Wild Serenade

In her Three Sisters Trilogy, Bingham uses a slightly archaic tone and a mid-19th-century setting in romances that smack of the Bronte sisters. In this, the second book of the trilogy (after Wild Escapade), Patience Pedigrue, a classic Bronte heroine transferred to the New World, is hired by New England ship's captain, Garrick Dalton, as governess to his younger sister. Patience and Garrick fall in love but, before their wedding can take place, rivals for the Dalton shipping empire kidnap the bride-to-be. Bingham offers plenty of daily detail, but her writing can be rather flat with stretches of prosaic dialogue that may be realistic but are hardly exciting. But the governess-beloved character and the kidnapping plot are old romance tropes that longtime readers may well greet with a fond nostalgia. (June)