Once in a Blue Moon

Despite early whiffs of the industrial revolution and a hero who fought at Waterloo, history is little more than an embellishment in this romance of Regency-period Cornwall. Lieutenant McCady Trelawny, youngest son of an earl, intends to spend his short leave on his Cornish uncle's estate, developing an engine for a horseless carriage. His best efforts go up in a puff of smoke, but he captures the heart of Jessalyn Letty, a poor but ladylike member of the local gentry. But his own cousin, banker Clarence Tiltwell, has his sights set on marrying Jessalyn. McCady, too noble to take advantage of the 16-year-old girl, coldly disregards her avowal of love and rejoins his troops. Jessalyn becomes engaged to Clarence, a practical arrangement which she can accept with equanimity until McCady tromps back into her life five years later. Williamson's ( Keeper of the Dream , which has some 175,000 copies in print) tale never rises above bland sentimentality and stock characters, and one notes with uneasiness that she draws these characters along the lines of British class-based stereotypes, such as the honorable aristocrat vs. the contemptible banker. (May)