The Captain's Daughter by Jennifer Delamere

The Captain's Daughter by Jennifer Delamere is the first book of the London Beginnings series.  Rosalyn Bernay and her 2 sisters are being raised in the orphanage in 1873 when this book opens.  Rosalyn is the oldest and today is the day she must leave because at the age of 17 she has aged out and they can no longer take care of her.  Rosalyn is lucky though because she has a job as the servant maid of Mrs. Williams.  Time passes and it is now 6 years later though and the new husband of Mrs. Williams has accused her of theft and she must leave quickly.  Rosalyn decides to run away on the train to her sisters and because she spots the new husband who tried to rape her she quickly buys a ticket to the train leaving first which happens to be headed to London.  Upon arriving in London she doesn't know what to do since she arrived after outgoing trains had stopped for the night.  First she is approached by a soldier who tries to help her but then she is approached by another man.  Rosalyn doesn't know what to do but finally a nice woman rescues her and takes her home with her.  Just as Rosalyn is getting an uneasy feeling that she might have made a mistake she arrives at the woman's home but quickly finds out that she had made a horrible mistake and the woman is a Madame of a rundown brothel.   In the middle of the night she decides to run away, gets caught, gets accused again of theft by the woman to the police, she pays off the woman with her mothers watch which was her last procession and gets away but now all of her worldly processions are gone.  At daybreak she ends up walking up to an opera house of Gilbert and Sullivan.  She manages to get herself hired to work as a dresser for them and there begins the story of Rosalyn and how she manages to get hired in London.
Rosalyn is talented and it isn't long until it is discovered that she can sing.

This first of the London series is so good that you will continue reading it well past the time you should be working at something else.  The reader will find themselves captivated by Rosalyn and her adventures in London.  This book is interesting reading for anyone who loves historic love stories though the love interest takes backseat to the work of putting on the HMS Pinafore.  Much of the history is maintained in the story while interweaving the fiction part of Rosalyn Bernay's character into the script.
I received this book from BethanyHouse for this review.