Cate of the Lost Colony by Lisa Klein

Does anyone else think the girl on the cover of this book looks like Kristen Stewart?

Lady Catherine Archer is one of Queen Elizabeth's attendants. She, like everyone else in Elizabeth's court, constantly strives for the Queen's favor. No one can do anything without the Queen's favor, not even fall in love. Catherine becomes fascinated with Walter Ralegh, who is held in very high esteem by the Queen, and she funds his explorations to the New World. When the Queen learns of the letters and poems Ralegh has been sending to Catherine, she has Catherine sent off to Ralegh's colony of Roanoke in the New World while keeping Ralegh close to her at court. Catherine, who now calls herself Cate, is determined to learn to live in the New World, where she experiences freedom for the first time. But life is much harder than she ever could have dreamed.

I love a good historical fiction, and I didn't know very much about the lost colony of Roanoke so it was fun to read about. Of course, no one knows very much about the lost colony of Roanoke, which is why it's such an excellent thing to base your historical fiction book around since it gives you a lot of freedom. No one knows what happened to the colonists at Roanoke. It seems likely they either died, or as Klein made them, joined the Native American tribes in order to survive when the ships didn't come from England.

The story is of course framed by the love story of Cate and Ralegh (who was totally a jerk and didn't love her at all) and then Cate and Manteo, a Croatoan who acts as the go-between the English and the native people. I like how the love between Cate and Manteo was handled. The "love" between Cate and Ralegh was all flowery and bad poetry and long lingering looks, and quite the opposite was Manteo, who was quite and respectful and kept his distance. There was no dramatic love scene, well OK, the very end was a little dramatic, but it was nice. They'd lived near each other for years before they said they loved each other. It was kind of refreshing.

I would certainly recommend this to add to your historical fiction collection. It's a period that isn't done as much, and you get a good feel for the time period, the situation of women during that time period, and the conflict between England and Spain as well as the love story

Cate of the Lost Colony will be available October 12.