1798: A magical, dark adventure. Fourteen-year-old Pâtca, initiated in the occult arts, comes to Bucharest, to her uncle, Cuviosu Zăval, to retrieve the Book of Perilous Dishes. The recipes in this magical book can bring about damaging sincerity, forgetfulness, the gift of prediction, or hysterical laughter. She finds her uncle murdered and the book missing. All that Zăval has left her is a strange map she must decipher. Travelling from Romania to France and on to Germany to do so, Patca’s family’s true past and powers are revealed, as is her connection to the famous and sublime chef, Silica.
DOINA RUŞTI, important contemporary Romanian novelist, is unanimously appreciated for epic force, for originality and erudition of her novels. She received all major Romanian awards, including the Romanian Academy Prize, and was translated into many languages (even in Chinese).
She wrote ten novels, including: Fantoma din moară (The Phantom in the Mill, 2008), Lizoanca (2009), Zogru (2006).
The novels Manuscrisul fanariot (The Phanariot Manuscript, 2015), Mâța Vinerii (The Book of Perilous Dishes, 2017) and “Homeric” (2019) can be a Phanariotic Trilogy (18th century). The most recent novel: Paturi oculte (Occult beds), 2020.
Good international reviews in: La Stampa, Stato Quotidiano, Il Venerdì di Repubblica. Il Libero, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Magyar Nemzet, La Opinion, Turia. Il Mercurio etc.
Doina Rusti lives in Bucharest, and is a professor and screenwriter.
My thoughts: After her grandmother is dragged away to be executed, our 14 year old protagonist heads to Bucharest to find her uncle. Unfortunately he has been murdered and she gets involved in the various intrigues of society.
The titular book, one Pâtca wrote several years before, has fallen into the hands of a cook who is now making those perilous dishes for the local ruler, and they’re having some strange effects.
As she attempts to get the book back from the cook, solve her uncle’s murder, and stay ahead of the city – who are looking for a witch called Cat O’ Friday, another name for Pâtca.
I really enjoyed this book, Pâtca is an intriguing character, trying to figure all of these different things out, she’s only a teenager but seems wise beyond her years and quite dangerous.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
A governess bound by her own strict rules, a movie-star tormented by grief, a forbidden love story you won’t forget.
Hollywood, 1937 Hester Carlye has no wish to look after the pampered offspring of the rich anymore, in spite of being a highly sought-after governess. But with her elderly father frail, and the roof of their rundown cottage falling in, she has no choice but to accept a dazzling new placement. Movie star Aidan Neil is box office gold, but after the tragic death of his wife Dinah Doyle, he needs Hester’s help to raise their young daughter Erin. Aidan and Dinah were once the perfect Hollywood couple, but stars don’t shine forever…
At Aidan’s glittering Hollywood mansion, Hester finds a family struggling with their grief. Hester knows she can help little Erin, but Aidan’s torment is palpable. Brooding and reclusive, he is far from the picture-perfect hero Hester’s seen in films. There’s an edge to him that makes Hester wonder if he’s hiding a dark secret of his own….
Was the marriage between Aidan and Dinah as perfect as it appeared to be? Was Dinah’s death really a tragic accident? When it finally comes, the truth is more shocking than Hester could ever have imagined. And she knows that if revealed, it will destroy the family she has grown to love and ruin Aidan’s Hollywood dream forever…
Alex Weston is a debut historical fiction writer whose novels are inspired by forbidden love in 1930s Hollywood. She lives in East Yorkshire and her first book for Boldwood, The Hollywood Governess, will be published in June 2024.
My thoughts: Hester Carlyle is a professional governess, hired by wealthy families to care for and educate their children, but she’s had enough, after a terrible accident and a broken engagement, she’s retreated to her family home in Yorkshire to rest and recuperate.
However the roof is falling in, her father’s sick and her youngest sister’s school fees need paying. So she agrees to take another job, for a Hollywood star, a recent widower with a seven year old daughter. Going to work in a bereaved family isn’t easy, but she’s resourceful and good at her job, she’s also kind and compassionate, and it isn’t only Erin who needs her.
As she gets to know her employer, she discovers there are secrets in the past that need to be let into the light in order for everyone to heal and be able to move on with their lives. Hester may play a bigger role in things than she could ever imagine.
