Sophia by Paula Kremser
Published By: Sweetwater Books (@SweetwaterBooks),
an imprint of Cedar Fort, Inc (@CedarFortBooks)
Official Author Websites: Site | @PaulaKremser | Facebook
Available Formats: Paperback, Ebook
Converse via: #Sophia & #SweetRomance
Acquired Book By:
I am a regular tour hostess for blog tours via Cedar Fort whereupon I am thankful to have such a diverse amount of novels and non-fiction titles to choose amongst to host. I received a complimentary copy of “Sophia” direct from the publisher Sweetwater Books (imprint of Cedar Fort, Inc) in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.
Inspired to Read:
I am magnetically attracted to stories of romance, the London Season, and the follies which are wrought out of seeking romance as much as an engagement to end the unattached life of a singleton! I love the fanciful worlds of classical literature, where ladies and gentlemen not only are attired in such a way to reflect their propriety, but there is a measure of grace and honour in how they interact with each other. Perhaps not always finding themselves in situations that alight on their paths with the full honour of intentions, but there is a magnified expression of life within the ordinary hours that make the best stories burst to life! I love the romanticism of previous generations as much as I love a grounding in realism. I do not always have to read a story wrought straight out of historical records to become consumed by the expanse of the narrative; as there are parts of my literary soul who are quite comfortable in soaking in a romance with a tender-hearted heroine and the perception of a rake who is in fact a misunderstood gent who has yet to control either his life, affairs, or emotional outrage! Laughs.
Historical romances are always going to be a tip of a feather in my hat, as I grew up with a such a rapt fascination for this side of the Romance genre! I have only yet begun my sojourn through the classical writers who created the impetus for the modern writers to find encouragement and inspiration to create their own niche; but what I appreciate the most is being caught up in the details, the conversations, and the whispers of ‘intrigue’ as each lad and lass find their way in life! There are elements of carried over truths, but each story is set to it’s own pace, carrying with it a unique heart centered plot, and allows the benefit of being elsewhere in full mirth of joy for the reader who finds the book itself!
For these reasons and many more I have not yet mentioned, I most delightfully was joyful in finding Sophia! This novel is the second release as part of Sweetwater Book’s new focus on Pure Romance! Willow Springs was the first release, of which I found equally enjoyable to consume!
Sophia
Subtitle: Pure Romance
Small-town Sophia Spencer can't believe her luck when an unexpected inheritance sweeps her up into the glittering London social scene. With more invitations to balls, parties, and country-drives than she can keep up with, Sophia is soon lost in the swirl of dresses and dances, friendships, and flirtations. But her happiness comes to an abrupt halt the moment she's caught napping in a grumpy gentleman's bedroom -- and forced into an engagement to protect her reputation!
This stunning debut novel combines unforgettable characters with crisp dialogue and a gorgeous setting to create a world you won't want to leave. A fun, romantic read that's perfect for incurable romantics of all ages!
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 9781462114825
Series: Pure Romance
Also in this series: Willow Springs, The Second Season, To Suit a Suitor, Mischief & Manors, Unexpected Love, Lies & Letters, The Darkest Summer, The Secret of Haversham House, Love and Secrets at Cassfield Manor, Enduring Promises of the Heart, Book Spotlight: The Promise of Miss Spencer
on 7th October, 2014
Pages: 208
Author Biography:
Paula Kremser focused on a career in science for a few years after graduating from Brigham Young University. Several years later when she moved with her young family to England, Paula seized the opportunity to focus on her love of the Regency Era. The enchantment of the aristocracy and the fascinating stories from every stately home she visits have been both research and inspiration for her first novel. Paula lives with her husband and four children in a charming village nestled in the Chiltern hills in Buckinghamshire.
For a hilarious look-see behind-the-scenes of how this photograph was captured read her Outtakes post! I believe that the photograph that was chosen captures her ‘in the moment’ with a spark of joy. Sometimes the best photographs are the ones we do not overly plan but rather happen spontaneously!
