The Governor's Daughter (Winds of Change #1) by Jerri Hines

The Governor's Daughter (Winds of Change #1) Reviews

• 
  WhiskeyintheJar

  I read this for the insta-love square for Romance Bingo and it was also a Kindle Freebie selection.
  
  
  
  To recap if you missed my 50% update:
  Heroine falls in love w/ hero#1 by 30% and a few meetings.
  Gets kidnapped and almost whipped to death by dude picked by grandparents to marry her.
  Hero#1 offers what she considers a pity marriage.
  Refuses.
  Has sex with hero#1's bf who suddenly loves her.
  Marries bf hero#2.
  Now hero#2 is feeling faint/having night sweats
  
  
  
  Second half:
  
  Heroine gets pregnant
  Hero#2 dies
  Heroine kicked out by hero#2's family.
  Hero#2 didn't want her to be able to leave England so somehow (completely unclear) makes a will that stipulates she can't have her own money if she leaves.
  Heroine don't give a flying f and decides to go back to America, during the start of Revolutionary War.
  Heroine has twins.
  In one of the numerous side stories I haven't mentioned, her current maid had been raped by her step-father and he decides he wants her back.
  Heroine kills step-father.
  Heroine's bastard brother, who I think is around 30yrs old, gets maid pregnant, who I think is around 17-18yrs old.
  2yrs go by in two chapters.
  Heroine makes-out with married Hero#.5 (previously unmentioned because I didn't think we'd see him again. Imagine my surprise. But she initally was going to runaway and marry him in the beginning because she thought she wouldn't have to go to England for a season).
  Hero#1 makes a surprise visit during their make-out session.
  There's mentions of battles, Americans and English visit her place, she helps both. I...I think this is suppose to supply us with the feel of the times.
  Hero#.5 feels extremely shafted by heroine and hires people to murder everyone.
  Hero#1 saves heroine.
  Heroine marries Hero#1.
  She goes back to England for safety.
  Reconciles with hero#2's family.
  (It's going to go fast from this point on because I could barely make sense of anything)
  Hero#1 presumed dead.
  Children almost walk off a cliff to catch faires.
  A I can't believe you're pulling this crap on the reader character betrayal.
  Hero#1 makes miraculous return to save heroine from cliff.
  Heroine gives birth while in a semi-coma.
  Heroine's cousin who was trying to steal her money (I'm exhausted, I can't go into this storyline too and that's why you're just hearing about this) gets his due.
  The end.
  
  
• 
  Susan Stewart

  This book is set at the beginning of the Revolutionary War and tells the story of a young woman whose father is the British governor of South Carolina. He sends her to England for her safety where a whole lot of bad things happen to her, she returns to South Carolina where even more bad things happen to her, after which she returns to England where she suffers even more bad things. That's about it as far as the plot goes. Here are the reasons I gave it one star:
  
  1. There are numerous typos, incorrect words used, missing words and incomprehensible sentences. At one point I started a new chapter and quickly realized the text on the first page was a direct copy/paste of the last page of the previous chapter.
  2. There is a lot of explicit violence. I can't remember ever reading a historical romance with this much, and kind of, violence. A maniac whips the heroine so badly that later, when back in South Carolina, someone says her back looked worse than the backs of "Negro" slaves who had been whipped.
  3. The heroine is stupid and never learns from her mistakes. She insists on trusting untrustworthy people and then suffers the consequences, again.
  4. There is no hero, in my opinion. All of the men in the book, with the exception of her brother, betray her at one point or another. She continues to love them anyway.
  5. The author does not have a grasp of the basic principles of "fair play" when writing a novel. Once again, in my opinion as a writer, you never change a character's core principles - for example, from being a good person to being an evil person - without giving the reader some clues along the way, even if they are subtle. It's just like you never introduce the murderer as a new character toward the end of a murder mystery. All suspects, including the murderer, must be introduced at the beginning of the book.
  
  I wish I could write about some redeeming qualities but in the interest of being honest, I can't. If you like stories where women are beaten, choked, raped, murdered, lied to and deceived by men they think love them, then go for it. If you're looking for a historical romance, give it a pass.
• 
  Eileen Dandashi

  Jerri Hines writes a wonderful, compelling story. I have read another of her series, The Winds of Betrayal-truly a riveting time in history and so well depicted in how she presents the emotion behind the events of the time.
  
