About the Author

A well-known veteran of the romance writing field, Carla Kelly is the author of forty-four novels and three non-fiction works, as well as numerous short stories and articles for various publications. She is the recipient of two RITA Awards from Romance Writers of America for Best Regency of the Year; two Spur Awards from Western Writers of America; three Whitney Awards, 2011, 2012, and 2014; and a Lifetime Achievement Award from Romantic Times. Carla's interest in historical fiction is a byproduct of her lifelong study of history. She's held a variety of jobs, including medical public relations work, feature writer and columnist for a North Dakota daily newspaper, and ranger in the National Park Service (her favorite job) at Fort Laramie National Historic Site and Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site. She has worked for the North Dakota Historical Society as a contract researcher. Interest in the Napoleonic Wars at sea led to numerous novels about the British Channel Fleet during that conflict. Carla has also written novels set in Wyoming during the Indian wars, and in the early twentieth century that focus on her interest in ranching.

Reviews

It took me two days to finish this little 229 page book because I wanted to savor every page, every paragraph, every word! If I were the Emperor of Japan, I would declare Carla Kelly a Living National Treasure. If I were the Queen, I would make her a Duchess, but since I am only a humble book reviewer, I can only declare that she is The Best Regency Romance Writer In The Universe.
There is so much I loved about Miss Milton Speaks Her Mind that I hardly know where to start. To begin with, the characters are wonderful! Miss Jane Milton is one of Ms Kelly's Cinderella heroines. She is not beautiful, but she is good and kind and very efficient. Miss Milton is a Poor Relation and lives with her elderly cousin Lord Denby. Denby is not a bad man, but he is ineffectual, and a coward who always takes to his bed when his sister Lady Carruthers visits. Lady Carruthers is a vicious old witch who wants the Denby estate for her wastrel son, Cecil, and delights in picking at Miss Milton.
The hero is a mill-owner and the son of a pig farmer with the improbable name of Scipio Africanus Butterworth. Mr. Butterworth is not strikingly handsome and is certainly not of the ton, but he is good and decent right down to the marrow of his bones. Mr. Butterworth runs his mills along enlightened lines - he pays his workers a decent wage, provides them with comfortable housing, treats them with respect and does not allow anyone under the age of twelve to work. Snobs like Lady Carruthers treat him with disdain while he quietly does good for people and gets richer and richer.
Miss Milton Speaks Her Mind had me engrossed from the first paragraph. The plot is complex and beautifully paced for such a short book. Lord Denby had one son, Blair, who had a son named Andrew. Blair's mother was killed in an accident when he was an infant and Miss Milton was his nurse, governess and mother in everything but name. Blair was wounded in the war and died when Andrew was a young boy andd