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Author Barbara T. Cerny grew up in Grand Junction, Colorado, which at that time was a small town of 30,000 people. She left that little burg to see the world, garner three college degrees, and to serve in the US Army. After eight years on active duty and fourteen years in the reserves, she retired as a lieutenant colonel in 2007. While deployed to the Middle East in 2005, Ms. Cerny finally figured out she had to get going on the real love of her life, writing. She wrote her first two novels during that time and hasn’t stopped. She is presently working on her next two novels. When not writing, Ms. Cerny works as an information technology specialist and supervisor for the US Air Force. She lives with her loving husband, their two active teenagers, and three needy cats. The cats patiently watch her write and listen to her intently as she discusses plot lines with them.
Reviewed by Caitlyn Lynch for Readers' Favorite
In Grays Hill, Barbara Cerny has created an absolutely amazing character - Lady Oksana “OJ” Wallingford. She’s unusually tall, she’s fat, and she’s not beautiful. She’s also been left in dire circumstances by a wastrel father who left her penniless and forced to seek employment after his death. Luckily, Lady OJ is fortunate in her friends, or most specifically in her best friend since childhood, Geoff Tarkington, younger brother of Rafe, Duke of Essex. Knowing how desperately his brother needs someone utterly respectable to take care of his young children after their faithless mother’s death, Geoff proposes OJ for the position, and Rafe is willing to take her on trust, sending her out to the family’s estate at Grays Hill to meet his sons. Strong-willed and loving, OJ immediately takes the motherless children to her heart, and their father finds himself reluctantly falling in love with her too.
I don’t think I’ve ever read a period romance with a heroine as unusual as Lady OJ. I absolutely adored her. She wasn’t afraid to speak her mind, to stand up to Rafe and shout at him, to fight for what she knew was right. I wanted to punch Rafe when he treated her badly; even knowing how badly he was played by his first wife, OJ still deserved better. Thankfully, because this is a romance, everything came out well and all those who deserved it got their happy ending. I’d love to read more of Barbara Cerny’s work, and I particularly hope she writes Lord Geoff’s story at some point in the future!