  Just finishing The Governor’s Daughter, I’m awed by her fierce story line and plot. Many these days can relate to the same kind of precarious position people in Virginia found themselves. Communities can be polarized by political and religious inclinations--enough to die for their cause. We see this in evidence even today.
  
  Ms. Hines begins the story on a plantation where sister and brother eventually are on opposing sides, yet they love each other deeply. The story is one of love, hate, honor and greed.
  
  Cathyrn, daughter to John Rolf Blankenship, the governor in their community, loves her home, Elm Bluff. She has a fiery temper and scheming, determined mind. She works against her father’s wishes for her to leave her home. She secrets off with William, only to be caught by Lieutenant Pennington, the Englishman her father has asked to take her safely to England. She is to visit her mother and his family back in England, just for a year, he says. Times are dangerous, but he keeps the worry from his daughter. He needs her to leave, for her safety. He tells her he promised her mother before she died, he would do this for her when she comes of age. For the love of her father ,she leaves, and only finds more peril for herself in England. Who is her friend, her foe, and who can she trust?
  
  She says her farewell to her father, half-brother, Sumner, and his mother. Would she ever see them again?
  
  Ms. Hines's characters are compelling, flawed and entirely beguiling. My heart aches for two men who love Cathryn. As well as hot-tempered, she is also a strong woman, capable of bearing up when sorrow holds her heart. She continues. She must walk a new path, begin yet again, and buries her feelings even from herself. She is a character who breaks my heart.
  
  All mayhem and events of the times, turmoil in both Jake and Philip’s lives, their decisions, their honor and personal need, shape Cathryn’s life well beyond the point she has hope in controlling the whirl storm of her life.
  
  Author Hines fascinates me how she is able to engage me most thoroughly in her characters. She springs jaw-dropping surprises within the story, I have no inkling would happen. Likewise, she wrings tears from me, leaving my heart swollen with ache.
  
  All coalesces into a beautiful, memorable read, not to be missed if you enjoy the early days of Colony life, intense emotions of impassioned people and just darn good writing!
  
• 
  Denise

  It’s like someone read Gone with the Wind and decided to write a mix-up of it, but fundamentally misunderstood what made the book great. Replace Scarlett O’Hara with a Mary Sue, put in more sexy (??) and/or evil dudes, but keep all the casual racism. In fact, I’ll say Gone with the Wind is in its own broken way less racist, because at least Black people are actually characters in that book. In this book (set 75% on a plantation) the word “slave” is only mentioned twice, with euphemisms like “house boy” and “field workers” standing in. There are only 3 enslaved people who get names, the wet nurse who feeds and raises the heroine’s children, the “house boy,” and other wet nurse for another woman’s child. Only one of them gets a line of dialogue. In a book that takes 8 hours to read.
  
  This was written in 2016 and revised this January 2020. The author must be having a real one this summer coming to terms with some personal failings, or so we hope.
  
  For the plot: it was a real edge of the seat experience because it was hard to say what the heroine would do or who the heroine would fall in love with next, she was erratic. Every man fell in love with her because that’s what makes a Mary Sue, and then we can only try to guess which man will become evil because she refused them her tender charms (two dudes, fyi). At the very end one random minor character becomes a villain with no warning at all. The ending is HFN instead of HEA which I sort of enjoyed??
  
