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Blueness
When a bucket-list cruise vacation becomes a nightmare! Solo traveling can lead to enormous complications.
American businesswoman Kat Jensen begins an exciting, well-deserved vacation on board an old Danish clipper ship sailing from Copenhagen, Denmark to Hong Kong, but she regrets her decision from the moment she sees her cabin. Before boarding, she agreed to an 1860 re-enactment dress code and digital detox. But life aboard the no-frills ship means going without modern plumbing and electricity. After she hits her head and is nearly swept overboard in a storm, Kat decides to cut her trip short in Southampton, England, the first port of call. But returning home to modern day New York City from Victorian England isn’t easy.
BLUENESS features a resilient businesswoman on an unforgettable adventure who unexpectedly gets mixed up in some time travel and romance.
American businesswoman Kat Jensen begins an exciting, well-deserved vacation on board an old Danish clipper ship sailing from Copenhagen, Denmark to Hong Kong, but she regrets her decision from the moment she sees her cabin. Before boarding, she agreed to an 1860 re-enactment dress code and digital detox. But life aboard the no-frills ship means going without modern plumbing and electricity. After she hits her head and is nearly swept overboard in a storm, Kat decides to cut her trip short in Southampton, England, the first port of call. But returning home to modern day New York City from Victorian England isn’t easy.
BLUENESS features a resilient businesswoman on an unforgettable adventure who unexpectedly gets mixed up in some time travel and romance.
290 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2019
8 people are currently reading
10 people want to read
About the author
Karen Stensgaard
3 books21 followersKaren Stensgaard has published three novels: AQUAVIT and BLUENESS in the Aquamarine Sea series; and PROJECT ONION in the Melville Consulting series. Her latest novel taps into her former career as an internal auditor and consultant in New York City. Karen’s a member of the Authors Guild and the Alliance of Independent Authors.
Stay in touch on social media and via karenstensgaard.com with a monthly travel photo blog or join her Facebook Novelist page. On YouTube, she has some videos and music playlists for her books. Photos illustrate some characters and scenes in her novels on Pinterest. Karen is also on Instagram and Twitter.
Stay in touch on social media and via karenstensgaard.com with a monthly travel photo blog or join her Facebook Novelist page. On YouTube, she has some videos and music playlists for her books. Photos illustrate some characters and scenes in her novels on Pinterest. Karen is also on Instagram and Twitter.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 28, 2021
Entertaining book featuring timetravel with lots of action, twist and turns, and a bit of romance as well. Two thumbs up.
August 28, 2021
Here are three independent reviews of Blueness:
5 out of 5-Star Review: K.C. Finn for Readers' Favorite
Blueness is a work of science fiction on the theme of time travel which was penned by author Karen Stensgaard, and it forms the second novel of The Aquamarine Sea series. Following the events of book one, Aquavit, we return to the life of the go-getting businesswoman Kat Jensen as she determinedly boards her pleasure cruise to escape her busy life. But on board the Danish clipper, where digital tech is banned and a 19th-century dress code is encouraged, Kat soon realizes that the old-timey adventure is more realistic than she thought. Returning to modern-day New York is going to be an eye-opening and epic task, with plenty of surprises along the way.
Author Karen Stensgaard presents a truly unique concept in this novel, which forms part of a continuing series of bizarre adventures for her central heroine Kat. The character development of both Kat and the people around her on the clipper is truly excellent, adding a level of realism and relatability which stops the time travel plot becoming too clichéd and over the top. The balance of genres is really well observed, keeping the story interesting with unexpected twists, but also grounding it emotionally with Kat's development arc and allowing readers to fall into this surreal and entertaining world with her. One can only guess where the series will go next, but overall, Blueness is a thrilling adventure tale with plenty of laughs and is highly recommended for readers looking for a well-written chick lit novel with a unique concept.
Critic's Report for the 2019 BookLife Prize Contest sponsored by Publishers Weekly:
"The story follows a woman who is sent back in time ... The prose is clean and moves the story quickly, and there is some evocative descriptive writing. The plot moves along at a steady pace ...The characters are consistent and realized ... The central conceit of the novel -- a woman on a re-enactment trip ends up actually back in time - is quite clever. The reactions of a modern middle-aged woman stranded 150 years in the past can be interesting ..."
Judge, 27th Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards:
"In this time-slip novel, a contemporary business woman embarks on a re-enactment cruise aboard an authentic 1860s Danish sailing ship. Kat Jensen soon regrets the choice when she realizes just how authentic the ship is, with no electricity or running water. Early in the voyage, she is knocked unconscious during a storm and almost swept overboard. Things take an even more shocking turn after she wakes up. When the ship makes its first port of call in England, Kat disembarks and discovers she actually has been transported back to the 1860. She now must deal with the cultural differences of this bygone era and figure out how to return to modern times. The historical elements of this novel are nicely done. It's clear the author did a great deal of research. Her descriptions of 19th-century food, fashion and customs created a vivid picture of the period and setting. The overall account of what it was like to travel by sea during that time is particularly dramatic and harrowing."
5 out of 5-Star Review: K.C. Finn for Readers' Favorite
Blueness is a work of science fiction on the theme of time travel which was penned by author Karen Stensgaard, and it forms the second novel of The Aquamarine Sea series. Following the events of book one, Aquavit, we return to the life of the go-getting businesswoman Kat Jensen as she determinedly boards her pleasure cruise to escape her busy life. But on board the Danish clipper, where digital tech is banned and a 19th-century dress code is encouraged, Kat soon realizes that the old-timey adventure is more realistic than she thought. Returning to modern-day New York is going to be an eye-opening and epic task, with plenty of surprises along the way.
