Shadowed In Silk by Christine Lindsay

She was invisible to those who should have loved her.

 After the Great War, Abby Fraser returns to India, where her husband is stationed with the British army. She has longed to go home to the land of glittering palaces and veiled women . . . but Nick has become a cruel stranger and a cruel father to their three-year old son. It will take more than her American pluck to survive.

 Major Geoff Richards, broken over the loss of so many of his men in the trenches of France, returns to his cavalry post in Amritsar. His faith does little to help him understand the ruthlessness of his British peers toward the Indian people he loves. Nor does it explain how he is to protect Abby Fraser and her child from the husband who mistreats them.

 Amid political unrest, inhospitable deserts, and Russian spies, tensions rise in India as the people cry for the freedom espoused by Gandhi. Caught between their own ideals and duty, Geoff and Abby stumble into sinister secrets . . . secrets that will thrust them out of the shadows and straight into the fire of revolution.

My review:
  I occasionally get emails from authors asking me to review their books. More often than not, it isn't something I am interested in. Those were my initial thoughts when this author contacted me. They look like "chick books", and I had never heard of the author. She sent me a link to read the first chapter of the third book and assured me that men like her books too, so I agreed to review the book. To my surprise, she sent me the whole trilogy. I looked at them and thought "These don't look like something I'll like...... and there's three of them. Yikes". But I was committed, so I sat down last week and started on the first book.

  And I was pleasantly surprised. The book is very well written, and immediately caught my interest. it is set in the early 1900's and is centered in India during the British occupation of India. The series is called "Twilight of the British Raj" I had no idea what that meant, so I Googled it and found out it was the period of the British Rule in India from 1858 through 1947.

 I have never read any books that I can remember of that were set in that setting, and found it fascinating. The series is historical fiction, so though most of the characters are fictional and a lot of what happens is fictional; there are historical people and events in the book. Through the lens of fiction, I learned a lot about India, the different customs and classes, and the role of the British during that time.

 The book mostly centers on Abby Fraser, but also centers a lot on a British major, Geoff Richards and his military escapades... so yes, the author was correct: the book appeals to men a lot also.

  The book is un-apologetically Christian, which is something I appreciate a lot. There is also romance, political intrigue, and even suspense. I found the book an interesting and easy read that wasn't at all difficult to get into. And it wasn't at all like I feared it would be. I still have two more books to read in the series, but I can safely recommend the series after reading this one. Great story.

About the author:

Christine Lindsay writes historical inspirational novels with strong love stories, and she takes pride in her Irish roots. Her great grandfather and grandfather worked as riveters in the Belfast shipyard, one of those ships her ancestors helped build was the Titanic. 

Stories of ancestors who served in the British Cavalry in India that seeded Christine’s long-time fascination with the British Raj and became the stimulus for her multi-award-winning series Twilight of the British Raj. 

Some of those awards are:

For SHADOWED IN SILK:
Winner of 2009 ACFW Genesis
Winner of 2011 Grace Award
Finalist for 2012 Readers' Favorite

For CAPTURED BY MOONLIGHT:
Finalist for 2013 Readers' Favorite
Finalist for 2013 Grace Award
Finalist for 2014 The Word Guild Award

The Pacific coast of Canada, about 200 miles north of Seattle, is Christine’s home where she lives with her husband, Like a lot of authors, Christine’s chief editor is her cat.

Check out her website at ChristineLindsady.com


Thanks to Christine for the review copy.