Featured Release: An Hour Unspent by Roseanna M. White

With danger creeping ever closer, do their dreams still matter?

Once London’s top thief, Barclay Pearce has turned his back on his life of crime and now uses his skills for a nation at war, including keeping an eye on a talented engineer working as a clockmaker. But not until he rescues the man’s daughter from a mugging does he begin to wonder what his future might hold.

Evelina Manning has constantly dreamed and worked for independence, but she certainly never meant for it to inspire her fiancé to end their engagement and enlist in the army. When the intriguing man who saved her returns to the Manning residence to study clock repair with her father, she can’t help being interested. But she soon learns that nothing with Barclay Pearce is as simple as it seems.

As 1915 England plunges deeper into war, the race is on for any technological edge, and Evelina’s father’s ideas have captured the attention of many—perhaps too many. As danger seems to encroach from every side, it may just take a reformed thief to steal the time they need to escape.

 

An Hour Unspent is the third book in Roseanna M. White’s Shadows Over England series, coming after A Name Unknown and A Song Unheard. Roseanna has been one of my favorite authors of all-time for years now, so I am always super excited when one of her novels releases. However, I have been anticipating this story even more, because it is the third book in my favorite series she has written, and is about Barclay Pearce, who I have loved from the minute I was introduced to him in book one. And let me just say, by the time I was through with his first scene in this novel, I loved him even more. So you can only imagine how much more I loved him by the time I finished his story and learned all about the way he cared for his family, for his brother, for Clover and Patch, and for Evelina and her father. Barclay is definitely the hero of all heroes, and I would even recommend you reading this story simply for Barclay alone.

But, it don’t have to, because there are so many additional reasons why you should read this book. Let’s start with Evelina. She is a spitfire! Every one of Roseanna’s heroines are independent and strong, so I knew to expect that going into this novel, but I definitely did not expect Evelina to be as determined and willful as she was! She kept me entertained throughout the entirety of the story, and I loved really getting to know her deeper as her flaws and insecurities came to light. And I really enjoyed getting to see her and her mother grow into the people they were meant to be.

Then there’s the relationship between all of the “siblings,” including Barclay. I knew all about this from the first two novels, but only from Rosemary and Willa’s perspectives, which made it different when I was able to see their relationships through the eyes of Barclay—the father figure of the “family.” The way that they banded together and became a family through all of the hardships that they faced—both together and apart—really touched me, especially since I have always had a heart for orphans. God has given me a heart for adoption and for children without families of their own, so I can’t help but be touched by the way that Barclay gave every lonely child who came into his path a family of their own.

I could go on and on, but suffice it to say, I loved this novel. The path the story took, with the romance and the heartbreak, and the mystery and war tied into the middle, just captivated me and made it impossible to set this book down until I was finished. There was so much action, so much intrigue, and the perfect amounts of faith, family, and love to give this story the most incredible flow and plotline, and I loved every minute of it. I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone who is a reader of fiction—and honestly even those who are not—because it is so worth reading. Obviously I give it all five bookshelves, and a place on my all-time favorites list, and I know I will be reading this book again and again over the years to come.

Happy reading!

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for only my honest review.

To see where I’m linking up, check out my Where I Party page.

All credit for the italicized synopsis goes to Roseanna M. White and Bethany House Publishers.