Review: A Talent for Trouble by Jen Turano

A Talent for Trouble

Author:  Jen Turano

Published:  October 2013

Publisher: Bethany House Publishers

Pages:  352

Genre:  Historical fiction, Christian fiction

Source:  a complimentary copy was provided by the publisher and TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.  Receipt thereof has no influence over this review nor my opinion.

For years, Miss Felicia Murdock’s every thought and action have been in pursuit of becoming a minister’s wife. When the minister she’d set her sights on has other ideas, she decides something in her life needs to change–and soon–before she wastes any more time pretending to be someone she’s not. If that means spreading her wings and embracing a more lively way of life, who’s to say nay?

Grayson Sumner, Lord Sefton, has had more than enough of spreading his wings and only hopes to settle into the life of a respectable New York gentleman. Prompted by some friends to lift the spirits of the disappointed-in-love Miss Murdock, he is surprised to encounter an adventurous young lady with an unfortunate knack for stumbling into troublesome situations.

Just as Grayson decides he’s had quite enough of her antics, his past comes back to haunt him and his presence in Felicia’s life endangers her. As they work together to extricate themselves from this latest complication, will Grayson and Felicia decide they want to spend the rest of their lives keeping one another out of trouble?

Download an excerpt HERE.

My thoughts:

Felicia Murdock is a compassionate woman.  She gives to the poor and needy, food, clothing, kindness and her time.  She dresses in big dresses with bows and other adornments, not quite the fashion of the times but it suits her needs, temporarily, at least until the man she has set her heart upon, the local reverend, marries.  Felicia is rather devastated after four years of trying and failing to get the reverend to notice her.  

"Delightful" is no longer enough for her so she donates her old frocks and begins to dress in a manner of the times that reveals her true nature.  Felicia Murdock, at 24 is single, beautiful, adventurous, and has a penchant for trouble.  Wherever she goes, it finds her without much effort.  Her well-meaning efforts causing the need for interventions in the form of Grayson Sumner.

Grayson Sumner has a history of which he is ashamed and though he'd love to get to know Felicia better, doing so could put her in terrible danger and he has already had, on more than one occasion, to rescue her from herself.  But just being close to her is dangerous for him and for her. Though he tries to distance himself, inevitably they are drawn to each other.

A Talent for Trouble is a fun bit of a page turner with a protagonist who is feisty and funny; her wit causing more than a smirk, her adventures often evoking a chuckle from the reader.  This story transpires in a time when horse-drawn carriages occupied the streets, ladies dressed in beautiful gowns and men in suits and balls were a highly anticipated social experience.  On a more serious note, it is also a time when it's difficult to be Chinese in a western world, and opium dens occupy the seedier parts of town. Jen Turano manages to include all these factors within a flowing plot in which the balance of serious issues, the courting scene and lighthearted humour appropriately intermingle with a dramatic climax.

Meet the author: 

Jen Turano, author of A Change of Fortune, A Most Peculiar Circumstance, and A Talent for Trouble, is a graduate of the University of Akron with a degree in Clothing and Textiles. She is a member of ACFW and lives in a suburb of Denver, Colorado.

Visit her website at www.jenturano.com.