This is a lovely, tender read with beautifully written characters and heart.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Next in the #1 Sunday Times bestselling series, New York Times bestselling author Kate Mosse returns with The Ghost Ship, a sweeping historical epic of adventure on the high seas.
The Barbary Coast, 1621. A mysterious vessel floats silently on the water. It is known only as the Ghost Ship. For months it has hunted pirates to liberate those enslaved by corsairs, manned by a courageous crew of mariners from Italy and France, Holland and the Canary Islands.
But the bravest men on board are not who they seem. And the stakes could not be higher. If arrested, they will be hanged for their crimes. Can they survive the journey and escape their fate?
A sweeping and epic love story, ranging from France in 1610 to Amsterdam and the Canary Islands in the 1620s, The Ghost Ship is a thrilling novel of adventure and buccaneering, love and revenge, stolen fortunes and hidden secrets on the high seas.
KATE MOSSE, CBE, is a multiple New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author with sales of more than eight million copies in thirty-eight languages. Her previous novels include Labyrinth, Sepulchre, The Winter Ghosts, Citadel, The Taxidermist’s Daughter, and The Burning Chambers. Kate is the founder director of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, a visiting professor at the University of Chichester, and in June 2013, was awarded an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to literature. She divides her time between Chichester in the United Kingdom and Carcassonne in France.
My thoughts: this is the third installment of The Joubert Family Chronicles, but I think it could be read as a standalone too. Louise’s story is inspired by the real life female pirates like Anne Bonny and Mary Read, women who took on male roles, who did things they weren’t expected to.
After coming into her inheritance Louise buys a merchant ship, and during a voyage from Amsterdam to the Canary Islands her experiences and the stories of the crew make her want to make a difference. She’s also drawn to a young man, Gilles, who she’s taken under her wing. But like Louise, Gilles is not exactly what he seems.
They become pirates of a sort, stealing not treasure but saving lives – hunting down slave ships and freeing the captives, encouraging them to take over the ships they’re held on.
It’s both an adventure and a romance, Louise and Gilles are both incredibly brave and resourceful, even when things seem incredibly bleak and hopeless, they have courage and faith in one another.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
An atmospheric gothic mystery that beautifully brings the ancient Cornish countryside to life, Armstrong introduces heroine Ruby Vaughn in her Minotaur Books & Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award-winning debut, The Curse of Penryth Hall.
After the Great War, American heiress Ruby Vaughn made a life for herself running a rare bookstore alongside her octogenarian employer and house mate in Exeter. She’s always avoided dwelling on the past, even before the war, but it always has a way of finding her. When Ruby is forced to deliver a box of books to a folk healer living deep in the Cornish countryside, she is brought back to the one place she swore she’d never return. A more sensible soul would have delivered the package and left without rehashing old wounds. But no one has ever accused Ruby of being sensible. Thus begins her visit to Penryth Hall.
A foreboding fortress, Penryth Hall is home to Ruby’s once dearest friend, Tamsyn, and her husband, Sir Edward Chenowyth. It’s an unsettling place, and after a more unsettling evening, Ruby is eager to depart. But her plans change when Penryth’s bells ring for the first time in thirty years. Edward is dead; he met a gruesome end in the orchard, and with his death brings whispers of a returned curse. It also brings Ruan Kivell, the person whose books brought her to Cornwall, the one the locals call a Pellar, the man they believe can break the curse. Ruby doesn’t believe in curses—or Pellars—but this is Cornwall and to these villagers the curse is anything but lore, and they believe it will soon claim its next victim: Tamsyn.
To protect her friend, Ruby must work alongside the Pellar to find out what really happened in the orchard that night.
JESS ARMSTRONG is the USA Today best selling author of the Ruby Vaughn Mysteries. Her debut novel, The Curse of Penryth Hall, won the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Competition. She has a masters degree in American History but prefers writing about imaginary people to the real thing. Jess lives in New Orleans with her historian husband, two sons, yellow cat, speckled dog, and the world’s most pampered school-fair goldfish. And when she’s not working on her next project, she’s probably thinking about cheese, baking, on social media or some combination of the above.
My thoughts: Cornwall is a place steeped in magic and mystery – long thought the land of Arthur and his knights, there’s many stories about piskies and spells in England’s southernmost county.
Ruby Vaughn is tasked to deliver a chest of books, despite not wanting to go anywhere near the home of her former close friend Tamsyn Chenowyth. But of course she visits Tamsyn and something terrible happens – Edward Chenowyth is murdered.