  Two stars because I couldn’t put it down, phone glued to my hand as the poorly edited prose drove itself straight into me. It definitely wasn’t predictable, when you thought she’d zig she’d not just zag, she’d pop the foot up on the sewing machine and just let that thing go anywhere.
• 
  bell

  Could have been so much more.... This book had the makings to be a 5 star book, yet the writing style and lack of romance doomed it. I was only able to finish the story by flipping through pages and speed reading. Many have commented that the story was full of angst (which it was) , yet it reminded me of my favorite book "Royal Seduction" by Jennifer Blake , which is also a story full of angst, violence and heartbreak. The difference is that Royal Seduction is also full of romance, which makes the angst and heartbreak part of the story and engages your feelings. This story had none of that.. no romance, no engaging of readers feelings. It was consistently one heartbreak after another. In fact, it would almost be considered a clean romance with little to no sex scenes (I think 1 very short one) and very little romantic scenes (maybe 2 kiss scenes). Supposedly, the heroes and villains in this story loved the heroine desperately, yet the reader never got any sense of this “love”. The writing just wasn’t good. It was as though the writer was trying to write in the style of a Hyer crossed with a bodice ripper, and it just didn’t work. I would hope that in the future after the writer has some more books under her belt, that she rewrites this and makes it as good as it could have been. There is a sequel to this that focuses on the heroine’s illegitimate brother, (whom I actually liked), but I just can’t bring myself to read it.
• 
  Jeanne Johnston

  Shouldn't a romance really make you want to be the heroine? All I could think was how much it sucked to be a woman then. The fickle romances and conniving relatives provided no respite from the misery, and the writing didn't especially transport me.
• 
  shirlene brown

  Living in fear
  
  Jerri Hines has done a excellent job on this story about the ups and downs of this woman life and finding love in two men. Living in a world of two different types of l.
• 
  Nancy

  I am almost 50% done with the book . I cannot go any farther. It's just "too much." Too much of everything going wrong. Too much of the dramatic. It's one thing after another. I never did feel connected to the main character so her problems just annoy me and I have no empathy for her.
• 
  Judi Easley

  Needs proofreading, something I'm getting very tired of writing in reviews lately. Is it contagious? The heroine of this book is the most betrayed, lied to, abused leading lady I've ever read about. Her family (her mother's and her father's), the men she loved (all 3? of them), her maid, and anybody they could pay to work for them. She'd get into a temper and stop listening to people and take off rather than try to negotiate things. What we call "going off half cocked". And she usually left an ocean between her and whoever she was arguing with. The story needs a bit of reworking, maybe lose the whip part. Rework the lady's character a little bit. Tighten it up a bit, too.
• 
  Coco.V

  🎁 FREE on Amazon today (4/8/2022)! 🎁
• 
  Judith A Berry

  Best book
  
  Really good i could not stop reading. Best I have read for awhile. And I read a lot of books in week
• 
  Page

  What the ever loving fuck did I just read? Hard to say because the plot was all over the place. There were many instances of the wrong word being used, wrong punctuation and jumbled phrasing. The first paragraph of part 2 was literally copied and pasted from the last paragraph of part 1. It's as if the editor just threw up his/her hands and walked away.
  I didn't find the heroine likable. She never stopped to think throughout the whole book. Every so called hero betrayed her. Even her brother impregnated an impressionable teen girl who had been abused. Cathy spent most of the book being abused, fleeing or preggers.
  The big kick in the pants is the conclusion. How the heck can the author justify that off the wall, out of the blue bad guy?
  I don't ask much from romances and I'm pretty forgiving of their warts. This one fell far from a very low bar.
  
• 
  Mary

  This is an epic saga of one woman and the men and trials in her life. It is well written and intriguing, but drags a little. Cathryn is truly a tortured soul, no matter what she does her life keeps ending in sadness. The twists that involve the men in her life are simply mind boggling. William, Jake, Phillip, Edmund and Reggie left my head spinning. It's definitely entertaining, somewhat engrossing, a bit long and a lot dramatic.
• 
  Cynthia

  I thought the plot was good but it had too much filler and was way too long. I really didn’t feel the connection between Cathryn and Jake the author doesn’t give me enough romance to really make this a romance story. There are a lot of twists and turns which really lost me with so many different villains it was hard to keep up with them all. It was an interesting read but would have been much better if it would have been a little simpler. Cathryn and Jake did spend enough time together for me to feel very much chemistry between the two.
  
  The author does give you a lot of excitement with some intriguing characters along with facts that fit the time period. I found I had to take breaks because my mind was spinning over to much in so little time. Some of the errors take away from the story. I was lost earlier in the story and the author just did not reconnect with me. There were some very good parts that pull the reader in with a very realistic story base. This is only my thoughts some have totally loved this story. Please give it a read and decide for yourself.
  
