The Bird of Bedford Manor by Michelle Griep

  

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult, Christian Fiction
Genre: Romance, Clean romance, Historical Romance, Mystery, Historical Mystery
Content: Clean

Bedfordshire, England, 1820: Ruined by the sins of her father, Juliet Finch is cast into a life of self-reliance. Survival is a harsh taskmaster, but she is a quick learner and excels at tracking and snaring wild game to feed herself. Juliet embraces her new identity until the day Henry Russell catches her poaching on his land—a crime punishable by death. Henry, however, has other offenses on his namely, the troublesome stalker who’s making a misery of his sister’s life. To try to put a stop to her torment, Henry charges Juliet with tracking the elusive villain so he can be brought to justice. Using her skills, Juliet hunts down the rogue. . .but may just become the prey herself.
  

This is the first book I've read by this author and I enjoyed it. I felt like there were probably some things that weren't very historically accurate but overall it was entertaining. I liked both the main female and main male characters. I liked that the main female character was written as an intelligent, resourceful woman, although swallowing her pride and asking for help seems like it would have been the easier route compared to poaching. I enjoyed the way the relationship blossomed between the two characters.

The biggest weakness of the book is that I thought it was pretty obvious, almost from the beginning, who the perpetrator was, and what this person was doing. I didn't feel like this character was written very consistently throughout with the way they went from seemingly calculated and purposeful to crazy by the end. I do feel like the positives outweighed the negatives, so I would probably try another book by this author in the future. 

Thanks to NetGalley and Barbour Publishing for providing me with an ARC of this book.