I struggled with this book and just couldn't get engaged with the story. A summary is captivating enough - a young Scottish widow recieves a mysterious package from her twin brother who died in India, begins to suspect he may not have died after all, and so begins a journey half way across the world. Still, there are a number of subplots, characters, and almost too many details about steamships, Scottish ballads, and tea (and I love tea) to wade through in order to get to the heart of this book. The author had the gem of a good story here, it just wasn't well executed, and I hope to read the author again when she is a more developed writer. ( )

I know this is mean but I was disappointed.

Dear Peg Kingman,

I'm sure when you were coming up with the ideas for Not Yet Drown'd - you thought you couldn't go wrong. India, bagpipes, tea, steamships, orphans and widows and tigers - what's not to love? But let me give you some advice for your next novel.

First of all, even if you do a whole lot of research, it doesn't all have to go into the book. Sometimes, too many details about how to brew tea or how the bagpipes work, really slow the narrative down.

Secondly, and this is linked to # 1, you obviously have great skill and experience as a technical writer but it doesn't serve you well here. I don't need to know how a steam engine works in great detail. I never will. All the lengthy how-to and descriptions made your story feel bloated and weighty. Perhaps all that technical descrption prevented you from creating characters that a reader could care about.

Which brings me to #3. Some of your characters are a tad cliched. The preternaturally gifted orphan, the repressed widow, the amorous sea captain, and most egregious of all, the two, not one, but two, heroic, forthright, honorable women of color who manage to save the emotionally stifled white people time and time again. Ick.
( )

Not Yet Drown’d by Peg Kingman is a mixture of historical fiction, mystery and romance and ultimately my feelings toward this book were quite mixed as well. Young widow Catherine MacDonald has also been grieving the loss of her twin brother who was said to have drowned in India during the monsoons of 1821. After a full year passes, she receives a package from him. Among the assorted contents is a cryptic message sent as a retitled musical piece. Not Yet Drown’d, the message says. She is then forced to flee from an over-bearing relative of her step-daughter Grace, who wishes to take the child to America to be raised. She and Grace join her older brother on a trip to India which gives her the chance to search for some answers.

The author has done meticulous research, but so much detail really slowed the book down and interrupted the flow of the narrative. Although some of this information was very tedious, other parts were quite interesting . The storyline I felt, was overly predictable but I loved the setting and thought that author was excellent at describing these exotic surroundings.

Ultimately, I found plenty to savour in Not Yet Drown’d and I think the story would have been much improved by some very tight editing. As this was the author’s debut novel, I would certainly like to see how her writing develops in future books. ( )

Catherine MacDonald has recently lost both her husband and her brother. She is trying to hang onto her stepdaughter, even when the stepdaughter's blood relatives send a servant from America to obtain custody of the girl. Catherine has received a parcel from India suggesting that her brother may not have drowned in the floods as had been assumed. Eventually she sets out to India to try to locate her brother with a runaway slave and a girl from India who have been helpful to her accompanying her. I found that the plot of the book was not what I expected based on the description. The story line is different from most, and it certainly pushes the fringes of what could have realistically happened at that period of time. I did enjoy the author's bringing William Carey, the renowned missionary, into the plot. Music and tea play important roles in the narrative. The portion of the book which dealt with the period before setting sail could have been reduced by 50 to 75 pages without hurting the story. I found the latter part much more pleasurable to read. ( )

For several reasons, including an over-the-top villianess who attempts to steal her stepdaughter, Catherine MacDonald travels from 19th century Scotland to Colonial India. Along the way she meets up with two women on the run from horrible situations - one outcast Indian and one ex-American slave - and comes to believe that her twin brother, who was presumed dead, may be alive after all.

I wanted to like this book. In fact, I did like parts of this book. But the author relied too much on improbable coincidence and the somewhat "mystical" abilities of the Indian woman to move the plot along. Each time I would suspend disbelief she would tweak my nerves again with another mysterious vision or fortuitous coincidence and I would be jolted back out of the story.

Which is not to say the book was all bad. It had some good descriptive writing and the author can do a good job establishing a back story without going into long explanations that feel out of place.

I think it may be worth a second read, now that I know what I'm getting into, but overall it was disappointing. ( )