Tregaron's Daughter

Tregaron's Daughter

by Madeleine Brent

Blurb:

Madeleine Brent's first novel follows the fortunes of Cadi Tregaron, a sixteen year old fisherman's daughter. Happy in the small community of the coastal village where she has spent her life, the only hint of disquiet has been a recurring dream-- of a great house standing in water and of a faceless man who awaits her there-- a dream which is sometimes wonderful and sometimes terrifying.

By a cruel blow Cadi is left alone in the world, but she is taken into a wealthy family where she lives like a lady with servants to wait upon her and is treated as one of the family. At Meadhaven she finds mystery, danger and a hidden enemy. Is it the wayward young Richard Morton? Or the grey-eyed stranger who is forever watching her? Or is it Lucian Farrel, her benefactor's maverick nephew, whose face now becomes the one to haunt her dream.

But the dream turns to nightmare, for she finds that the house standing in water is a reality and that she is bound to it by a freak of ancestry. Here, in the house of her dream and far from her own country, Cadi comes to know heartbreak and grief, and learns the frightening truth about herself and the hidden enemy who threatens her life.

My Reaction:

I didn't realize this was Madeleine Brent's first novel until I finished reading it and started comparing notes with some other reviews.  Interesting... 

The general consensus seems to be that Tregaron's Daughter isn't Brent's best work, and I agree.  It felt a bit light-- shorter than I was expecting, though when I compare page-counts, it's not particularly short.  I suppose it just didn't feel as developed to me, for some reason.  Still, if you enjoy the genre, it's a perfectly good book.  It has the same style and follows the same basic formula as all of this author's other works under this pseudonym.  (I've never read anything he wrote under any other name.)  It hits all the same points as his other books-- or at least the ones I've read, which is most of them.  There's a touch of mysticism/the supernatural, and some of the coincidences are nothing short of amazing.  You have to just accept that these books don't take place in the same mundane reality that the rest of us inhabit.  That's part of their charm.

I didn't have a vehement reaction to this novel one way or the other, really.  The heroine is strong and admirable (one of Brent's trademarks), but I found her maybe a bit too perfect and popular at times.  I have to say, Mr. Morton's family was much more accepting of the addition of such a grown-up young woman into their family home than I would have been.  Wasn't she 19 when she moved in with them, and a perfect strange to everyone but Mr. Morton?  I don't know... The whole situation's more than a little odd, in my opinion!  I don't think I'd be happy, if I were his wife or one of his biological children.  I'm not as good as they are, I guess.  

Also, the culmination of the romance felt a little awkward to me.  Brent can write a good, appealing hero, but too often the interactions between his heroes and heroines feel stilted.  This is definitely one of those books where the otherwise intelligent heroine has some strange (and very convenient) blind spots.  There are things that are obvious to the reader for the entire book, yet the heroine has to have them literally explained to her in the last chapter or two!  Well, that's just the way these things go, I guess.  

I'm being picky.  It's a decent book, and this should be an enjoyable read for fans of the genre and the author.  No big surprises means less chance of disappointment, either!  I'd give this 3.5 stars, but am rounding up to 4 stars because I think it's better than 3 stars would suggest.