Captain Stanwick’s Bride: Tragic Characters in Classic Lit Series Novel by Regina Jeffers is a Salute Military Bookish Event pick #militaryromance #historicalromance #salutemilitary #giveaway
- N. N. Light
- 6 hours ago
- 5 min read
Title:
Captain Stanwick’s Bride: Tragic Characters in Classic Lit Series Novel
Author:
Regina Jeffers
Genre:
classic literature and fiction; British historical literature; classic romance fiction; British and American romance; clean romance; War of 1812 and Fort McHenry
Book Blurb:
“Happiness consists more in conveniences of pleasure that occur everyday than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom.” - Benjamin Franklin
Captain Whittaker Stanwick has a successful military career and a respectable home farm in Lancashire. What he does not have in his life is felicity. Therefore, when the opportunity arrives, following his wife’s death, Stanwick sets out to know a bit of happiness, at last—finally to claim a woman who stirs his soul. Yet, he foolishly commits himself to one woman only weeks before he has found a woman, though shunned by her people and his, who touches his heart. Will he deny the strictures placed upon him by society in order learn the secret of happiness is freedom: Freedom to love and freedom to know courage?
Loosely based on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “The Courtship of Miles Standish” and set against the final battles of the War of 1812, this tale shows the length a man will go to in order to claim a remarkable woman as his.
Excerpt:
They had reached the medical tent at Fort Babcock quicker than Whit had expected. He had not realized the other fort was so close. As he waited for Spurlock’s instructions, he watched as a Catholic priest made his way through the surgical tent, offering words of encouragement without much empathy. The priest’s nose twitched often in disgust at the odious stench filling the small area. Whit wondered where the prayers came in, but he kept silent, just as he had promised Spurlock he would.
Spurlock appeared beside him. “I wish you to examine these two rows of patients. Order them according to the severity of their wounds while I assist Shane with an amputation.”
“I understand,” Whit said softly.
Spurlock lowered his voice also. “If a patient is too far gone for my skills to make a difference, do what you can to make them comfortable.”
“Wash him? Change a bandage? That sort of treatment?” Whit asked.
“More comfort than the priest is providing,” Spurlock said with a glare of contempt at the clergyman ignoring a hand reaching out for his presence from an injured man with a heavy bandage wrapped about his head. “If there is sign of advanced infection, I can do little,” Spurlock warned.
“I comprehend what is required of me,” Whit said with a nod and moved off toward the line of cots.
He glanced down to view a soldier wearing the remnants of a British uniform draped across his body. “Permit me to view your wound,” he said softly as he rolled back the sheet.
“Don’t worry over that one!” an American private ordered. “He’s the enemy.” The private nursed his own arm, but it did not appear too serious, a puncture style wound, if Whit had to guess.
Whit ignored the comment and attempted not to stiffen at the crude remark; instead, he continued to examine what remained of the stump of the British lieutenant’s left arm. He gently tugged back the dressing on the wound. Even so, the nearly unconscious man jerked, his chest heaving in protest.
“Didn’t ye hear me?” the private demanded.
Whit growled, “I am following Doctor Spurlock’s orders.”
The private accused, “Yer a dirty Brit also!”
Whit turned an angry glare on the fellow. “As you speak English, although a crude form of the language, someone in your family—some ancestor—left his home in one of the British Isles and came to this country; therefore, like it or not, you or yours are also a dirty Brit!”
“Is there a problem?” Spurlock asked, placing a hand of calm on Whit’s shoulder.
“The private does not believe this man,” he gestured to the British soldier deserves care,” Whit said through tight lips.
Spurlock eyed the private with contempt, but his voice held more calm than Whit thought possible. “Mr. Stanwick is following my orders. I am Doctor Spurlock. If you wish, I’ll ask Doctor Shane to tend you instead of me. Shane has two years of experience, after having apprenticed with a doctor in New York. I have known more than fifteen years of surgical work, after having studied at a medical university in Edinburgh. You may choose, but you should be made aware that I, too, am a British citizen, who has lived here for a total of eleven years.”
The private glanced to where Shane was beginning to cut on an American sergeant and frowned. However, Spurlock did not wait for the private’s response. Instead, the man said to Whit, “Continue your duties, Mr. Stanwick.”
“Yes, sir,” Whit said, turning his back on the private. Yet, as he continued to examine the British lieutenant’s wound, he knew the argument a moot point. A row of stitches had been folded over the sawed-off arm just below the shoulder joint. Unfortunately, red angry pockets of seeping pus marked the crude suture line. Someone had not followed Spurlock’s standards. A faint smell of rotting skin escaped. “Wash this wound and bandage it again,” he told a waiting private.
“Yes, sir,” the man responded in crisp tones.
Whit said a private prayer for the British lieutenant. He would attempt to learn the man’s identity. If he could, when he returned to England, Whit would locate the lieutenant’s family and send them a letter telling them he was with their son when the lieutenant had died. He would tell them the lieutenant was made comfortable before he passed from his wound. Whit would not tell them, if the lieutenant had had a man such as Spurlock tending him, their son or husband or brother, whoever he may be, would likely have survived. He would not mention the American private pronouncing their son as a “dirty Brit.” Rather, he would create a tale of the lieutenant’s bravery and honor. He would provide the man’s family a means of carrying on without him.
Then he added a second prayer for the American, asking God to spare the man, leaving the private with the knowledge his “enemy” had also been his savior.
Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):
Kindle Unlimited https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/hz/subscribe/ku?passThroughAsin=B08W9GW1M8&_encoding=UTF8&shoppingPortalEnabled=true
Audible (Virtual Voice Narration) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CY9H6P1Z
What makes your featured book a must-read?
A REALLY good book engages the reader by unveiling the human experience in vivid terms. Captain Stanwick is caught in a war in which he no longer recognizes the reasons two great nations must take up arms. His unfamiliar vulnerabilities become those of the reader, and his hopes for a future with the woman he cannot claim connects us all. The hero’s and heroine’s tale both inspires and devastates at the same time.
Giveaway –
Enter to win a $20 Amazon gift card:
Open Internationally.
Runs May 20 – May 28, 2025.
Winner will be drawn on May 29, 2025.
Author Biography:
Before writing romance, Regina Jeffers wore many hats, including that of a tax preparer, journalist, choreographer, Broadway dancer, theatre director, history buff, teacher, grant writer, and media literacy consultant for school districts and public television. Now, “supposedly” retired, she writes full-time, skillfully enveloping her readers in the hearts and minds of her characters.
Social Media Links:
Every Woman Dreams (Blog) https://reginajeffers.wordpress.com
Always Austen (Group Blog) https://alwaysausten.com/
Amazon Author Page https://www.amazon.com/Regina-Jeffers/e/B008G0UI0I/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1479079637&sr=8-1
Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/jeffers0306/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/darcy4ever/
You Tube Interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzgjdUigkkU