"Rondo Allegro" by Sherwood Smith - a classical-style story of the Napoleonic wars

Trading secrets for security, Anna Maria Ludovisi's dying father marries her to the British fleet's sacrificial lamb, Captain Henry Duncannon, known as the Perennial Bachelor. Mere minutes after the wedding, he sets sail. When French invasion threatens, Anna flees to Paris, where she becomes a professional singer in order to survive. Years later, Anna's opera company is traveling through Spain when events bring the long-missing Captain Duncannon and his forgotten wife back together again, as the English, Spanish, and French fleets converge for battle off the Cape of Trafalgar. For Henry Duncannon as well as Anna, everything changes: the demands of war, the obligation of family, the meaning of love, and the concept of home. Can they find a new life together?

One of my favorite books from my early teen years was Sherwood Smith's Crown Duel/Court Duel duology, and between that and her Wren books, it cemented her in my mind as a fantasy author. Thus it was a bit of a surprise to recently come across a historical romance for adults by said author.

She has absolutely captured the writing style of the classic authors a century and more ago--I would have expected someone of the generation of Baroness Orczy (The Scarlet Pimpernel) or Rafael Sabatini (Scaramouche and Captain Blood) to have authored this book. The story is told in third person omniscient, a point of view that I don't care for in modern literature, but it suits the time period and that classic writing style. Word choice, sentence construction, the use of foreign language without explaining every last phrase--it is all perfectly on point.

Another reviewer described this as more of a coming-of-age story than a romance, and that is a perfect description. There is romance (and clean romance at that), but it's far more the story of how Anna grows into a woman and, eventually, a true wife. Our hero has some growing to do as well, though he has already experienced much of the world by the time he is forced into marriage at the beginning of the novel. The book was longer than I expected, but I really enjoyed it for the detail that the author was able to capture.

And it isn't just drawing-room romance: there's a clear depiction of ever-changing post-terror France and her not-precisely-respectable musical scene. And it's the start of the Napoleonic wars, with naval battles and the threat of spies, and even some gore in the heat and wake of battle. There are clear contrasts and similarities between the countries Anna spends time in; it's interesting to see the ways Italy,  France, Spain, and England were the same and where they greatly differed.

Apparently this beloved fantasy author of my youth can still speak to adult me through her writing! Highly satisfactory.