Star-Crossed
Search in google:
Patricia Kelley has been raised a proper British lady—but she's become a stowaway. Her father is dead, and her future in peril. To claim the estate that is rightfully hers, she must travel across the seas to Barbados, hidden in the belly of merchant ship.It is a daring escapade, and the plan works—for a time. But before she knows it, Patricia's secret is revealed, and she is torn between two worlds. During the day, she wears petticoats, inhabits the dignified realm of ship's officers, and trains as a surgeon's mate with the gentle Aeneas MacPherson; at night she dons pants and climbs the rigging in the rough company of sailors. And it is there, alongside boson's mate John Dalton, that she feels stunningly alive.In this mesmerizing novel of daring, adventure, tragedy, and romance, Patricia must cross the threshold between night and day, lady and surgeon, and even woman and man. She must be bold in ways beyond her wildest dreams and take risks she never imagined possible. And she must fight for her life—and her love.KLIATTSailing in the 18th century, in seas filled with pirates and other enemies, with a heroine who must at times pretend she is a male in order to survive—oddly enough, this has become a familiar story outline. We are reminded of other books, especially the adventures of Louis A. Meyer's heroine in Bloody Jack and its sequels. Star-Crossed is more serious, however; the conditions the sailors face are described in all their horror. The heroine, Patricia, has been raised in a school for young ladies in England, but she dreams of returning to Barbados where her father owned a plantation, so she becomes a stowaway on a ship in order to get to the Caribbean. A sailor, Brian Dalton, discovers her presence and hides her, even teaching her to climb the ropes at night and giving her men's clothing. This is the beginning of the adventures that continue for 400 pages. Patricia becomes the assistant to the ship's surgeon once she is discovered, and later, after his death, she becomes Patrick MacPherson, Surgeon's Mate. Collison has done her research well: details of life on ship, diseases, injuries and treatments, battles and politics, women who sailed with the men—these details are copious and realistic. This is historical fiction, with endless action, suspense, and romance. Young Alexander Hamilton and his doting mother make an appearance, also based on facts about their lives. Readers come away from Collison's work with an understanding of what it meant to be a woman in those times, and with an experience of living on board a British ship and a fearsome understanding of the deadly diseases like yellow fever, which were prevalent in the Caribbean.
