SALTING THE WOUND

Author: Janet Woods ISBN: 9780727868299 1/2010 HISTORICAL Publisher: SEVERN HOUSE
Time Period: 1850

Charlotte Honeyman jilts her long-time swain, and on the spur of the moment marries a stranger. His pride damaged and his matrimonial plans upset, sea captain, Nick Thornton threatens to take revenge. Charlotte's young sister, Marianne, takes pity on Nick and secretly boards his ship. There she meets with an accident and the ship sets sail for Boston before she is found. Nick regards Marianne as the perfect tool with which to get his own back, but in the process he falls in love. A secret marriage sees the rift between the two sisters widen. Fate  intervenes to change the course of their lives, perhaps altogether.  Scandal erupts when Nick is shipwrecked. When it becomes apparent that Marianne is expecting Nick's child, she has no proof that a marriage took place.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Nicholas Thornton has come home at last to claim his bride.  After years back and forth at sea, he is now ready to settle down with the woman of his dreams.  He has big plans to come home and marry his childhood sweetheart, even if the last time he was home, she rejected him and broke his heart.  Sure that she has now come to her senses, Nick arrogantly decides that he is going to go out to Charlotte's house and find a woman who is more than willing to marry him.  But the reception that he receives is much different than the one he had thought.  Because the woman that he has loved all of his life is already married to someone else, and when Nick shows up at her door, she shows him the business end of a rifle!

Nick retreats to lick his wounds, vowing to find some way to make Charlotte pay for this humiliation.  When Charlotte's little sister Marianne decides to try and make things better and go to visit Nick on his boat, she has no idea the trouble she has gotten herself into. When Nick finds her hurt on his boat two days out to sea, he doesn’t do the "gentlemanly" thing and return Marianne to her home right away; instead, he decides that sweet revenge is staring him right in the face.  To his way of thinking it would serve Charlotte right to be worried and furious over her missing sister.  What Nick doesn't count on is the feelings that he discovers for little Aria Honeyman.  Long gone is the little girl that he used to tease all the time, and in her place is a beautiful, vibrant, young woman, one he finds himself increasingly drawn to. 

I LOVE Janet Woods style of writing.  I haven't been disappointed by a single book I have read of hers, and I have read them all!  Nick and Marianne have fabulous chemistry and the writing flows beautifully.  Ms. Wood's simply knows how to tell an excellent story with captivating characters and situations.  I highly recommend SALTING THE WOUND if you are looking for not only a page-turner, but also a new book for your keeper shelves. 

Kristal Gorman