Wonderful novel of real life in the1800s

My rating:  5 out of 5

Jocelyn and her mother are travelling to a new home in a remote part of Yorkshire.  Jocelyn is in disgrace and soon her mother leaves her to survive alone apart from a few staff. What has Jocelyn done?  Whatever it is, Jocelyn at the age of 26 has been cast away to a life of boredom. 

Set in the early 1800s this historical fiction looks at the realities of those times.  Social norms and acceptability are one of the themes in this beautifully written novel with characters that became real in my mind, and events that, though seemingly real to life, were quite shocking.  There are the balls and social gatherings that one may expect of a book written in this era, but the viewpoint is rather different from other books I have read of this genre.

Despite a slow burn start I absolutely loved this book, and the story and images have stayed with me over the weeks since I finished reading it.  This is Book 1 of “A Regency Family Saga” trilogy – I loved the 2nd book (The Lady in the Veil) so much, I went back to read this the first, and have the third book on my TBR list .  Allie Cresswell is an author who gets to the heart of the era she is writing about, looking at how life really was under the apparent gloss and romance. 

Publication Date: October 2020

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Other book/s I have read, and reviewed, by this author (click on book cover to see review) :