Favourite Romance Shout Out! Petals on the River by Kethleen E. Woodiwiss

The fiery and outspoken adopted daughter of one of England's most formidable women, Shemaine O'Hearn has made powerful enemies. And now her adversaries have found a way to remove the hot-blooded beauty from her life of privilege: by falsely convicting Shemaine of thievery, and sending her in shackles to America, where she is to be sold in indentured servitude to the highest bidder.

In a bustling port city in the colony of Virginia, she becomes the servant of Gage Thornton --- a shipbuilder with a young child in need of a nanny. And despite whispered rumors condemning the handsome widower for the untimely death of his wife, Shemaine cannot ignore her desire for this caring, generous and enigmatic stranger who silently aches with his growing need for her --- even as grave peril reaches out from across a vast ocean to threaten their flowering love.

(Image and Description from Goodreads)

Petals on the River by Kathleen Woodiwiss went to the top of my favourite romance list as soon as I finished the first time around. And the terrible thing is that I very nearly never read it as my first experience with the authors work was The Elusive Flame where the ‘hero’ rapes the heroine and he sees no problem with this. Of course everyone gets their happily ever after (well those deserving of one anyway) but I just couldn’t forgive the hero for his actions and I would have loved it if the heroine had killed the rapist swine in his sleep – wishful thinking on my part obviously. BUT something made me give Kathleen Woodiwiss another try and thankfully Petals on the River was the one that I picked up.

Shemaine (heroine) is framed for stealing and after not being given a fair hearing she is shipped off to the colonies as criminal. She survived several attempts on her life and manages to ward off unwanted attentions to be bought as a bondslave when she reaches America.

Gage Thornton is a widower with a young son (because, do widowers in romance novels ever come any other way?). He isn’t interested in marrying again (yet! *wink wink*) and decides the best way to get a care for his home and his son is to buy one. So her buys Shemaine and is, of course, almost immediately taken with her. But there are some who are dead set against a beautiful young woman living under the same roof as him, and then there are the accusations that he had something to do with his wife’s death.

And who is responsible for framing Shermaine, and what about her family?

Well, you’ll have to read to find out all that ;)

One of the things that I loved the most about this book was is Andrew, Gage’s son. He is adorable.

Shemaine is a strong heroine who tries to make the best of the situation she finds herself in. My favourite part is when she doesn’t think twice about confronting the man who was a constant threat to her during the voyage when she sees him abusing someone who can’t defend themselves. She hits him with a stick! I loved it.

Gage is a strong and honourable hero- he had plenty of opportunities to take advantage of Shemaine and he leaves her alone. He tried his best to protect her from everyone who tries to abuse her, either physically or verbally.

And then there is the colourful cast of good, bad and indifferent characters.

There are some points that make me roll my eyes, like the unintended feel up (which made me cringe and laugh at the embarrassment factor) and then there are points when they talk like they walked out of the middle of a Shakespeare play.

This is still one of my favourite favourites after 6 years!