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| Plot Summary of Petals on the River |
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"Shemaine O'Hearn has been falsely accused of theivery and shipped to the Americas, away from her family and fiance, with no hope of rescue. Enter Gage Thornton, a widower with one young son who's in desperate need of a nanny. One thing leads to another and shortly Shemaine and Gage are under the same roof, in one another's arms, and in one another's hearts, revelling in the peace that comes just before the storm."
Meredith Griffin, Resident Scholar
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"The basic premise was both reasonable and believable, a young widower craftsman purchasing the indenture of a young female transportee to act as nursemaid/housekeeper for his young son. Then propinquity takes over, and the result is marriage and children, in that order.
The hero's life long ambition is to build a ship. This is a revolt against the type of freight hauler his titled father(1) is building in England. He funds this ambition by building fine furniture for the inhabitants of the towns of mid-17th century Virginia(2). His first ship is a brigantine, which has been building for several years. (3)
The hero defends his home with a piece alternately called a muzzle-loader and musket.(4) When training the heroine in the use of this, she immediately begins hitting a small mark at 50 paces. (5)
The heroine got transported because she, as the only child of a very prosperous Irish merchant, was engaged to a Marquis(6) whose grandmother objected, and had her kidnapped and transported in her riding habit.(7) The Marquis, finding rumors of her whereabouts, goes to Virginia and finds her married and carrying the hero's child. He then offers to get an annulment, or shoot the hero, or anything, just so he can marry her. He also promises to care for the child she's carrying and make proper arrangements for her step-son, returning him to his grandfather. But as soon as he meets the daughter of a shipowner (who buys the ship under construction), he is swept off his feet and forgets the heroine.(8) The daughter of the shipowner has Staged down from New York to Newport News.(9)
There is absolutely no mention of Tobacco or plantations in the novel, and that was what Virginia was about until weell into the middle of the 18th Century.
Ms. Woodiwiss has a reputation as a slow writer. My best bet is it because she is a slow typist, as she certainly doesn't spend huge amounts of time of research.
(1) Shipbuilders didn't get titles in 17th (or 18th) century England.
(2) There were no real towns in 17th (or 18th) century Virginia. Trade was directly between England and the plantations. The plantations bought their fine furniture directly from England, by a process very similar to catalog ordering.
(3) I'd have built handy little single masted sloops 25 to 40 feet long, very suitable for local conditions. Actually, that was beginning to be being built. A trained shipbuilder could rack up huge profits.
(4) Muzzle-loader is a redundancy, until the very late 18th century, everything was muzzle loading. Muskets were fairly new on the market, and worth taking care of. Another character uses a rusted old musket. Very unlikely to fire.
(5) !
(6) Possible, but highly unlikely. My information that the habit of nobility marrying the daughters of rich commoners didn't really get started until the late 18th century.
(7) It is very likely that when she hauled before a magistrate in several years wages worth of clothes, her story will get at least a cursory investigation.
(8) This seems unlikely.
(9) Stage connections along the seaboard were not developed until the 19th Century, well after the setting of this book.
Mike, the not unduly sensitive.
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Mike, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Petals on the River |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Time/era of story
- 18th century
Forbidden/mismatched love?
Yes
How mismatched?
- poor loving rich
Love Triangles/Polygons
Yes
What kind:
- one woman-two men
Making a living subplot
Yes
Making a living:
- pioneering in countryside
- working at a business
- working ordinary lives
Inner struggle subplot
Yes
Struggle with...
- (general) search for identity/new understanding
Caretaker, in love with
Yes
Children/Pregnancy
Yes
Family focus?
Yes
Family, loving
Yes
Main Male Character
Profession/status:
- small businessman
Age/status:
- 20's-30's
How sexual is this person?
- very picky
How romantic is this person?
- very romantic
Sex makes him
- wild
Sex has good effect on him
Yes
Sex makes him
- less bitchy/arrogant
- blissful
- mature
- sensitive
Sex has bad effect on him
Yes
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Very much smarter than other characters
Physique
- bulging muscles
Main Female Character
Age/status:
- a teen
Profession/status:
- accused criminal
- small businessman
How sexual is this person?
- naive virgin
How romantic is this person?
- very romantic
- somewhat romantic
effect of sexing
- wild
Sex has bad effect on her
Yes
Sex has good effect on her
Yes
Effect of sexing
- confident
- a better lover
- blissful
- mature
How sensitive is this character?
- soggy whimpering jelly muffin
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Strong but gentle sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- Southeast
Europe
Yes
European country:
- England/UK
Water?
Yes
Water:
- sail boat
Style
Person
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- no torture/death
What % of story is romance related?
- nearly 100%
Sex in book?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- vague references
- descript of kissing
- touching of anatomy
- licking
- impregnation/reproduction
- actual description of sex
- descript. of female anatomy (the big B's)
- descript. of female anatomy (the big V)
- descript. of male nudity (the big P)
Weird Victorian/Shakespearean English?
Yes
Focus of story
- equally on him and her
Consequences of sex
- pregnancy
How much dialog
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
- significantly more descript than dialog
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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