CALEB Award Review | The Elusive Miss Ellison by Carolyn Miller

Review by Iola Goulton @iolagoulton

Omega Writers is a Christian writing group serving Australian, New Zealand, and South Pacific Christian Writers. They held their annual writing conference the last weekend on October, in Adelaide, South Australia (and you can read my recap post here).

One much-anticipated part of conference is the Saturday night award ceremony for the CALEB Award. CALEB stands for:

Christian Authors Lifting Each others' Books

This year, there were four categories for the CALEB Award:

• Published Fiction (romance or romantic elements)
• Published Non-Fiction
• Published Children's Fiction
• Unpublished Young Adult Fiction

The winners were:

• Grand Prize and Published Children's Fiction: Penny Reeve for Camp Max
• Runner-up and Published Fiction: Carolyn Miller for The Elusive Miss Ellison
• Published Non-Fiction: Jen Gibbs for SHE: A Journey of Faith, Hope & Love with Women of the Bible
• Unpublished Young Adult Fiction: Susan J Bruce

Over the next few weeks, we're going to be reviewing the three winning books as well as more recent releases from these three wonderful ladies.

Andrea Grigg has previously reviewed The Elusive Miss Ellison here at Australasian Christian Writers, and you can click here to read her review.

And here's my review (previously published at Iola's Christian Reads).

The Elusive Miss Ellison is everything a good Regency romance should be: it’s consistent with the writings of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer, and features plenty of wit and sparkle in the dialogue, especially that of the titular Miss Lavinnia Ellison. She reminds me of a combination of Austen and Heyer heroines, and there is a definite nod to the BBCs Ehle/Firth version of Pride and Prejudice in terms of the characters.

The plot isn’t P&P (thankfully), but again has echoes of Austen. 

The big difference (improvement) is that The Elusive Miss Ellison is clearly Christian fiction: Livvie is a minister’s daughter with a real faith in God, and unwilling to be romantically involved with any man who doesn’t share her faith. Especially not the man she holds responsible for the death of her beloved mother, and who appears to hold too little regard for the wellbeing of his tenants.

Nicholas obviously has his own personal and faith journey, and I think his is the stronger story—he’s the one with the obvious character faults which need to be changed through the influence of a good woman. And perhaps her love as well ...

I’m a big Regency romance fan, so very much enjoyed the authentic Regency voice and attention to detail. Some of the writing was a little shaky, and the pacing was somewhat uneven. Parts of the novel sparkled with wit, but others felt as though the sparkle had been scrubbed out.

I’ll be keen to read the sequel, The Captivating Lady Charlotte (love the title!). Recommended for fans of Christian Regency romance.

Update: Carolyn now has six novels published, and I've read them all. She gets better with each one.

Thanks to Kregel and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.

You can read the introduction to The Elusive Miss Ellison below:

Book Launch Party Planning

Last month saw the long awaited Australian book launch for my recently released Regency The Elusive Miss Ellison. Miss Ellison released in the US back in February, and we had an online launch party then, but apparently it takes a very long time for books to get from the US to Australia!

I’ve been scouring sites such as ACW for months, looking for ideas on what might work on a limited budget, as this was my initiative, and therefore my responsibility. Of course, in the midst of all my info gathering I was praying for God to lead me to make wise choices, and now it’s done, I look back and realise how God was helping me with so many things, even before I knew I’d have a book to launch.

What is your Regency name?

About eighteen months ago we moved to a new church, and over time I came to learn that one of the young women who attends runs our local Christian bookstore. She is an avid reader, and someone who really enjoys Georgette Heyer, so we quickly hit it off 😀. When she realised I was a Christian author with a book due to be published she offered her support.

Me and my 'Mr Darcy'

Originally I’d been thinking how nice it would be to hold the launch party at a historic venue in the area, something to help create the ambiance I wanted for my historical novel. Once I saw the prices they wanted to charge per head, and the rigmarole associated with getting exact numbers, I soon realised this would not be feasible, with those doors needing to remain closed.  😥

Time for tea!

My friend (let’s call her Brooke) somehow managed to read an early copy of Miss Ellison and loved it, so her interest quickly moved from polite curiosity to enthusiastic support. That support soon swelled from thoughts about an in-store book signing to a Regency-inspired book launch, held at the church, where Brooke had managed to pre-sell nearly 50 copies of my book, just to congregation members! Having read it and enjoyed it, she was able to encourage so many of the ladies at our church to pre-order a copy, which in turn generated their excitement and interest in my novel, and willingness to support, via buying copies for their friends and family members, encouraging others to attend, helping set up the day before, and even baking delectable goodies for the afternoon tea. What a blessing!

