Judith‘s review of The Ghost and Roman Trent (The Ghost and Romance series, Book 4) by Jeanne Savary.
(Book 4 in The Ghost and Romance series. These events precede those in Jenna’s Eternal Lover, published in Cotillion Christmas Spirits.)
In 1806, Roman Trent proposed to Serena. When told to go away, he went all the way to India. His years there didn’t dilute his love for Serena, however, nor his interest in her theories of education. Now Serena has fulfilled her dream, establishing a school, and at last Roman has the opportunity to start his own school, right next door to Serena’s. It is located on property willed him by the late Lord Everston.
Now the ghost of Roman’s benefacter–along with Jena, the ghost’s earthly love–must ensure things go right for Roman and Serena. Unfortunately, their efforts to bring about true love are complicated by another woman’s determination to marry Roman and made nearly impossible by Serena’s vow to never marry anyone.
Serena and Roman are star-crossed lovers, people who had a chance to be together and were pushed apart by immaturity and personal goals which just didn’t mesh at the time. Serena has now turned into a starchy, inflexible matron who is in charge of a very upscale school for girls from aristocratic families, which emphasizes real education and not just the “finishing school” approach to female education common in the early 1800’s. Roman is now a settled and caring man, greatly changed by his time in India and recognizing that while he still loves Serena, there are now barriers to their relationship progress that are even higher than they were previously. Add in the ghost of Roman’s grandfather, still in communication with his former housekeeper who was the love of his life, and you have a rather different historical romance.
Serena is a bit tiresome–really unbending, and while that is commendable to some degree when seeking to guide young lives, she is a bit “over the top” on occasion. It is only that she is forced to aide Roman when a truly unstable woman from Roman’s circle in India appears and begins to stalk him, that Serena realizes that she alone can provide him with an important measure of protection from this woman’s craziness.
There is no doubt that society in that day was guided by some very narrow boundaries and Serena does indeed seek to protect her own personal reputation as well as that of her school. However, she has closed off her heart and it is interesting to note that Roman continues to pursue her, even though he knows that her icy, non-responsive exterior is not really a true indication of her inner opinions and feelings. The exchanges between the ghostly Lord Everston and his love Jenna are very caring, both recognizing that they each inhabit different worlds and that those worlds may not touch. Yet their genuine affection for one another is very engaging. Their care for Roman and Serena is just another of the bonds that continue to bind them together until Jenna can go to be with her lover.
I don’t know if there really are ghosts — I often suspect that there are — but how grace-filled this story is to have someone who cares enough about Serena and Roman to venture back from the world beyond to oversee their future happiness. The story is told very well. I don’t think it is the very best historical romance I have ever read–there were times that the dialogue seemed just a bit contrived and ponderous–but it is certainly readable and an entertaining tale. I have not read any previous work by this author so I have nothing with which to compare it. But I think that it is a novella that is a gentle story, filled with good people–characters that have all the bruises and bunions of real people, trying to live in a society that provides little wiggle room. This is not just a romance, it is also a ghost story, although the ghost is not “center stage.” It certainly was a pleasant piece of work to read.
I give this novella a rating of 3.75 out of 5.
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This book is available from Cerridwen Press. You can buy it here in e-format.