The Innkeeper's Daughter by Michelle Griep - A Book Review

          The Innkeeper’s Daughter is set in Dover, England in the year 1808. Johanna Langley bears the lion’s share of the responsibility for keeping the Blue Hedge Inn open and running. Her widowed mother helps in the kitchen and with tending the rooms, while her scamp of a younger brother follows in his late father’s footsteps trying to bring in what coins he can through games of chance. The inn’s rundown appearance and lack of staff do not draw in many visitors, so Johanna must look to other enterprises in order to meet the payments required by Mr. Spurge and to avoid the work house. While a certain guest of the inn is anxious to give Johanna money, she must wonder what he expects in return.

     Alexander Moore or Morton as he has come to be called, is directed to stay at the Blue Hedge Inn  while assigned to work undercover in an attempt to ferret out a traitor. Without many clues as to the traitor’s identity and goal, Alex must be suspicious of everyone and constantly on guard. Living a life of duplicity is difficult for this man of high morals and standards, but becomes even more so when he must deny his growing affection for Johanna when his cover demands he become betrothed to another.

     Reading The Innkeeper’s Daughter was like listening to a beautiful piece of music played on a piano with a key or two out of tune. The plot was intriguing. The characters well developed. Each of the senses is piqued as characters move from inn, to waterfront, to gaming rooms, to ships’ holds. I understand that when writing historical fiction, the language of the day would be too cumbersome to today’s readers, and dialogue is often written in speech patterns more common to today; however, some modern phrases and clichés have the ability to jerk the reader out of the time period in which the story is set. For example lyrics from a popular Kelly Clarkson song are paraphrased as Johanna says, “I suppose what does not drive us into the ground only serves to make us stronger, hmmmm?” A quote originated by Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher, born seventy-six years after the setting of this book. Another character refers to “doing a thorough background check,” a rather modern expression. Would I let these little annoyances keep me from reading The Innkeeper’s Daughter? Absolutely not! I enjoyed the story very much, and thank NetGalley and Barbour Publishing for providing me a copy in exchange for an honest review. I received no monetary compensation for this review.