The Affectionate Adversary (Miss Pickworth Series #1) [Hardcover]

Catherine Palmer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2006

High society is abuzz with the deepening friendship of the dashing man and beautiful woman who miraculously survived a pirate attack at sea. Little do they know that more than riches were stollen that fateful day...for it was then that Sarah Carlyle stole Charles Locke's heart. But when Sarah discovers Charles' hunger for money and Charles discovers Sarah's fortune, their love is suddenly in question. And was it ever true love anyway? Can Sarah give her heart to a man motivated by money? And does Charles truly love her...or does he love her fortune? They both must search their hearts and find the answers.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 333 pages
• Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers (2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0739466097
• ISBN-13: 978-0739466094
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,460,753 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Catherine Palmer lives in Atlanta with her husband, Tim, where they serve as missionaries in a refugee community. They have two grown sons. Cathy is a graduate of Southwest Baptist University and holds a master's degree in English from Baylor University. Her first book was published in 1988. Since then she has published over 50 novels, many of them national best sellers. Catherine has won numerous awards for her writing, including the Christy Award, the highest honor in Christian fiction. In 2004, she was given the Career Achievement Award for Inspirational Romance by "Romantic Times BOOKreviews" magazine. More than 2 million copies of Catherine's novels are currently in print.

With her compelling characters and strong message of Christian faith, Catherine is known for writing fiction that "touches the hearts and souls of readers." Her many collections include A Town Called Hope, Treasures of the Heart, Finders Keepers, English Ivy, and the Miss Pickworth series. Catherine also recently coauthored the Four Seasons fiction series with Gary Chapman, the "New York Times" best-selling author of "The Five Love Languages."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A nicely detailed period romance with more than just love and passion, March 28, 2006

By 

FaithfulReader.com (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Affectionate Adversary (Miss Pickworth Series #1) (Paperback)

Catherine Palmer is a bestselling, award-winning romance novelist, and her latest, THE AFFECTIONATE ADVERSARY, turns her talents towards love in the early 1800s between a commoner and a wealthy baroness.

Charles Locke is a good man with high aspirations of spending the family's savings by investing in tea, which he believes holds the key to their future success. While at sea, a pirate attack scuttles his plans, and he is left for dead. Another ship arrives in time to rescue him, and the widowed Sarah Carlyle nurses him back to health. Locke falls in love with her, not realizing that Sarah is a titled heiress. However, Sarah has other future plans in mind, namely getting rid of a fortune that weighs her down with guilt by distributing it to various deserving charities.

When the two are back in England, Charles discovers her wealthy status and sets out to convince her that his feelings for her are real and that he's not another gold digger. (Although, he does confess to himself, "Though he did love Sarah, as much as before, the knowledge of her fortune had affected him.") He is not in her social class and seemingly she is out of his reach. However, as they reconnect through mutual friends, Sarah's gentle influence on Charles begins changing his priorities. Soon, he begins to see money not just as a way to pleasure and leisure, but as something that could be put to work to make a difference in the world.

Which is a moot point, since he's lost all the family fortune to pirates...or so it seems. Meanwhile, Sarah's piety is called into question by Charles, who helps her come to grips with a difficult past and to see that what she wants to do with her money and what God may want might be two different things. An advice columnist is consulted by Sarah's family about her potential relationship, and the answer may nudge Sarah into making a decision. (This is the first book presumably of a series introducing advice columnist Miss Pickworth, according to the jacket.)

Like everything Palmer does, the story reads well. The trouble is with certain plot developments and characterizations. The difficulty for the reader will be in suspending disbelief about a few points. Sarah's first marriage, it seems, was never consummated; an unnecessary stock plot development in many Christian novels. (It seems as if faith romance likes its protagonists to be virgins!) The relationship among the three sisters is never fleshed out well, and there's more telling than showing in their relationship. Sarah's resistance to Charles is never quite believable, except that it keeps the story moving along. I never "bought" Sarah's attitude toward money. John Grisham pulled off this sort of "woman who doesn't want her fortune" character in THE TESTAMENT with aplomb. But Palmer fails to bring it off convincingly here.

There's a definite author aspiration toward reminding readers of Jane Austen, with references to the game of whist, locations such as Brighton and Cheapside, and lines such as "It pains me to disappoint a deeply respected father..." or Pru's skirts "six inches deep in dirt." (Can you say Pride and Prejudice?)

However, nice specific details help readers immerse themselves in the time period of the early 1800s, and there is enough of a spiritual development plotline to hook readers who like their romance to evince something more than love and passion. If you enjoy the tea angle, which is not much more than a minor part of the story, you might also investigate LEAVES OF HOPE, Palmer's upcoming contemporary romance novel with tea as central to the plot.

--- Reviewed by Cindy Crosby. Contact Cindy at [e-mail].

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Affectionate Adversary, February 15, 2007

By 

Brenda S. Sydnor "mommiedearest53" (Louisville, Ky) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Affectionate Adversary (Miss Pickworth Series #1) (Paperback)

I enjoyed The Bachelor's Dilema by Catherine Palmer, but I found this book to be tedious and repetious. The heroine's constant fixation that only people who were destitute could enter Heaven was annoying and not entirely biblical.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Alright I Guess........, November 9, 2006

By 

romancelvr (wisconsin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Affectionate Adversary (Miss Pickworth Series #1) (Paperback)

The affectionate Adversary was an alright book I suppose. What I found annoying was the fact that Sarah was so misguided. She thought that she had such a horrible life that she should go give up everything and go live in some dirt hovel. Every time that Charles showed his love for her she still thought he wasn't good enough for her because he wouldn't go live in a shack with her. Sarah did not love her money over God, she wasn't obsessed with it either. Therefore it's strange how she came to the conclusion that she needed to live in a hut to be happy. Not very realistic. I wish she would have come to the right conclusion faster. Other than the slightly annoying heroine, it was an ok book. Miss Pickworth was hilarious. But..... don't worry. "THE BACHELORS BARGAIN" is an awesome book, about Sarah's maid Anne. I LOVED it!