Jane Austen-Regency Award

Editorial Review

Elizabeth in the New World seems an unlikely scenario, but JAFF readers will assuredly excuse a unique variation on Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice. In grief over Darcy’s presumed death Elizabeth seeks to bury the past beneath a new life on the Island of Grenada. Soon the island is under threat from internal rebellion, and Elizabeth discovers her would-be husband is all that she abhors. The raw side of man’s desires and rebellion is unkind to Elizabeth. Her life and chastity hangs by a thread in a tale woven seamlessly with historical facts. All the while a knight minus his shining armour has sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and finally rides to the rescue. All this is revealed within a secondary heroic adventure story running parallel to Elizabeth’s story. The setting for Jane Austen’s P&P was 1812, while the backdrop for *No Greater Love* is Fedon’s 1790’s Revolution. Therefore, poetic licence, and a proportion of fairy tale is permissible for alternative variations of Jane Austen’s novels. Well-written, well researched, the novel is a gritty realistic epic tome depicting life on Grenada for plantation owners and that of their slaves.

Editorial Review

Letty Grey with considerable candour and wit assumes the role of companion to a dying woman. Lilias too is a delightful character who resides in Paris. Sadly but surely Lilias fades. In death she is no less a heroine and pawn for good in a time of great need for Letty. Her good friend Viscount Leomar Byesby is a spy extraordinaire. Leo treads the streets of Paris at the point of Napoleon’s escape from Elba and his triumphal return to Paris. One word, one little mistake can spell disaster, and Letty’s mistake sets prescendence for urgent retreat. Their escape route duly enlightens readers unfamiliar with Paris and what lay below in times past before the building of an extensive metro network. The author has a distinct literary flair, the prose is confident, and the plot itself touchingly sentimental. Sensible Letty is no simpering miss. Byesby is a modest gentleman gallant. The two together reveal historical facts seamlessly amidst chatter, and all the while a gentle theatre of budding romance unfolds.

Georgian Awards

The Valiant Viscount - Sarah Waldock

Editorial Review:

A gentleman’s fortune is subject to the property he owns and its asset value. Poor Lucius, Viscount Rokemore’s inheritance is somewhat dilapidated. Unfortunately all avenues of raising a loan are exhausted. The humiliating prospect of a convenient marriage to a rich heiress is for Rokemore an outrageous proposition. As an alternative he turns to a sporting pastime with great hopes of quadrupling his finances. A strict training regime takes priority. With triumphal victories guineas fall from heaven. In the meanwhile, his gallant nature proves extremely fortunate and results in a charmingly romantic affair, itself incurring unforeseen danger. But Rokemore is a true knight in a frockcoat, and with wonderful sense of historical atmosphere, the author needles a well written, well-researched tapestry of one man’s sheer determination to rebuild his ailing estate and owe not a penny to a living soul. Therefore it is a great pleasure to bestow a Georgian Award to Sarah Waldock, for The Valiant Viscount.

The Purchased Peer - Giselle Marks

Editorial Review:

Xavier Falconer is man in dire straits, down on his luck in a vast mansion and barely a penny to his name. Liquor prevents sober hours from worsening the reality of his ceaseless torment of past recklessness. One day and unsure if he’s drunk or dead, a veiled apparition appears. The woman’s proposition is outrageous. But what does a penniless earl have to lose beyond gaining a wife in exchange for the one thing she desires from an aristocratic wastrel. While the ritual of making love to his veiled bride is disconcerting, although gratifying, investment in hard labour keeps him sane by day. While by night his duties progressively turn potent and desire abounds. With the unexpected day of the lifting of the veil stark reality is shocking for Xavier. His confession is his redeeming quality, his wife’s vain hope of revenge is then to no avail and love withheld spills forth. Well written with a mysterious web of deceit, the psychology of Xavier’s sexual desire and urge to please the veiled lady is highly intriguing. The Georgian award is hereby granted to Giselle Marks, for The Purchased Peer.