“BECOMING LADY LOCKWOOD,” by Jennifer Moore, Covenant Communications,$14.99, 199 pages (f)

“Becoming Lady Lockwood” takes readers from balmy Jamaica and across the Atlantic to London in this Regency-era novel.
Amelia Beckett relishes the role of a widow as it relieves her of the stigma of being single, even if she never met her late husband, one Lord Lawrence Walter Drake, the Earl of Lockwood. And the proxy marriage was arranged by her father, Admiral Beckett, a demanding man she’s only seen a handful of times.

Amelia, the widowed Lady Lockwood, is content to manage the sugar plantation in Jamaica she received as an inheritance from her late mother. Walter Drake’s brother, Captain William Drake, isn’t happy with the marriage agreement and is determined to fight it to retain his family’s inheritance.

With orders to bring Amelia to London for a hearing on his warship, the HMS Venture, William and Amelia are thrown together time and time again on the ship through storms, whale sightings and fighting the French.

There is an undercurrent of mystery as the planned route of the ship isn’t the usual one and the sailors find evidence of treason the French ship. And the clues lead back to Amelia’s marriage.

Amelia, who was raised in Jamaica, is very independent and kind to those around her as she works to help out on the ship and finds herself falling for the captain.

“Becoming Lady Lockwood,” Utah author Jennifer Moore’s debut novel, is a fun twist on a Regency love story. While there are a few predictable elements, the novel is well-paced; it's a sweet love story with enough twists to keep it interesting.

There is no swearing and any romance is kept to kissing. There are a couple of battle scenes where the deaths are not detailed.

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