Sunday, November 16, 2014

2014 book 274

Kate Riordan's Fiercombe Manor
The message I often take away from historical fiction is: man, it sucked to be a woman in the past. This book does nothing to belie that: it centers on two women--one, in 1933, pregnant out of wedlock, sent to secretly have her baby with an old friend of her mother's, a housekeeper at a pretty empty manor house; and the other, the lady of the manor in the 1890s, also pregnant. Both stories are fairly compelling, and I think they balance each other out nicely. The hint of a mystery--waiting to find out what happened to the woman in the 1890s both through her POV sections and the other woman's investigations--works too. Solid writing and a really engaging story. A-.

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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in February.

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