The idea behind the Classic Comfort posts is that each featured writer chooses a favourite title from the classics – we’ll define ‘classic’ as pre-1940 – and a favourite comfort read, a book they always return to, for whatever reasons. As third book in each post, we’ll have one by the writer, usually their latest book. This week, we have romance writer Morton S. Gray, whose sixth novel, Summer at Lucerne Lodge, was published last week. Over to Morton:

Classic:

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell.

This book was originally published in 1854, but amazingly doesn’t read like that. It is set mainly in the industrial northern town of Milton as viewed by the heroine of the book, Margaret. She has come to live in the town from the south with her parents. She struggles to understand the ways and values of the inhabitants of this new place, especially a mill owner, John Thornton.
I enjoy books where I can put myself in the shoes of the heroine and I can easily imagine myself as Margaret.

Comfort:

Wintercombe by Pamela Belle

Wintercombe features the period of history which fascinates me – the English Civil War. The hero and heroine are from opposite sides of the conflict and the heroine, puritan Lady Silence St Barbe, is a married woman taken by surprise by her growing friendship with royalist Captain Nick Hellier.

As I said with my classic read above, I like books where I can easily imagine myself inside the skin of the main character. I can be transported to Silence St Barbe’s time and her efforts to keep her family and home safe when enemy soldiers turn up at her door by the author’s words. Her relationship with her husband is based on duty and convention and her growing feelings for Nick Hellier challenge everything about her existence. I’ve read this book many times and enjoyed it afresh each time.

Morton’s latest novel is Summer at Lucerne Lodge – but Lucerne Lodge in the title isn’t in Lucerne, Switzerland! Like all her books, this one is set in the fictional village of Borteen Bay on the east coast, and it’s a lovely romantic suspense read.

Could a beautiful old house and a handsome stranger hold the key to a life-changing secret?

Rosie Phillips could be forgiven for not being immediately won over by Tanner Bryant. After all, their first meeting involves him knocking a tray of prawn cocktail over her very expensive dress at a charity event in the grounds of Lucerne Lodge.
But little does Rosie know how pivotal that awkward first meeting will be, or how the Lodge will become the unexpected backdrop for a summer spent finding out who she really is, and who she could be …

Thank you, Morton! I wouldn’t mind spending the summer at Lucerne Lodge…

Morton lives with her husband, two sons and Lily, the little white dog, in Worcestershire, UK. She has been reading and writing fiction for as long as she can remember. She loves learning new things and these often end up in her books. Crocheting blankets, making her own perfumed soap and weaving have kept her sane during lockdown. She has been tracing her family tree for many years and is fascinated by the new avenues of research opened up by genealogical DNA testing. She is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and The Society of Authors.

You can find out more about Morton and her books on her website, on Twitter and on Facebook.

Next month, we’re having crime writer Malcolm Hollingdrake with his selection of books, so I’m looking forward to that!