Immaculately researched
Shallow Seas
A Tale of Two Cities: Singapore and Batavia
Description
In this sequel to "The Red Thread", the sexy Regency-style romance set in the exotic East, Charlotte Macleod is nineteen, pregnant, and alone in 1842. She is fleeing a scandalous liaison with her married Chinese lover, a liaison which would bring ruin on him, herself, and her brother, Robert, the police chief of Singapore. When Tigran Manouk, forty, and the richest merchant in Batavia, capital of the Dutch East Indies, asks for her hand in marriage, the choice is no choice. Through loss and pain, Charlotte will find a way to make a life with a man she does not love in a town she does not understand. Until she returns to Singapore, to the town where the man she loves waits for her, to face the hardest decision of her life. This is Vol.2 in "The Straits Quartet".
Reviews
Multiple protagonists and perspectives, both Eastern and Western, and elaborate description transport the reader to a fascinating time and place brimming with mystical and poetic flourishes.
Exceptionally well-written … A beautiful story to relish on every page
Rollicking saga … a brilliant evocation of the settlement in its early days, both in its physical details and socio-cultural nuances.