Author Karen Stensgaard presents a truly unique concept in this novel, which forms part of a continuing series of bizarre adventures for her central heroine Kat. The character development of both Kat and the people around her on the clipper is truly excellent, adding a level of realism and relatability which stops the time travel plot becoming too clichéd and over the top. The balance of genres is really well observed, keeping the story interesting with unexpected twists, but also grounding it emotionally with Kat's development arc and allowing readers to fall into this surreal and entertaining world with her. One can only guess where the series will go next, but overall, Blueness is a thrilling adventure tale with plenty of laughs and is highly recommended for readers looking for a well-written chick lit novel with a unique concept.
Critic's Report for the 2019 BookLife Prize Contest sponsored by Publishers Weekly:
"The story follows a woman who is sent back in time ... The prose is clean and moves the story quickly, and there is some evocative descriptive writing. The plot moves along at a steady pace ...The characters are consistent and realized ... The central conceit of the novel -- a woman on a re-enactment trip ends up actually back in time - is quite clever. The reactions of a modern middle-aged woman stranded 150 years in the past can be interesting ..."
Judge, 27th Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards:
"In this time-slip novel, a contemporary business woman embarks on a re-enactment cruise aboard an authentic 1860s Danish sailing ship. Kat Jensen soon regrets the choice when she realizes just how authentic the ship is, with no electricity or running water. Early in the voyage, she is knocked unconscious during a storm and almost swept overboard. Things take an even more shocking turn after she wakes up. When the ship makes its first port of call in England, Kat disembarks and discovers she actually has been transported back to the 1860. She now must deal with the cultural differences of this bygone era and figure out how to return to modern times. The historical elements of this novel are nicely done. It's clear the author did a great deal of research. Her descriptions of 19th-century food, fashion and customs created a vivid picture of the period and setting. The overall account of what it was like to travel by sea during that time is particularly dramatic and harrowing."
September 27, 2021
Blueness picks up, quite literally, where Aquavit left off. Kat has made it aboard her period cruise with its ruggedly handsome captain, Danish-speaking crew, and all the amenities an 1850s sailing vessel can offer – which is to say, Kat’s room has a door. Kat insists this is reenactment gone too far. The captain insists it’s the mid-1800’s. Who’s right? Who cares – it’s tons of fun to watch them spar.
First port on the cruise is Southampton, England, looking nothing like it did when Kat visited a decade before. Try thought she might, Kat can’t find a telephone, TV, or decent bathroom anywhere. Worse (though true to the time period), the captain has control over her money. Yes, there is shopping, and there are dinner parties and carriage rides, but who or what went to this much bother for the sake of Kat’s cruise? Why did someone include the awful bits from the time period? How does Kat contact anyone to say, stop the world, I want to get off? And if she really DID go back in time, does Kat need to see the voyage through to its end at Hong Kong to escape?
Kat faces three perils in this book, all of which are life-threatening and all of which come at least in part from her ignorance about where and when she is, and a refusal to give up her independent, modern-woman approach to life. Kat does grow as a character through these perils, and handles each one better than the last.
Kat also meets and hangs out with two other chicks, thus fixing one significant lack from the first book. There’s humor and there’s some zaniness and there are available guys without the weird, transactional nature of sex from the first book, thus fixing a second major flaw.
It would be a four-star read but for the oddball story arc. The second peril Kat faces is the most complicated and lengthy, but it starts halfway through the book, making the last third of the pages feel like anticlimax. Yes, there’s a third peril in there, but it goes from beginning to end in a couple of pages – blink and you miss it. And readers who loved the first, more traditional chick-lit setting will find themselves rather lost here. The series shows promise, however. Kat is intelligent and charming and – lucky for us – gets back on the ship for whatever lies ahead.
First port on the cruise is Southampton, England, looking nothing like it did when Kat visited a decade before. Try thought she might, Kat can’t find a telephone, TV, or decent bathroom anywhere. Worse (though true to the time period), the captain has control over her money. Yes, there is shopping, and there are dinner parties and carriage rides, but who or what went to this much bother for the sake of Kat’s cruise? Why did someone include the awful bits from the time period? How does Kat contact anyone to say, stop the world, I want to get off? And if she really DID go back in time, does Kat need to see the voyage through to its end at Hong Kong to escape?
Kat faces three perils in this book, all of which are life-threatening and all of which come at least in part from her ignorance about where and when she is, and a refusal to give up her independent, modern-woman approach to life. Kat does grow as a character through these perils, and handles each one better than the last.
Kat also meets and hangs out with two other chicks, thus fixing one significant lack from the first book. There’s humor and there’s some zaniness and there are available guys without the weird, transactional nature of sex from the first book, thus fixing a second major flaw.
It would be a four-star read but for the oddball story arc. The second peril Kat faces is the most complicated and lengthy, but it starts halfway through the book, making the last third of the pages feel like anticlimax. Yes, there’s a third peril in there, but it goes from beginning to end in a couple of pages – blink and you miss it. And readers who loved the first, more traditional chick-lit setting will find themselves rather lost here. The series shows promise, however. Kat is intelligent and charming and – lucky for us – gets back on the ship for whatever lies ahead.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews