To the Farthest Shores

3.5 stars
I'd expected to rate the book four stars after reading it, but as I thought about it, I couldn't quite justify it with the gaps in characterization. I got this one from the library after being so disappointed in the last Camden book, and while this one is an improvement, it's not back to her usual as far as characterization and dialogue can be.

Content: a side character is a rich kid daredevil, and there are some mentions of him visiting loose women, and a large part of the subplot is about his opium use. Also, Jenny's mother was a dance hall girl of scant morals. Minor “sanitized” cussing...good heavens, heck, etc

Christianity: Subdued. No big spiritual lessons to be had. Ryan was supposed to be the strong Christian, and yet he tossed it aside strangely fast between the preface and the actual story.

Historicity: “strung out on” in the sense of drugs was primarily a slang term from the 1960s and 70s; “gone missing” was brought into use in the 1990s.

Editing: still some stuff that got past the proofreader. Its instead of it's; puss instead of pus.

This is a BIG spoiler. Only for those who've read the book.
For me, Ryan's motivation could not hold water. We are told to believe that the good Christian missionary boy, who was totally in love with one girl, got bad news about having to stay in Japan, and thereafter went out, met a very willing childhood friend (who also was supposedly a Christian), and instantly consoled himself with her in a greenhouse, thus conceiving a child and having to marry her. He becomes very bitter by the time he goes back to America; he flips back and forth from not being a grieving widower, to being truly in love with his wife to the point that he even gave up playing the instrument he played with her...one or the other, man, but not both.Also, Jenny has to do all the work in the relationship. He is grouchy and bitter, when she's the one he hurt the most. Goodness, poor girl doesn't even get a decent apology. He should have crawled back to her on his knees if he was still interested in her. Instead he slams the door in her face, among other tricks. What has he been through, really? Come down to it, not much, especially in light of her being deserted and being stuck on hospital night shift on bad pay for those years. We are told he is interested, but not shown much of it.All in all, I'm never going to love unrepentant antiheroes, and Ryan skirted that line all too often for me to be won over to their relationship. Poor Jenny.