Review: Rebeccah and the Highwayman, by Barbara Davies

Rebeccah and the Highwayman


By Barbara Davies

Reviewed by Nan hawthorne

This book is about as fun as a book can get!  The only flaw I found was also a solution for a lack I find in all books, sso I can't really call it a flaw.

Kate is a highwayman... or should I say "person of highway"?  She is infamous under the name Blue-eyed Nick and is celebrated for her daring adventures.  Rebeccah and her mother and sister, traveling back to London after visiting family, are well aware of "Nick's" legend so they know what to expect when he waylays them.  But Rebeccah did not expect riveting blue eyes and kindness, both of which haunt her long after the incident.  For her part, kate, who knows the allure of love forr a woman, finds herself remembering spirited green eyes.  In the meantime Rebeccah's sister has set the hounds on "Nick", that is, she has hired a man to hunt the highwayman down and arrest him.  A couple more encounters with Kate and Rebeccah is becoming aware that she is in love and when Nick is proven to be Kate, she must make sense of love for a woman.  Can Rebeccah keep Kate out of the clutches of the hangman, and if so, is there a way they can find to live together as lovers in a society that will not tolerate "the love that dare not speak its name"?

I found Kate terribly sexy and appealing, the female swashbuckler of my dreeams.  Davies, the author, pulls off an entirely believable heroine in Kate.  Rebeccah for her part is just enough of a nonconformist to make choices another woman of her time might balk at.  The story is exciting, titillating, and full of authentic historical material.  A lovely cameo by Sarah Churchill, the Duchess of Marlborough, is a real treat.

The "flaw" I alluded to is that the plot hurtles to a crisis then must retreat into more mundane concerns, but that, whiel a bit hard on the pace of the book, answers a few dozen questions for the reader about what happens next and how do they work out the problems, so I was content.

I read constantly, usually for reviewss, and I can tell you this novel was far from a chore, rather a delight.