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    Miss Chartley's Guided Tour
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    Miss Chartley's Guided Tour
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    Miss Chartley's Guided Tour
    Ebook282 pages3 hours

    Miss Chartley's Guided Tour

    By Carla Kelly

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    To all appearances, Miss Omega Chartley is a schoolteacher on holiday. In fact she is a gentlewoman fallen on hard times, left at the altar eight years earlier and forced to make her own way in the world after the loss of her family fortune. Omega’s modest tour of England is cut short when she comes to the aid of a runaway. Jamie Clevenden has fled the clutches of a brutal uncle, and Omega is determined to help him escape the law, as represented by Bow Street Runner, Mr. Timothy Platter. Aided by a kindly war veteran and his adopted daughter, the two fugitives arrive at the home of Jamie’s other uncle, the Viscount of Byford—none other than Miss Chartley’s disgraced fiancé, Matthew Bering. There Miss Chartley will finally learn the secret that Lord Byford has hidden from her all these years, the story of a dark chapter in his past that stands in the way of not only their happiness but that of his nephew. Now they must face the truth together, no matter how dire the consequences. Originally published in 1989.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCamel Press
    Release dateMay 7, 2013
    ISBN9781603819145
    Unavailable
    Miss Chartley's Guided Tour
    Author

    Carla Kelly

    Carla has always said that she only writes the books that she wants to read, which has made this whole writing business extra fun. She wrote her first book at age six. It was called The Old Mill, and she wrote it on her mother's Olivetti-Underwood typewriter. It had a cover (she spent more time on the cover than the narrative), and consisted of two sentences. But Carla said it had a plot. Carla was always writing something. She admits to going through that awkward, poetry-writing phase. Luckily, it passed. In high school (A.C. Jones High School, Beeville, Texas), she got involved in journalism, which was a great thing, since JHS had an exemplary journalism teacher, Jean Dugat (Miss D), the meanest teacher alive. To show how mean, she insisted that her students learn A LOT. She was the only teacher Carla ever knew who never needed a substitute when she was gone. "We wouldn't have dared not complete what she had assigned us," Carla said. Miss D was a wicked hard taskmaster, but it occurred to Carla that if she did what Miss D said, and paid attention, she'd be a writer someday. Brigham Young University was a great place to go to college. Papers were a breeze (refer to Miss D in the above paragraph), and Carla graduated with a degree in Latin American history. She was married by her senior year, and eventually Martin and Carla had five interesting children. Martin, retired now, was a university professor, teaching theatre courses, English courses and speech, plus directing plays. Carla says she began writing in earnest (i.e. selling stuff) when she lived in Ogden, Utah. She started out with short stories about the Indian Wars, reflecting academic interest, plus several years as a National Park Service ranger at Fort Laramie NHS. Great job. Carla said they paid her every two weeks for what she would have done for free… The result of those short stories were two Spur Awards from Western Writers of America and eventually the anthology Here's to the Ladies: Stories of the Frontier Army, which remains her personal favorite book of those she has written. In 1983 or 1984, Carla wrote her first novel, Daughter of Fortune (she called it Saintmaker), inspired by an incident in New Mexico history. After that, her then-agent suggested she might want to try her hand at Regency romance, which turned out to be a nice fit. Carla had written mainly for Signet and now Harlequin, with occasional academic works and state and Park Service–funded history projects thrown in to keep life interesting. She has two RITA® Awards for regencies, plus a Lifetime Achievement Award from RT Book Reviews. She doesn't belong to any writing groups because they take up too much time, and she's too cheap to pay dues. Carla likes to write, but she does other stuff, too. More years in the Park Service meant a greater understanding of the American fur trade and Indians on the Northern Plains. She likes to read, focusing on police procedurals for her escape reading (John Harvey is her favorite such author) and whatever academic history interests her. She is currently researching coal mine history in Utah, because the Kellys moved to Wellington, Utah, in 2009, after Martin retired. Wellington is in Carbon County, well-known for coal mines. She has plans for a history of one 1900 mine disaster, and probably a novel on the same subject (she's a great one for using research many times—re: the Channel Fleet). Also in the works is a biography of Guy V. Henry, a well-known cavalry officer of the Indian Wars, Carla's primary history field. She's been known to present academic papers here and there, and never misses the Indian Wars Symposia at Fort Robinson, Nebraska. There will always be time for fiction, though. Carla recently sold a novel that reflects her years in southeast Wyoming and her Mormon background to a Utah publishing company. She anticipates more books in this vein, partly because she has always been a bit squeamish about bodice ripping, and she's always up for new ventures. Other than reading, Carla's only bona fide hobby is crocheting baby afghans. She does it while she watches television or rides shotgun in cars, and she's well on her way to making a gazillion. Years ago, one of Carla's friends and fellow authors made the perceptive observation that Carla is only writing herself in her books: someone practical, down-to-earth, not Too Stupid To Live, who solves her own problems. And she writes about stalwart, caring men and women because she personally knows a lot of stalwart, caring people. She was also told by a friend, a certified graphologist (handwriting analyst), that her handwriting indicates she hasn't a creative bone in her whole body. Sigh. So it goes.  

