The Merchant's Daughter is Young Adult fiction from Zondervan. Playing on the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Melanie Dickerson sets her story in 1352 England. The Merchant's Daughter explores the feudal system in medieval times.

Annabel was once the daughter of a rich merchant who loved her and educated her and paid her tax so she didn't have work in her lord's fields. Now, Annabel is a half-orphan with a mom who is in denial, a brother who is feeble, and a brother who is too proud to work. Their tax hasn't been paid for three years, and one of the kids has to be a servant to the new lord to pay off the tax.

Ranulf le Wyse, disfigured from an encounter with a wolf (no, he's not a werewolf, nor does he have any of those characteristics!), and disgruntled by his wife's response to his disfigurement, decides to build a new life in Glynval. Alone after the plague has taken the rest of his family, Ranulf is a bit of a grumpy, old man at age 25.

I like the sweet love story in this book.  I like Annabel's innocence and desire to read God's Word and become a nun.  I like how Ranulf's heroic nature comes out again and again even while he tries to be distant and grumpy. I like that the bad guy is bad, but bad in a normal, not a creepy, give me nightmares, way. And I like that the secondary characters all have good and not so beautiful qualities about them.

This is my second Dickerson YA and I enjoy her style and stories. I look forward to reading Fairest Beauty for book club in a couple months. If you like the chivalry of the medieval era, the pleasure of young love, and a plot that you can simply enjoy without fear, you should try Melanie Dickerson fiction.

Passage to November is historical romance from the Wild Rose Press set on the Great Lakes in 1913. It was a fun setting and time period that I don't remember reading before.

Clara Grace is a young woman on her own, just wanting a break in the music industry. She thinks she has a job with the orchestra on the Eastland but that opportunity is lost and replaced with cook on a cargo ship, Longhope.

Captain William McTavish is a crusty Scottish bachelor with a ship full of … well … sailors. The men are rough and not excited to have a woman along for the summer.

The story has some intrique as well as sailors that won't come around to seeing Clara's good qualities and worth to the crew, which leads to trouble by November.

But in the mean time, the romance that develops between McTavish and Clara is presented in such a way that I believe it. These two characters will make it through December if you remember the old Merl Haggard song and live well together. The short time in the story where they actually embrace their feelings are flirtatious and charming.

As a caveat for Christian readers, the sailors speak like sailors.  And though the Christian flavor is light and mingled with some fun superstition, it is definitely a book written from a Christian world view with characters who understand who holds their future.

I liked this book, these characters, the setting, the violin and Clara's creativity in composing a symphony, the ship and crew and ports, even the backstory, and how it all tied together. Passage to November by Phyllis DeMarco is a well-put together book and an enjoyable read.