Book Review: A Name Unknown by Roseanna M. White (2017)

 A Name Unknown

Author: Roseanna M. White

Series: Shadows Over England

Genre: Christian Historic

Year: 2017

My Rating: ★ ★ ★

Goodreads

Official Synopsis 

Rosemary Gresham has no family beyond the band of former urchins that helped her survive as a girl in the mean streets of London. Grown now, they concentrate on stealing high-value items and have learned how to blend into upper-class society. But when Rosemary must determine whether a certain wealthy gentleman is loyal to Britain or to Germany, she is in for the challenge of a lifetime. How does one steal a family's history, their very name?

Peter Holstein, given his family's German blood, writes his popular series of adventure novels under a pen name. With European politics boiling and his own neighbors suspicious of him, Peter debates whether it might be best to change his name for good. When Rosemary shows up at his door pretending to be a historian and offering to help him trace his family history, his question might be answered. 

But as the two work together and Rosemary sees his gracious reaction to his neighbors' scornful attacks, she wonders if her assignment is going down the wrong path. Is it too late to help him prove that he's more than his name?

Go to my Historic Fiction page to find all my Christian historic fiction reviews!

Oh dear, dear, dear.

I don't know what happened.

Roseanna M. White is a lovely author and I absolute adored her Ladies of the Manor series. But something just missed the mark for me with A Name Unknown. It shouldn't have. I mean, this book has a library and a charming hero who is politeness personified.

But I felt like something was missing.

Entire scenes were skipped. I mean, if the hero and heroine are going on a trip to a magnificent castle, I want to go with them! I want to tour it with them and see what they see. Not be in the carriage with them heading to the castle and then find myself skipped ahead several hours as the heroine reminisces on how the castle was so awe-inspiring. 

Chunks of time were chopped. Weeks were lost. A chapter ends with the heroine realizing she needs to get back to the manor on her own and it's late at night. Then we're ahead at least a week at the start of the next chapter.

I honestly don't remember her other books having this time choppiness, but I could be wrong. I just felt like I was missing stuff. We had plenty of character growth, but not enough relational growth. Peter and Rosemary needed to spend loads of time together. I needed to see them go for walks, for rides, for drives into the country, and to see them walk through the bloody castle.

Rosemary's friendship with a local woman needed to be experienced and not just referenced back to after one of these leaps in time. Apparently she spent that time getting to know this young woman. I just didn't get to experience it with her, so I had no connection with their friendship.

As you can tell, the time leaps is my biggest complaint with this novel. If that had been fixed, then everything else would have fallen perfectly into place. As it is, I came out the other side disappointed and wishing that I'd waited for a copy from the library rather than shelling out $10 for a Kindle book that I will likely never read again. Oh well, live and learn. I'll still pick up her next book in the series, but my expectations are now significantly lower.