Adam Loveday

Adam Loveday by Kate Tremayne/ ISBN 978-0-7553-4620-2 and it is published on 7 February.

Publisher: Headline


The year is 1787 and Adam Loveday is enduring his last few hours aboard the HMS Goliath before it docks and he is able to travel on leave to his family home at Trevowan in Cornwall. Adam is twenty years old and does not want a career in the Navy. He wants to be a shipwright and has a real passion for the family estate, especially its shipyard. Unfortunately, however, Adam is not the heir to the estate and shipyard. This has fallen to his elder twin, St John, who has little interest in the business he will one day inherit. Adam and St John are fierce rivals and Adam had in fact been ordered by their father to join the Navy when his sons’ constant fighting and rivalry had become unbearable. Edward Loveday is struggling however to maintain the estate and shipyard and is certainly not being helped by his lazy, eldest son.

Adam and St John are also rivals for the affections of the local innkeeper’s daughter, Meriel Sawle. Meriel’s family are renowned for their involvement in the smuggling trade and she is fiercely protected by her violent father and brothers. Meriel favours Adam, but their romance is doomed when during his leave, Adam’s father arranges for him to become betrothed to his French cousin, Lisette.

Adams returns to his naval duties all too soon, but is shortly cashiered after falling foul of his old enemy Lt Francis Beaumont, who is also cashiered and determined to gain revenge on Adam Loveday.

Adam is therefore able to return to his family home and becomes involved in the family shipbuilding business. This angers St John who is concerned that his father will give his youngest son the yard and so he derives a plan to ensure that Adam never inherits the shipyard and will never have his heart’s desire, Meriel.

My review is probably not doing this novel the justice it very much deserves. It is a true family drama and tells us not just about Adam and St John, but also their cousins, the roguish Japhet, his pious brother, Peter and Thomas, who wishes to be a poet and playwright. I had not realised when I began this novel that it is just the first in a series of books about the Loveday family. Many issues remain unresolved at the end of the book (although it could stand alone), but the author has certainly captured my attentions and I shall be tracking down a copy of the next book in the series as soon as possible! I cannot imagine that my interest will be satisfied after that, however!

I award this novel 5 very well deserved red roses. PS