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Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt Stop #30

Welcome to the Christian Fiction Scavenger Hunt! If you’ve just discovered the hunt, be sure to start at Stop #1, and collect the clues through all the stops, in order, so you can enter to win one of our top 5 grand prizes!

• The hunt BEGINS on 3/19 at noon Mountain with Stop #1 at LisaBergren.com.
• Hunt through our loop using Chrome or Firefox as your browser (not Explorer).
• There is NO RUSH to complete the hunt—you have all weekend (until Sunday, 3/22 at midnight Mountain)! So take your time, reading the unique posts along the way; our hope is that you discover new authors/new books and learn new things about them.
• Submit your entry for the grand prizes by collecting the CLUE on each author’s scavenger hunt post and submitting your answer in the entry form at the final stop, back on Lisa’s site. Many authors are offering additional prizes along the way!

Hi! I’m Melanie Dickerson and I love a good romance! I’ve written Medieval Fairy Tale Retellings and Regency Romantic Suspense, and now I’m writing Regency Romance. Two of my favorite novels are Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice, both of which inspired my new book, The Good Fortune of Miss Robbins. You can learn more about me on Facebook and Instagram.

Charlotte Robbins accepts a governess position for the Earl of Brookhaven’s siblings despite rumors of the earl’s severe and mysterious demeanor. As a lowly governess, Charlotte entertains thoughts of possible romance with an eligible servant until she does fall unexpectedly in love–with the pensive earl himself.But love does not mean a match is possible, and the earl’s friends warn Charlotte that if he were to fall for her, it would ruin him.

Just as Charlotte resigns herself to the impossibility of her feelings, she receives news that she has inherited a fortune from a long-lost relative. Now thrust into London high society, Charlotte grapples with suitors vying for her attention, but her heart still belongs to the Earl of Brookhaven. As secrets unfold, she’s no longer certain if her newfound fortune is a blessing–or if it is the very thing that threatens the love she’s always longed for.

Orphans in Regency England

As an orphan, Charlotte faces unique challenges. People in England during the Regency era did not think of children the way we do. For example, could you imagine sending your baby to a neighboring farm family or a village woman to be raised and cared for until they were two years old? That is exactly what Jane Austen’s own family did. Her mother nursed her child until about three months old, then Mrs. Austen sent them to live with a nearby family.

In Regency England, orphaned children often lived on the streets. If they hoped to learn a trade, they had to find a wealthy patron who would sponsor them at an orphanage. Then they must go through a process of application, and the board of the home for orphans would vote on which applicants to admit. The children would then learn a trade such as carpentry or how to work as a servant in the wealthiest homes.

At this time, legal adoption as we know it did not exist. And as street children were seen as a bigger problem, laws were passed with harsh punishments for begging or sleeping on the street. To address this, workhouses were created in the 1830s, but they were harsh, cruel places that provided little or no care and forced children to do hard labor. In The Good Fortune of Miss Robbins, Charlotte Robbins, orphaned at the age of five, was fortunate to have had parents that were able to leave her just enough money to provide her a place at a school for girls. Charlotte and one or two other girls were permanent boarders, educated alongside girls who were sent to the school to be educated for a short time and then to return home. I hope you enjoy her story!

Here’s the Stop #30 Basics:
If you’re interested, you can order The Good Fortune of Miss Robbins on Amazon, Baker Book House, Barnes & Noble, ChristianBook or at your local bookstore!

Clue to Write Down: read!

Next Stop is for the Grand Prize, Stop #31.

But wait! Before you go, I’m offering an additional giveaway, either physical book (for continental US residents only) or the digital ebook, of another of my Regency romance novels, A Spy’s Devotion, the first book in my Regency Spies of London series. All you have to do is subscribe to my newsletter and leave a comment on this post saying you subscribed, or that you were already subscribed. You get one extra entry for each of the following: Follow me on Amazon, Follow me on Instagram, Follow me on Facebook, and/or Follow me on BookBub.