The Weaver’s Daughter by Sarah Ladd (TLC Tour Review and GIVEAWAY!)

Set in Regency England, a war is brewing between mill owners and weavers in a small village.  The weavers want to continue their traditional role of making cloth but are threatened by the introduction of machinery by the mill owners that will take away their jobs.  With their way of life that has been passed down through the centuries threatened, will the weavers take drastic actions to save it?

Kate Dearborne belongs to a reigning weaver family.  After the mill owner’s grandson, Henry Stockton, returns from war, Kate keeps finding herself encountering him everywhere she goes.  She’s been raised to believe that mill owners and their families are evil, but Henry Stockton seems to care about his workers more than his Grandfather. Kate feels she can help him to see the evil of the conditions of the mill.  Will these two unlikely friends become more than friends?

I enjoyed this novel.  I liked so many different aspects of it.  I like how it looked at how mechanization changed the way work had been done for centuries, but that it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.  I like how the book looked at how this affected families and relationships as well.  The Weaver’s Daughter also had moments where Henry Stockton must deal with his memories of serving in combat against the French. This is a subject that Jane Austen wouldn’t touch.  It was also interesting how he had to meld back into society after being the military for so long.  I loved the characters and setting, and I liked the Romeo and Juliet type relationship between Kate and Henry.   

 

Favorite Quotes:

“Sometimes I barely recognize him.  In years past he would sit with me for hours and talk on any subject, serious or frivolous, it didn’t matter.  Now he clutches every thought so close to his chest.  He used to be an open book.  Not it seems as if his time on the Peninsula robbed him of some piece of his soul.”

“Everyone makes mistakes in their life.  It is how you respond to them and learn from them that matters.”

“Her soul felt at rest, for now she knew the true power of love, the unbending strength of loyalty, and the eternal beauty of forgiveness.”

Overall, The Weaver’s Daughter is a great regency book with a stellar romance, great characters and a fascinating look at how mechanization affected traditional workers.

Book Source:  E-book copy as part of the TLC Book Tour.  Thank-you!  For more stops on the tour, check out this link.

GIVEAWAY

One lucky winner will receive a copy of The Weaver's Daughter by Sarah Ladd. If you would like to win this book, please leave a comment on what interests you about this book. Have you ever read any novels set in the Regency period?  If so, which ones did you enjoy or not enjoy?

As part of your comment, you must include an email address. If I can't find a way to contact you I will draw another winner.

For an additional entry, blog about this giveaway or post it on your sidebar. Provide a link to this post in your comment.

I will be using random.org (or a Monte Carlo simulation in excel) to pick the winners from the comments.

This contest is only open to addresses in the United States.

The deadline for entry is midnight on Friday June 1st!

Please make sure to check the week of June 4th to see if you are a winner. I send emails to the winner, but lately I've been put in their "junk mail" folder instead of their inbox.

Good luck!