London | a fetching place to set a Romance:
My heart is always quite aflutter when I realise I have stumbled across a romance set during the time of the London Season; that alluring moment where débutantes have to ‘come out’ and attract a suitor of a match of equality for their family to agree to the marriage. The notion of having to condense your dating years to a full season of endless balls and get togethers where every singleton of the year who is in want of a wife or husband is attending the exact same events as you, is more than daunting; it is tremendously full of pressure and expectancy of an engagement! I am not sure how the young men and woman feted away their anxiety and could settle into the social calendar as though it were simply an ordinary day within the expanse of their life. I do think in some ways it encouraged them to converse and interact with each other on level grounds, but not all the circumstances of their events would be equal nor without their share of hiccups!
I always felt that the easiest way to unsettle anyone’s chances at a good match would be to become quite devious in altering their chances for a match in love whereupon they would have to settle for a match of convenience to avoid scrutiny. It is simply too easy to speculate how willing some families might perceive the situations to being an opportunity to heighten their own motivated chances of success! Yet, aside from the malarkey of some, the back-drop of having a city the size of London the stomping grounds of fetching a suitor and sorting out what you want in life and love is such a captivating locale of choice! London is one of the world’s most known and most elusive of cities; the more I find is writ about one particular city, the more I fear there is still left to uncover about the city’s heart.
I feel the best centuries of setting a story in London are between the 18th & 19th Centuries, yet more oft than naught over the score of the last year: I’ve become further acquainted with London in the early and latter half of the 20th Century! Much to my chagrin I find London is perennially captivating irregardless of the timescape I am attune inside the story at hand!
My Review of Sophia:
Such an extreme concern on where to dispense an inheritance begins this Sweet Romance, on the presumption that if a grandmother were not to choose the most sensible heir to receive the family’s wealth, every inch of what had become the estate would fall straight to ruin! Imagine the tenacity of the declaration, as this is the type of woman who felt quite strongly that a man whose life was given to medicine and taking care of the health of others was beneath the family’s station! The very same man’s daughter became her sole living grand-daughter of whom she elects to choose as the beneficiary of her will and estate. I, must commend the author on how insightful she was in selecting such a perplexing and moxie filled character as Lady Atkinson to start her debut narrative! Atkinson is the type of character you hope to discover in fiction, as she is altogether in full belief she is always in the right as much as she has a sense that the way in which she perceives the world is both the end and beginning of argument!
I felt as if I stepped straight back inside the writing’s of Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell (of whom I have not yet read but read about extensively on her style of voice), L.M. Montgomery, and Charlotte Bronté! There is such a beautiful expanse of classical literary voice ebbing out of Sophia, as part of me started to cheer for her as a character before I knew too much about her person! Fond memories washed over me of having read An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott as I started to soak inside this new classically inspired romance! Of course, part of me fondly brought to mind my viewing of the tv film The Inheritance (1997) starring Meredith Baxter and based on the story by Louisa May Alcott.
Alexander Huntley walks into the scene with a convicting back-story of a ill-wonted youth spent without concern for others, yet as an adult he has returned back to the ton quite changed! Gone from his conscience are the self-less ways of idling away hours he could have been more circumspect on attaching himself to the concerns of his estate’s well-being and replaced with a proper sense of duty, propriety, and a grounding of pride in his work. Huntley is as relatable as Sophia, being that they are two attendees to the seasonal balls who are a bit out of step with the rest of those in attendance! They each have their own quirky backgrounds which set them apart, but it is how they each approach life and set their minds to their futures, that felt the most in sync of all.
The circumstances by which fate brought Alex & Sophia together was part comical and part ingenious twisting of destiny; the scene felt a bit like a ‘meet-cute’ in some ways as well. My favourite part is how Sophia awoken out of her slumber to overhearing everything before fully realising the full scope of the situation! Kremser has a wicked talent for comic timing and a way of infusing a twinkling of wit without being overly cliche! I had noticed the forewarning of Sophia’s recently discovered ‘Auntie’ was up to something most foul, but it is how the plan to upset her niece I think will ultimately prove to be her undoing! Most wretchedly jealous relations always get their upcomings in the end, and it is the suspense of not knowing where Kremser will take these two characters that whisks you away further into the novel!
Lady Anne Fitzgerald is the kind of Auntie I was hoping Sophia would have had inherited rather than her jostly hostile Aunt Nora! My goodness! Lady Anne had all the grace, compassion, and composure of an Aunt you can lean on in the fervent height of a crisis, whilst having the forethought to plan what to do to wiggle your way out of a difficulty as she consoles your emotional heart! Sophia, I knew at this junction was in good hands, because even those of us who are given a jolt to our emotional keel by an Auntie who schemes against us needs a shelter from the storm!
