"Lady Maybe" by Julie Klassen

[reviewsbyerin]

Hannah Rogers has earned her living as a companion to the flirtatious Lady Mayfield. When Lady Mayfield's husband swiftly ushers them out of Bath in order to try to reclaim his marriage, a carriage accident washes Lady Mayfield's body out to sea and severely injures Hannah and Sir John. By the time Hannah regains her senses several days later, everyone has assumed she is Lady Mayfield, and she thinks it may be best to keep that presumption alive until she has the chance to decide what to do, especially since Sir John lies unconscious with recovery uncertain.

There is only one thing that Hannah must do: find a way to redeem her young son from the corrupt maternity home matron who is holding him hostage for monies owed. Hannah had managed to keep her pregnancy a secret, but her heart is with her son and no matter what the future holds she wants to be reunited with him. It is easy to tell strangers that Lady Mayfield has a son, and though Hannah intends to quit the ruse and start life over as soon as she has Danny back in her arms, it may not be that simple.

Especially when Sir John's new solicitor arrives with a hostile attitude towards her, believing her to be the unfaithful wife. And when Sir John himself awakens, Hannah is completely unprepared for his response to her deception.

In this novel Julie Klassen has branched out from her original publisher, and I have mixed but strong feelings about this. On the positive side, it allowed the author to break out of her usual cloudy mystery format, which was a vast improvement in my opinion. I enjoyed the more straightforward telling of this novel, which is not at all to say that there were no twists and surprising turns, because there certainly were. On the other hand, going with a publisher not devoted to Christian novels opened the door for the author to include a lot more innuendo, adult situations, and mature content. I have read many other Klassen novels through the years and never once have I stopped and thought, "You know what this scene needs? Innuendo. Lots of innuendo." Unfortunately there's enough in this book to more than make up for what was not included in the rest.

I had a few other complaints about this story, and it was hard to fully enjoy it since the content made me so uncomfortable. I would strongly caution younger readers away from this book, as it departs so far from Klassen's wholesome reputation. I am disappointed with it, but will still be reading her future Bethany House releases in hopes of a return to clean and inspiring Regency fiction.