The Launch of The Bride Ship

Regina Scott here.  I know I can’t be the only one who shares a fascination with sailing ships.  The massive hull slicing through a stormy sea, the billowing canvas snapping above my head, and creak of the timbers and the calls of the crew--they all combine to set my heart racing.  I've been blessed to tour a number of fine historic vessels, such as the U.S.S. Constitution, America’s tall ship; the Coast Guard’s Eagle, and a replica of the Bounty.  I've taken a short jaunt aboard the Hawaiian Chieftain, a contemporary version of sailing ship.  And last year I had the honor of spending the day sailing with our state’s tall ship, the Lady Washington, as she came up the Columbia River.  That trip was on my bucket list.

Here’s another thing I can cross off my list of things I long to do in this lifetime:  write a story about the voyage of the U.S.S. Continental, the steamship that carried nearly 60 women from the East Coast of America around the continent to civilize frontier Washington Territory.  I fell in love with the story as a girl when I watched the popularized adaptation, Here Come the Brides, on television.  When I learned there really had been a bride ship bearing ladies to Seattle, I knew it was a story I had to tell.

So, after more than 25 historical romances set in the Regency period, I embark on a new venture.  The Bride Ship is my November release from Love Inspired Historical.  It tells the story of widow Allegra Banks Howard, former Boston belle, who joins the expedition to make a new life for herself and her little girl, Gillian.  But she reckons without the interference of the powerful Howard family, who sends an unlikely hero to bring her home.

Clay Howard can’t understand what was his brother's widow, his first love, is doing on a ship full of prospective brides headed out West. When he’d agreed to bring her home, he didn't anticipate Allegra being so strong-willed, or that he'd wind up traveling with her just to keep her from leaving without him! 

Allegra Banks Howard isn't going to let Clay interfere with her plans for a new life with her daughter on the frontier. True, Allegra needs his wilderness savvy, but if Clay thinks he can rekindle what they once shared, he had better think again. Because risking her heart for a second chance at being his bride isn't something she'll undertake lightly…. 

Frontier Bachelors: Bold, rugged—and bound to be grooms

So what do you think?  Do you share my fascination with sailing ships and the romance of the frontier?