Deborah Challinor: Tamar

By RHONDA BARTLE

From Deborah Challinor, freelance writer and columnist for the Waikato Times, comes the first volume in a promised trilogy.

The year is 1879. Tamar Deane, orphan of Cornwall, sets out by ship for New Zealand. She might have come from poor stock, but her mother has taught her to speak properly and she is, of course, quite beautiful.

Critically appraising herself in the small mirror above the fireplace, Tamar saw a younger, 17-year-old version of her mother's striking features: "Thick wavy auburn hair past her shoulders, wide green eyes, a finely sculpted but not particularly small nose, and a generous, full-lipped mouth with one slightly crooked bottom tooth."

Possibly her only imperfection.

As heroine of the story, Tamar quickly establishes her role by being one of the few aboard the Rebecca Jane to stay on her feet long enough to administer to the common masses who succumb to sea sickness. Even with the floor awash with vomit, the ship's doctor, John Adams, can't help but fall in love.

He cannot help noticing Tamar's physical attractions, as well as her unassuming but friendly and astute manner, and finds himself looking forward more and more to the time they spend together. He begins to wonder how she might feel about being the wife of a revolutionary, but altruistic and therefore probably not very wealthy, doctor.

Myrna McTaggert, also travelling to New Zealand, is red-haired and extraordinary, with plans to set up the finest brothel in the Southern Hemisphere the minute she reaches shore. She and Tamar embark on a shipboard friendship which proves invaluable when Tamar makes bad choices in the new land.

Sadly, this book follows the well-worn path of its genre, where even the real love interest, Peter Montgomery, with his less than unique dark stare, makes his grand entrance amid misunderstandings that need to be resolved.

Tamar is confused by his kiss - surely it wasn't appropriate behaviour for a man who had so recently lost his wife? Yet she is, of course, very attracted to him ...

And so it goes. Tamar unfolds in the vein of Catherine Cookson and the writing is competent but unremarkable. But the story is made more attractive for being set in our colonial isles.

HarperCollins

$21.95