The Pellar, a sort of wise man, is called to inspect the body – as well as the constable, as there’s a curse on the family, or so they and the village believe. Ruby, being a modern scientific minded woman, doesn’t believe in curses or magic, she believes a human hand is behind all of it, and she will prove it. Even as she and Ruan Kivell (the Pellar) are drawn together.
The atmosphere does start to get to Ruby, but she’s determined to help Tamsyn, who is terrified her young son will be next. The answers lie in secrets from the past, things kept hidden, in grief and rumour.
I was gripped by this clever, sinister and compelling story, I really liked Ruby, her bookseller employer/surrogate father, the pompous house cat who keeps turning up everywhere, the housekeeper who over feeds everyone, they’re a delightful crew and there’s a hint at the end that there will be more to come….
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Lady Hannah Simmons is a quintessential wallflower, unassuming, dowdy yet ignored by most. But underneath her plain exterior, Hannah is hiding a thrilling secret!
Unbeknownst to the rest of the ton, she is Queen Victoria’s leading femme fatale, slipping unnoticed through the streets of London and listening to scandalous whispers from lords and ladies. But with daggers in her stockings and pistols in her pockets, Hannah’s mission is to apprehend a deadly killer.
Private Investigator to the Prime Minister, damaged, yet devastatingly handsome ex-war hero Duke Robert Killian always puts duty first. However, when he finds himself competing with the intriguing Lady Hannah on the same daring task, his blood boils with frustration – and desire! Is it possible to seduce this vexing woman whose not afraid to put herself in danger and achieve the upper hand?
Hannah enjoys Killian’s attempts to distract and tempt her, but she has never faced an adversary she couldn’t overthrow. And Killian has never met a challenge he couldn’t conquer…until now. The gauntlet has been thrown. Can they finish their jobs and resist the temptation?
Keep your friends close…and your enemies even closer!
Darcy McGuire is an award-winning New Zealand-born writer now living in the Pacific Northwest. She will write a five-part Victorian romance series for Boldwood, focused on a group of ‘Deadly Damsels’.
My thoughts: I really liked Hannah, she’s a pretty kickass Victorian heroine, with her sensible boots hidden under her skirts, along with several knives and at least one gun.
Duke Killian, former Lieutenant General, turned Government agent, is on the same case as Hannah – that of a murdered maid, who was buried alive. But he’s distracted by Hannah, and then some.
It goes from a bit flirty to very spicy as they agree to trade secrets for “favours” and start falling for one another. But they don’t forget the case, and getting justice for Sarah Bright. But there’s more to the case than one death – and hopefully there’s more stories to come with Hannah and Killian.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
The Fascination is now available in paperback, so to celebrate this excellent Gothic slice of historical fiction I am re-sharing my review from the hardback tour.
Victorian England. A world of rural fairgrounds and glamorous London theatres. A world of dark secrets and deadly obsessions… Twin sisters Keziah and Tilly Lovell are identical in every way, except that Tilly hasn’t grown a single inch since she was five. Coerced into promoting their father’s quack elixir as they tour the country fairgrounds, at the age of fifteen the girls are sold to a mysterious Italian known as ‘ Captain’ . Theo is an orphan, raised by his grandfather, Lord Seabrook, a man who has a dark interest in anatomical freaks and other curiosities … particularly the human kind. Resenting his grandson for his mother’ s death in childbirth, when Seabrook remarries and a new heir is produced, Theo is forced to leave home without a penny to his name. Theo finds employment in Dr Summerwell’ s Museum of Anatomy in London, and here he meets Captain and his theatrical ‘ family’ of performers, freaks and outcasts. But it is Theo’ s fascination with Tilly and Keziah that will lead all of them into a web of deceits, exposing the darkest secrets and threatening everything they know… Exploring universal themes of love and loss, the power of redemption and what it means to be unique, The Fascination is an evocative, glittering and bewitching gothic novel that brings alive Victorian London – and darkness and deception that lies beneath…
Essie Fox was born and raised in rural Herefordshire, which inspires much of her writing.
After studying English Literature at Sheffield University, she moved to London where she worked for the Telegraph Sunday Magazine, then the book publishers George Allen & Unwin – before becoming self-employed in the world of art and design.