  I was provided a complimentary copy of this book from Reading Deals so I could give an honest review
  ************************
• 
  Michele

  Talk about bad luck--Cathryn Blankenship had plenty of it--some of it her own doing. She was as stubborn as they come and just as naive!
  
  When her father tried to send her to England she wanted none of it and attempted to escape--one big handsome problem. Her father had someone watching her like a hawk until she was settled in her grandparents house in England. She was brought up in the colonies and really was not prepared for what the people were like there! Needless to say she kind of fell head over heels with her escort---he had other ideas.
  
  She ended up abducted by the man her grandparents wanted her to marry--ended up marrying her heart throbs best friend--he died and she headed back to the colonies to her brother since her father had died in the interim. She had twins! Of course with the war with Britain going on in the colonies everyone wanted her back in England-----eventually that is where she ended up.
  
  If you truly like historical romances this one will keep you on your toes!!
  
  The Governor's Daughter
• 
  Tonileg

  Historical English and American romance. This is a bit of a saga because there are multiple romance stories (for the same person and with her family/friends)
  This is not a fluff romance, there is violence, rape, second chances romance as well as lots of death threats. Miss Cathryn Blankenship has grown up in Charles Town, in the American Colonies and her father is the Governor Blankenship who sends her back to England just before war breaks out. She is sent to an unloving extended family in time to get the news that her father is killed and she is stuck with strangers and is being forced into a marriage when she has fallen in love with Lieutenant Jake Pennington. Jake is not titled so her family keeps her away, but she goes on an adventure, marries a titled guy then I will stop here because the story gets crazy and there is secrets and lots more traveling before Cathryn finds a more settled and permanent HEA.
  This is a epic saga and has enough plot for three books so there is never a boring moment!
  386 pages and kindle freebie
  3 stars
• 
  Melissa

  I read 37% of this book:} Thank you kindle for giving me the exact location. I could not read anymore. The governors daughter started out ok but quickly went down hill. A couple that falls in love before we even know them well is not a good idea. I could not invest in these two at all. The author presents a strong American but when the family pushes her to do things she caves too easy. The worst part of this book is the writing. The idea is great, the execution is awful. There were a couple of scenes that were pg13 already so I am not sure if this stays clean or not. There is talk of a rape of a child, she walks in on her brother with a woman taking her dress down. Not sure how far the author takes the rest of the story.
• 
  Denim Voirin

  Meh
  
  For some reason in a lot of Hines books, the likeable characters die which leaves me always at the crossroads of whether to continue or not. I disliked Cathryn. I found her spoiled, whiny, and I was confused as to what made almost every man fall in love with her. Seriously. Every. Man.
  
  Mary and Sumner were my favorite characters so I have no desire to read on.
  
  There was hardly any build up for Jake or Phillip. Phillip had more personality than Jake which made me become attached more but I could not see what made Jake the "better" man per se.
  
  All in all, it wasn't her best. I'm eager to know if this is an earlier work or a more matured piece.
• 
  Elise

  What a book
  
  This book is what a book should be. I seriously couldn't put it down. Stayed up all night just to see what's going to happen.
  Cathryn Is sent to England to visit family she never seen. She doesn't want to go but went and that's where everything takes a turn.
  You would think this is going to be like any other romance book but it's not. So many twist and turns. I'm crying, I'm getting mad, I'm smiling seriously this book was fantastic!!!!! On to the next book.
• 
  Cheryl

  Romance Turmoil
  
  Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. I can say there were so many twist and turns and plot hops, I felt as if I was running. The MC is all over the board. She is very likeable though. I do think the ending was a bit rushed, compared to the rest of the book. Especially since in the end, does ahe I've her children, does the Duke take them... Its very open ended with not enough string to make a knot.
• 
  Wendy Crawford

  Problems!
  
  Cathryn, the Royal Governor's daughter, has definitely grown up very insulted from conflict, and is very used to being able to trust everyone. Neither of these things do her much good at all in a transoceanic chase for her children, multiple evil relatives all after money, or understanding men in general.
  
  Good plot twists!