The Governess of Highland Hall - Carrie Toransky

Julia Foster has returned to England after spending 12 years assisting her parents as medical missionaries in India.  Due to her father's ill health, Miss Foster finds herself needing to seek employment to help her parents while her father recovers, after which, she assumes the family will return to their calling in India.  Feeling herself to be qualified to serve as a governess, having taught Indian orphans for 9 years, she is still surprised to find that this position at Highland Hall will include not only tutoring the motherless six and nine-year-old children of the master of the Hall, but also keeping his recently orphaned teen aged cousins in-line, as well as prepare them for the upcoming social season in London.  It's a lot to handle, and it doesn't help to add in a moody master, a challenging head housekeeper, and a rising doubt on just how strong her missionary calling might be.

The characters in this book really made it enjoyable for me; I cared about Julia and how she was working very hard to do her job and honor God at every turn.  Yet, she was not infallible, but was usually quick to apologize for her actions and seek to make them right.  Sir William was under so much pressure, both internally and without, that it would have been easy to make him one-sided and appear to be nothing but gruff to those around him, but with the viewpoint shared equally from his and hers, it made him a much more well-rounded character to see how deeply afraid he was to let down the people he loved.  Or to be let down yet again by someone else.  It was a struggle for him to believe that anyone could be as completely forthright and genuine as Miss Foster, but her depth of character couldn't be maligned even after several attempts by those seeking to discredit her in his eyes.

Overall, I give this book 3.5 stars.  It was decently written, with good depth to the characters.  The story was just average though, with nothing super exciting or challenging to make it stand out.  A decent read, and I will likely read the next installment in the series.

You can find The Governess of Highland Hall HERE.
You can find the author's website HERE.

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I received a copy of this book from Watebrook Multnomah Publishers, in exchange for my honest review.