One particular touch of unexpected joy for me was seeing each paragraph of each new chapter began in the hand of cursive writing! It gave me a seed of thought towards this being writ down as a re-telling account of a life in which was lived rather than of a completely fictional story within the imagination of the writer who penned it! Such a curious ticking of bemused thoughts floated to find of finding such a keen treasure of a journal filled my mind as I read each new chapter. Sophia, is the most obvious choice of whom might have kept it, but a part of me felt perhaps it was Lady Anne who was the truer narrator of the story overall — her sharp yet kind wisdom of understanding more than even Sophia & Alex could have dared to conceive possible knitted this theory into existence.
The most poignant love story is the one that places a stronger focus on the relationship and the purity of love spun between the two souls who have become entwined with each other. I am earnestly thankful that I not only found a story that once you become curled into you do not want to put down until the very last pages are wholly consumed, as within those final breaths of narrative prose, you find an illuminating ending that transcends the angst of the climax, but you find that the greatest love story of all is always told with the intention of uniting two persons who genuinely cannot be separated from one another due to the love that grew between them.
On the classically-bent writing style of Paula Kremser:
Kremser has a keen sense of a true way of capturing the heart of a romance booklover whose heart is tethered, tied, and threaded through Classical Literature! Her innate style of pacing the story as many of the writers of the 18th & 19th Centuries gave us such a felicity of mirth to discover, so too does her debut novel of Sophia; for recapturing the style of how to make an unexpected inheritance fuel the direction of a story! The little details and occurrences of a life within the upper tiers of society are contained with a happy fusion of mirth, cheeky humour, and a knowing hand who can pen a tale that is quite plausible as it is believable. An author who makes you giddy to know what she is penning next and if she is going to keep the timescape and setting of her first novel inside the second!
I have several bookish friends who adore this type of story (hallo Maggie, Juli, & Rissi!) and I would be plumb delighted to see if Kara and Charlene would find themselves just as wicked happy to soak inside this tome! This is the kind of story for all of us who grew up on Anne of Green Gables as much as found ourselves attached to Elizabeth Bennett & Jo March!
This Blog Tour Stop is courtesy of Cedar Fort, Inc:
Virtual Road Map of “Sophia” Blog Tour can be found here:
To find out which Cedar Fort & Sweetwater Books author
I am hosting next visit my Bookish Events!
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{SOURCES: Author photograph, Book Cover of “Sophia”, the Cedar Fort badge, the Book Synopsis, and the Author Biography were provided by Cedar Fort, Inc. and used by permission. Blog Tour badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. Post dividers badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Bookish Events badge created by Jorie in Canva. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2014.
The tweets I posted after I read “Sophia”:
{ favourite & Re-tweet if inspired to share }
.@PaulaKremser instinctively knows how to grab a #reader into her #debutnovel by giving them a spunkified Gran to get the story started! <3!
— Jorie Loves A Story (@JLovesAStory) October 19, 2014
.@PaulaKremser such a bewitching #novel as a debut for this #sweetromance novelist, who adds a dash of ingenuity to her couple’s coupling!
— Jorie Loves A Story (@JLovesAStory) October 19, 2014
.@PaulaKremser in earnest guidance of her pen, heart, & intuition Kremser guides young #Sophia through trials w/ a sturdy aide in Lady Anne!
— Jorie Loves A Story (@JLovesAStory) October 19, 2014
Beverley Eikli wrote her first romance when she was seventeen. However, drowning the heroine on the last page was, she discovered, not in the spirit of the genre so her romance-writing career ground to a halt and she became a journalist.
After throwing in her secure job on South Australia’s metropolitan daily, The Advertiser, to manage a luxury safari lodge in the Okavango Delta, in Botswana, Beverley discovered a new world of romance and adventure in a thatched cottage in the middle of a mopane forest with the handsome Norwegian bush pilot she met around a camp fire.
Eighteen years later, after exploring the world in the back of Cessna 404s and CASA 212s as an airborne geophysical survey operator during low-level sorties over the French Guyanese jungle and Greenland’s ice cap, Beverley is back in Australia living a more conventional life with her husband and two daughters in a pretty country town an hour north of Melbourne.