Always an avid reader, Essie now spends her time writing historical gothic novels. Her debut, The Somnambulist, was shortlisted for the National Book Awards, and featured on Channel 4’s TV Book Club.
My thoughts: this is a dark and beautiful book about three young people facing adversity and danger, finding their family and happiness despite the odds. Keziah and Tilly are twins, but Tilly stopped growing as a child and their father sells them to a stranger – known as Captain.
Their paths cross with Theo, mistreated and abandoned by his miserable and cruel grandfather, dreaming of becoming a doctor.
It is only a few years later when the three meet again that their lives become entangled as Tilly is kidnapped. Together with the twins’ friends they set out to rescue her and discover the truth about Theo’s family and find a home, and a family of their own.
It’s beautiful as well as sinister, amongst the collections of Theo’s grandfather and then that of the doctor. There’s a lovely little twist right at the very end too. And romance blooms for some of the characters, the wicked are punished, people are reunited and wrongs are undone. It’s a bit Shakespearean as it ends with a wedding, as many of his comedies do, which is fitting for Tilly, playing a fairy queen on stage.
The author’s day job as a historian of the Victorian era means this is a well researched and intelligent story, beautifully brought to life, the characters mix with real life figures, and could themselves almost be real, they certainly feel it. Keziah steps out of the page in her chapters, with all the hopes and dreams of a young woman, even amid her reality. Theo too feels very alive, his struggles and desires to make a difference at odds with the rotten world of his grandfather. Magical and moving.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Set against the majestic backdrop of Imperial Istanbul in the aftermath of the First World War, A Farewell To Imperial Istanbul is a captivating tale of family, duty and the resilience of the human spirit.
İstanbul, 1922: As the Ottoman Empire crumbles in the wake of the Great War, the fate of the Imperial capital and the House of Osman come under threat. Emboldened following their victory in the Turkish War of Independence, the Turkish Nationalist Government in Ankara abolishes the Ottoman Sultanate, marking the end of over six centuries of Ottoman rule. The Ottoman Caliphate endures for now, but Istanbul, stripped of its Imperial mantle, mourns its lost glory. Prince Nihad fears for the nation and the fate of the Imperial family, while his son, Prince Vâsıb, envisions a hopeful future defined by peace following the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne.
As the new Republic of Türkiye emerges from the ashes of the once-mighty Ottoman Empire, Istanbul and the Ottoman Dynasty confront the crossroads of history, their destinies entwined with the shifting tides of the Bosphorus. Yet, amidst these perilous currents that separate East and West, where the deep waters threaten to engulf the city’s Imperial past and sweep away its soul embodied by the Imperial family, the Ottoman Dynasty must navigate a new and uncertain course.
The history of the Turks and their vast and powerful Empire has been intertwined with the Ottoman Dynasty for over six hundred years. But can the Imperial family survive the tempest of change as the world enters a new era?
Ayşe Gülnev Osmanoğlu is a member of the Ottoman Imperial family, being descended from Sultan Murad V through her grandfather, and from Sultan Mehmed V (Mehmed Reşad) through her grandmother. After reading History and Politics at the University of Exeter, she obtained an M.A. in Turkish Studies from SOAS, University of London, where she specialised in Ottoman History. Her debut novel, The Gilded Cage on the Bosphorus was published in 2020. Ayşe Osmanoğlu lives between Türkiye, France and the United Kingdom with her husband, five children and two cats. Her research and literary works concentrate on the late Ottoman period, exploring narratives embedded in her imperial heritage.
My thoughts: I enjoyed the author’s previous book, The Gilded Cage on the Bosphorus, and was looking forward to reading this book. I wasn’t disappointed.
It conjures up a vanished world of Imperial splendour, with the Princes and Princesses of the Ottoman Empire in their finery, riding to parties in fine carriages and early motor cars. Their lives in the 1920s might be very different from their ancestors – power having passed to the government as opposed to direct rule, but they still remain the upper echelon of society.
As the tides of change flow along the Bosphorus, they sweep all before them. Beginning with the last Sultan’s journey into exile with his young son, it ends with the train ride that takes dozens of the Imperial family away, many for the final time, from their beloved homeland.
While the story could have been just a list of dry facts leading to exile, the author, a descendant of the Imperial family, infuses the events with personal recollections from her grandparents and their family, bringing the events to life.
