouth, hoping for a rapprochement with her mother and sisters. Answering an advertisement from a mysterious William Hammond, Claire becomes a partner/housekeeper at another boarding house in Sidmouth (an establishement different than the Sea View boarding house her sisters manage in the same town).

As Claire learns to manage a boarding house, she comes to care for widower William Hammond and his half-Indian daughter, Mira. But what secrets is Mr. Hammond keeping as he stays up till all hours of the night? As news of Claire’s arrival spreads, her sisters are, in the main, delighted by her return. Others are not so kind. Claire must brave the animosity of some who know about or suspect her past while tentatively reaching out to a mother who has sworn to shun her. The thread of forgiveness is woven deftly throughout the book as each character makes peace with Claire in her own time.

Just as Charles Parker came back into Emily’s life in the previous book, a past flame returns to Claire’s life. She must make the difficult choice whether to accept him and regain her respectability or tell the story of her past to the increasingly attentive William Hammond. But if she reveals the real reason she went to Scotland, she must face his possible rejection.

One theme of the book is disadvantaged women in Regency society. The story of an Indian woman in predominantly white Regency England and the story of a housemaid who has been impregnated and abandoned both parallel Claire’s story. Each of these three women are linked together with chains of prejudice that can only be broken by the Gospel. It takes a good deal of secrecy, avoidance, and shame before Claire learns “she could still hold her head high in church of anywhere. Not because she was good or worthy, but because her heavenly Father was.”

One remarkable thing about this series is how different each book has been. The first book provided the pleasure of a cameo of one of my favorite Jane Austen characters. The second book was a rich banquet of royal protocol as the father of the future Queen Victoria visited Sidmouth. This third book has the most developed romance of all three of the books . . . possibly since two of the Summers sisters are now married off, there was more time to focus on a single sister’s story thread (with hints of what might happen with the lovelorn Sarah in the future). This has been my favorite of the On Devonshire Shores novels so far. Recommended.

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She knew then that it was more important to be honest than to try to preserve the appearance of respectability. It was time to stop hiding, as Mrs. Denby had advised. And it was time to apologize to Mr. Hammond. To confess all and let the consequences come . . . even if that meant losing any hope of a future with him.

-The Seaside Homecoming by Julie Klassen

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