I have loved traditional Regencies ever since I was in high school. While I still love my old Regency favorites, one thing I enjoy about some of the newer Regencies is the willingness of some authors to feature more non-titled characters and to move away from the world of London and the ton. I still like to read about the world of the aristocrats, but I appreciate the variety that stories such as this romance of a mill owner and a schoolteacher bring to the genre.

Emily Clarkson was raised in Society, but has no title. Her parents were both reformers and, while they largely avoided the social whirl, they saw to it that their daughter was gently raised. As the story opens, Emily learns that she’s been left without funds following her mother’s departure to America to work among the poor. Furthermore, Emily learns that she is expected to take her mother’s place as teacher at a mill school in the country. Though resentful of her mother’s years of benign neglect and her more recent acts of outright selfishness, Emily feels constrained to take the teaching position.

On her arrival in Glenfell, Emily is surprised to learn that Daniel, the owner of the mill, is both young and unmarried. Emily is uneasy about teaching in the mill school and does not share the ideals of the reformers who started the school, so she continues to assure her employer that her time in Glenfell will be brief.

However, as one might expect, Emily never makes it back to London. The books focuses on three major stories in Glenfell: Emily’s transformation from spoiled, sheltered child to mature woman; her involvement in a mystery surrounding the rivalry between Daniel and a local duke; and Emily’s relationship with Daniel. Emily is one of those rare characters who undergoes a huge and convincing change in outlook throughout the story. In the opening chapters, Emily is a proper, conventional girl who believes in the prevailing class system of the time and sees teaching children of lower-class mill workers as beneath her. Indeed, she sees common mill owners such as Daniel to be beneath her as well.

As Emily gets to know Daniel and the children and she sees more of their world, her views shift somewhat. At one point while speaking to someone who is dismissive of the mill children, she finds herself speaking up for the value of their lives. Even more realistically, her changing views surprise her. In addition, where Emily once dismissed Daniel as being “common”, she comes to see how he is respected and valued by Glenfell and this in turn affects her own opinions. Watching Emily change from someone who is, quite frankly, an affected snot into a more accepting person is one of the major strengths of the book. Her transformation is not perfect, but her occasional backsliding makes her seem more realistic.

The romance between Emily and Daniel is pleasant enough, but their story did not fully spark to life for me, and because of the author’s writing style, I never connected with them. As a result I often found myself putting this book down and them picking it up later. Even the suspense plot, with its gothic overtones, did not keep me intrigued. Normally I can read a traditional Regency in an afternoon or so, but this one took me three days.

Those who love traditional Regencies and who long for less traditional characters may enjoy this book more than I did. The characters were interesting, and the suspense subplot was well done save for a certain disclosure at the end. However, I felt too distanced from the story and its characters to fully appreciate them and simply cannot give this book my recommendation.