Rating:
Published: 1989
Illustrator: Melissa Duillo-Gallo
Book Series: Highclyffe Hall #2
Published by: Warner Books
Genres: Gothic Romance, Historical Romance, Bodice Ripper
Pages: 365
Format: Paperback
Buy on: Amazon, AbeBooks
VERY MILD SPOILERS 😉
The Book
Across a Starlit Sea was a tempestuous romance written by Rebecca Brandewyne.
This was a sequel to one of my most beloved love stories, Upon a Moon-Dark Moor.
Also notable is this was one of the rare Brandewyne novels with Warner Books that was not illustrated by Elaine Duillo. Instead, her daughter Melissa Duillo-Gallo painted the cover.
The Plot
The Cornish coast setting of Across a Starlit Sea was appropriate for dark, gothic feel to this historical romance. I enjoyed the first-person narrative in both installments of this series.
The heroines told their life stories on detail: their youths, their first loves, true loves, their married lives with children, and finally into old age. Expect to see Brandewyne’s standard purple-prose writing and in-depth descriptions of history.
Laura was betrothed at birth to Jarrett, the eldest son of Maggie & Draco, the protagonists from Upon a Moon-Dark Moor. The trouble is that she’s been in love with his younger brother, Nicholas, since childhood..
The brothers battle for Laura’s love, but it’s soon evident that Jarrett is the hero who is worthy of her affection.
The way Jarrett won Laura over was so beautifully portrayed. He was an enigmatic, reserved man, but so full of confidence, charisma, and compassion. How could she possibly resist him in the end?
The children of the secondary characters from Upon a Moon-Dark Moor are quite relevant in this book, including Lizzie and Thorne, cousins to Laura, Jarrett, and Nicky.
Lizzie and Thorne have been raised as heirs to Chandler Hall and look down upon their lesser relations, even as Lizzie lusts after Nicky.
Even her brother Thorne had the hots for Nicholas. He hated Laura because Nicholas wanted her so much–and not him!
Nicholas was quite a scoundrel because he had an affair with Thorne’s wife and various other women. This would wreak consequences for the entire Chandler family.
There were so many tragedies in this story (and its prequel). The sacrifices Laura makes to preserve her family are noble, and the ending, while a happy one, is bittersweet.
For the heart is not a candle that, once lit, can be extinguished at will, but a fragile, foolish thing, all too easily wounded, all too slow to heal.
ACROSS A STARLIT SEA
Final Analysis of Across a Starlit Sea
Across a Starlit Sea was to be the second book in Rebecca Brandewyne’s Highclyffe Hall Trilogy about the Chandler family. Brandewyne intended to write a third book about Laura’s son, Rhodes, but never did.
I’ve been waiting for over 30 years for it to come out, and I don’t think it’s ever going to happen. ☹
Across a Starlit Sea is a wonderful book, at times quite the tearjerker. More heart-wrenching is its prequel, Upon A Moon-Dark Moor, which was one of my favorite Brandewyne novels.
I’ll have to use my imagination about the outcome of the series, but I know that no matter what ominous circumstances face the family, love will win out in the end.
4 Stars
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| Overall: | 4.1 |
Synopsis
She was caught in a whirlwind of passion…Between two men, two brothers, and two fates
As the wind tossed her tangled locks, Laura Prescott looked out into a future as bleak as the savage moors. The only daughter of a sea captain, Laura was betrothed to the master of Stormswept Heights. But it wasn’t Jarrett Chandler who came to her in dreams; it was his impetuous younger brother Nicholas.
Now, standing on the jagged Cornish cliffs, Laura let her tears fall, for she could not foresee a time when she would tremble beneath her husband’s hungry kisses. Nor could she know that a spoiled maiden and a scoundrel schemed for her ruin. All she could do was rush blindly into desire’s mad embrace, toward a destiny decreed by irresistible love…
ACROSS A STARLIT SEA by REBECCA BRANDEWYNE