Book Review: Drops of Gold

I love Sarah Eden's books.  She writes regency romance so well and Drops of Gold is no exception.  I think what I love most about her books is the way she writes her characters and how memorable they are, but also how she writes the romance.  It's "clean" romance, but so sigh-worthy.  That is hard to find in regency romance.

Drops of Gold is about a woman who names herself Mary Wood when she has had a change in circumstances because her father passes away and leaves no provision for her.  She applies for a position as a governess, but forges documents giving her a recommendation in order to get the position.  When she arrives at Farland Meadows she finds a household that is suspicious and oddly quiet.  The child she has been sent to watch over seems altogether too mature for her age and has questions about where her mother went.  It is a sad house indeed and Mary sets out to effect change there.  But then she meets Layton Jonquil, the master of the house and wonders if change can ever happen.

Layton Jonquil is mourning his wife and guarding the secret of her death.  He doesn't know what to make of this outspoken woman who says such things as "double dungers" and seems to bring sunshine and love to hearts long without it.  But Layton can't let himself get close to anyone, even if he wants to.  Can he risk being found out?  And why does Mary seem so reticent to share her past with him?  Could she be hiding secrets of her own?

It's a sweet romance between two people who have suffered in life that will touch your heart for sure.  It's also fun to see characters from other books, like Phillip and Sorrel and Crispin and Catherine and catch up a little bit as to what's happened to them.  The only thing I wished was different was that I badly wanted an epilogue.  I just love seeing certain things, but alas, I shall just have to imagine it on my own. Although I hear this is part of a Jonquil brothers series, so maybe I'll get that certain scene in the next book.

Here's the back copy:

Layton Jonquil has spent the four years since his wife's death in the isolated sanctuary of his home, Farland Meadows, with only his daughter Caroline. Mary Wood, a flame-haired, out-spoken, overly-cheerful governess descends on the household changing both their lives and unearthing secrets Layton would rather remained buried and forgotten. Can one woman bring love back into a house too long without it and reclaim a heart too long broken to heal?