Discerning Grace (The White Sails Series Book 1)

by Emma Lombard

Overview

As the first full-length novel in The White Sails Series, DISCERNING GRACE captures the spirit of an independent woman whose feminine lens blows the ordered patriarchal decks of a 19th century tall ship to smithereens.

Wilful Grace Baxter, will not marry old Lord Silverton with his salivary incontinence and dead-mouse stink. Discovering she is a pawn in an arrangement between slobbery Silverton and her calculating father, Grace is devastated when Silverton reveals his true callous nature.

Refusing this fate, Grace resolves to stow away. Heading to the docks, disguised as a lad to ease her escape, she encounters smooth-talking naval recruiter, Gilly, who lures her aboard HMS Discerning with promises of freedom and exploration in South America.

When Grace's big mouth lands her bare-bottomed over a cannon for insubordination, her identity is exposed. The captain wants her back in London but his orders, to chart the icy archipelago of Tierra del Fuego, forbid it. Lieutenant Seamus Fitzwilliam gallantly offers to take Grace off the fretting captain's hands by placing her under his protection.

Grace must now win over the crew she betrayed with her secret, while managing her feelings towards her taciturn protector, whose obstinate chivalry stifles her new-found independence. But when Grace disregards Lieutenant Fitzwilliam's warnings about the dangers of the unexplored archipelago, it costs a friend his life and she realises she is not as free as she believes.

DISCERNING GRACE is historical women's fiction that will appeal to fans of Claire Fraser from Outlander and Demelza Poldark from Poldark—in other words, fans of feisty historical female leads.

• 2021 B.R.A.G. Medallion for excellence
• 2021 Bronze Medallist for Historical Romance, The Coffee Pot Book Club—Book of the Year
• Short-listed for the 2021 Chatelaine Award for Historical Romance, Chanticleer International Book Award

Product Details

BN ID:	2940162491859
Publisher:	Emma Lombard
Publication date:	08/16/2021
Series:	The White Sails Series , #1
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	NOOK Book
Sales rank:	1,271
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Emma Lombard was born in Pontefract in the UK. She grew up in Africa—calling Zimbabwe and South Africa home for a few years—before finally settling in Brisbane Australia, and raising four boys. Before she started writing historical fiction, she was a freelance editor in the corporate world, which was definitely not half as exciting as writing rollicking romantic adventures. Her characters are fearless seafarers, even though in real life Emma gets disastrously sea sick. DISCERNING GRACE, is the first book in The White Sails Series.
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Editorial Reviews

Discerning Grace (The White Sails) by Emma Lombard is an immensely readable book that is written with an elegant hand and an understanding of what makes history worth reading. Although Discerning Grace is, at the very heart of it, an adventure story, there is also a tender romance that somehow manages to compliment the dangers of the high seas, and a suitor's revenge. At times it reminded me of Jonathan E. Steinberg and Robert Levine's Black Sails.

The Coffee Pot Book Club - Mary Anne Yarde

It has an outlandish, brave plot, enthralling characters, and an incredibly well thought out story that will keep the reader wanting to read for hours on end ... Discerning Grace reads like a movie, and you are able to imagine the details in perfect glory!

Red Headed Book Lover - Aimee Ann