Props for the Regency photo booth

On the day we had the usual book launch things, such as an author interview, a book reading, the opportunity for books to be signed, even a live Facebook stream (video here), but we took things a few steps further. There were people dressed in Regency attire, opportunity for people to create their own Regency name and locale (Lady Maria Edgerton, of Dalmouth Castle, anyone?), we had a Regency quiz, a Regency conversation game (filled with one-liners from books by Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer and yours truly), even a Regency photo booth! Lots of people commented on how much they enjoyed themselves, and I hope they come to associate fun and humour with reading my work.

I truly could not have done this without the support of Brooke and the people of my church. If I’d pushed ahead with doing things the way I’d originally envisaged, it would have been far smaller, far more stressful, far more complicated, and far more expensive. I'd anticipated that maybe 50 people might attend, maybe 70 if I was really fortunate. As it was there were over 100 (!) people in attendance, something neither I nor any hired venue could have coped with had I gone ahead with my original plans, and so many more people meant so many more book sales and pre-orders for book 2! 

Listening to the author interview

It’s funny isn’t it, how often what we think ‘will do’ proves to be less than what God wants for us. Our God is a good God, and His plans for us are for good and not for evil (Jeremiah 29.11). Our God is a mighty, powerful God. We may have many plans in our heart but it is God’s will that prevails (Proverbs 19.21).

Miss Ellison’s book launch once again proved the importance of trusting our faithful God to open the right doors at the right time. After all, “He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Eph. 3.19).

So be encouraged! Trust God. He will open the right doors, and close the wrong ones.

He wants more for us than we realise.

How about you? Have you seen God surprise you by surpassing your expectations?

Carolyn Miller lives in the beautiful Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, with her husband and four children. Together with her husband she has pastored a church for ten years, and worked part-time as a public high school English and Learning and Support teacher. A longtime lover of romance, especially that of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer’s Regency era, Carolyn holds a BA in English Literature, and loves drawing readers into fictional worlds that show the truth of God’s grace in our lives. Her Regency novel 'The Elusive Miss Ellison' released in the US in February 2017, and is available at Amazon.com, CBD, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository and Koorong. Her second novel ‘The Captivating Lady Charlotte’ releases June 27 and  is available for preorder now.

Connect with her:    www.carolynmillerauthor.com

                                 www.pinterest.com/camillering

  www.facebook.com/CarolynMillerAuthor/

  twitter.com/CarolynMAuthor

Book Review: The Elusive Miss Ellison, by Carolyn Miller

Review by Andrea Grigg

While my first love are contemporary novels, I have a bit of a penchant for romances set in regency times. I love the fashion, the structured society, the rules of etiquette, the speech patterns ... all so different from our own. The Elusive Miss Ellison? It has all those things in spades, one might say. And just look at that beautiful cover!

Set in St. Hampstead Heath, Gloucestershire, England, in 1813, Lavinia Ellison is certainly not your average minister’s daughter. She doesn’t always play by the rules, is known for her opinions, and isn’t above getting her skirts muddy, if that’s what it takes to help the poor. Lavinia, or Livvie as she’s known, has a compassionate and very practical heart, a heart which is no stranger to grief.

When Nicholas Stamford, the seventh earl of Hawkesbury, returns home, Livvie isn’t pleased. His mere presence reminds her of what she has lost, and his arrogance and seeming lack of interest in the welfare of the tenants on his estate make her dislike him even more.

But when the two of them cross paths more than either of them care for, sparks fly, and both hearts are challenged and, eventually, changed.

I really enjoyed The Elusive Miss Ellison, although there were times in the first half of the book when I had to put it down and take a break from all the conflict. I found the pace of the second half much more to my liking, and was thoroughly intrigued by the banter, challenges, and secrets revealed. I am already looking forward to reading The Captivating Lady Charlotte, due for release later this year.

 Andrea Grigg lives on the Gold Coast, Queensland, and is author of two contemporary Christian romance novels and a novella. She would love to connect with you via: 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/author.andreagrigg?ref=hl

Twitter: @andreagrigg https://twitter.com/andreagrigg

Email:    andreagrigg@live.com