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    Reviews for Miss Chartley's Guided Tour

    4/5

    26 ratings3 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Miss Chartley's Guided Tour by Carla Kelly was a charming romance. It is unusual in several ways. First, it isn't about two strangers meeting and eventually falling in love. It is about lovers estranged by tragedy and lack of communication for eight years (she was left standing bewildered at the altar as he secretly fled some horrible situation involving a lot of blood on his clothes) reunited by circumstance and forced to confront both the past and the present. Clearly, Omega Chartley and Matthew Bering both still love each other, but she is justifiably angry and he is filled with shame and they need to work together in the current crisis.What crisis you ask? That brings us to the second interesting feature. Children! I have a soft spot for stories that involve children, as long as they are reasonably portrayed. In this case, a runaway boy fleeing an abusive uncle. He's seeking his other uncle, and Omega Chartley befriends him during her leisurely travel from one teaching position to another. But wait, they runaway boy, who is clearly from a well-to-do family, is being hunted by Bow Street! Our heroine runs afoul of the Runner trying to help the boy and finds herself a penniless fugitive alongside the waif.And so the third interesting feature is that this story occurs on the byways of England more than soirees and house parties of the ton. I like stories that show some of the rarely seen aspects of life in the period. In this case, some of the hardships of veterans and orphans of the war, as well as the seamier side of London and the economic concerns of rural villages. Does this book go into any significant or realistic detail on any of these? No, but it does provide a shadow of a taste without the bitterness or much of the ugliness.The weaknesses: a dastardly villain, of course, whose machinations caused all of the heartbreak and pain (yawn); the extremely tidy and rather unrealistic happy ending for everyone involved, except the villain; yet another sprained ankle forcing the lovers to deal with each other rather than run away; the rather saccharine nature of our hero and heroine and the Bow Street Runner who turns out to be a good guy after all. If I dislike everyone in the novel except the protagonists being a mean, terrible person, I like the exact reverse situation only a little less. After all, we all have our weaknesses and dark side, and pretending otherwise does not make for such a satisfying story. I like some fiber to go along with my sugar sometimes. The strengths: the characters are engaging if not particularly deep, the dialogue is often snappy, the story tackles the difficult topics of love and betrayal and forgiveness, and there's quite a bit of humor, particularly around the reunion of the lovers and the subsequent bloody nose and black eye. Good humor can make up for a lot. So this book is a keeper, for now.
    • 3/5
      It was so so for me. There are others of hers that I like way more, but still I enjoyed the chatacters!
    • 5/5
      Miss Charley's Guided Tour is more comedy than tragedy, but it also has it's dark side. Omega Chartley was abandoned at the altar eight years ago when her fiancé, Matthew Bering, disappears and she is forced to seek a teaching position. She is touring the Cotswolds before starting a new position when she helps a runaway boy, Jamie, escape a Bow Street Runner. Jamie has been abused by his guardian and is looking for his uncle to seek refuge with. Both Jamie and Omega are now hiding from the law and they meet some wonderful characters along the way. All the characters here are three-dimensional and memorable including Jamie, Hugh, his foster daughter, Angela, and Timothy, the Bow Street Runner. There are surprises along the way and a mystery to solve before our h/h get their HEA. Kelly's characters are such 'real' people and that's what is so outstanding about her books. (Grade: B+)