I’m not an ardent monarchist, but the way the Osman family were treated seemed particularly heavy handed, stripping them of their titles, houses, and even their citizenship – a very cruel and unnecessary extreme, many of the family were never able to return because of this and are buried far from their homeland.
Some were presumably left rather impoverished, as they didn’t have hidden wealth, relying on the State to provide a stipend. From grand palaces, they were sent across Europe and Asia, to lives of uncertainty and loneliness.
The book was moving and sensitively written, obviously as this is the writer’s family, there is some bias, but overall it felt quite balanced, there was a sense of the facts being delivered and no animosity towards the Turkish government.
I don’t know a huge amount of Turkish history, despite having friends and colleagues whose families come from the country, so this was fascinating and deeply interesting. The world of interwar Türkiye is so far removed from the modern country, and probably from many memories that this provides an incredible look into a time and place that has long since passed.
Giveaway To Win an A Farewell to Imperial İstanbul prize bundle… (Open to UK Only) a Rafflecopter giveaway
The list of prizes is below: Paperback signed copy of A Farewell to Imperial İstanbul Scented Candle from the Imperial İstanbul Collection – Scent: Harem Garden (Jasmine, Rose & Orange Blossom) Black matchsticks Traditional Rose Turkish Delight A Farewell to Imperial İstanbul postcard Set of four A Farewell to Imperial İstanbul bookmarks
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
**Terms and Conditions –UK entries welcome. Please enter using the Rafflecopter box below. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will be passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.**
Respectable lady scholars shouldn’t be dodging evildoers, escaping lost tombs, and chasing down magical artifacts. Archivist and suffragette Ellie Mallory always dreamed of putting her scholarly skills to work in the ancient sands of Egypt. She never imagined she would be doing so in order to save an object of legendary power from a batch of ruthless villains. Racing baddies to an arcanum of Biblical proportions is only one of Ellie’s problems. Her hopelessly academic and perpetually mortified step-brother, Dr. Neil Fairfax, is about to learn that she’s been gallivanting around the globe with his danger-magnet best friend, Adam Bates—the roguish surveyor for whom Ellie harbors increasingly complicated feelings. Add the petite and terrifyingly fearless Constance Tyrrell to the mix, and Ellie either has a crack team of artifact-saving experts to hand… or a recipe for disaster. Together, they’ll need to follow a trail of three-thousand-year-old clues from the necropolis of Saqqara to the temples of Luxor and beyond, where the ruined capital of a heretic pharaoh hides a secret with the potential to upend history. To keep an earth-shattering magic from falling into the wrong hands, Ellie will need to pull out all the stops—even if that means resorting to fisticuffs, ignoring proper archaeological processes… and solving one of Egypt’s greatest mysteries. Dive into Tomb of the Sun King now to experience the next action-packed historical fantasy adventure in the Raiders of the Arcana series!
Jacquelyn Benson writes smart historical fantasy where strong women confront the stranger things that occupy the borders of our world. She once lived in a museum, wrote a master’s thesis on the cultural anthropology of paranormal investigation, and received a gold medal for being clever. She owes a great deal to her elementary school librarian for sagely choosing to acquire the entire Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown series. When not writing, she enjoys the company of a tall, dark, and handsome English teacher and practices unintentional magic.
Revolutionary France is full of blood and bite . . .
1793. Eleanor, once a lowly English maid, is now a member of the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel: renowned for their daring deeds, and for rescuing aristocrats and vampires from the guillotine. When the notorious French diplomat Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand goes missing, Eleanor and the League leap into action. But they uncover two vampire factions feuding for control over humanity’s fate. Talleyrand’s disappearance is part of a larger, more dangerous scheme – one that threatens to throw France into bloody chaos . . .
As the mutiny continues, a once-dead queen stalks the streets of Paris and the Scarlet Pimpernel is nowhere to be found. Eleanor must take control of her own fate. If she doesn’t, she may find herself the victim of the very people she came to save.
The thrilling follow-up to Scarlet, Elusive by Genevieve Cogman is a witty, inventive retelling of the Scarlet Pimpernel, perfect for fans of The Invisible Library series, Kim Newman and Gail Carriger.
My thoughts: the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel are back, and planning on rescuing more French aristocrats from Madame Guillotine. This time it’s Marguerite’s brother that the team are heading to Paris to retrieve.
But first they need a distraction – freeing the prisoners, including friend Fleurette, from Mont Saint-Michel and stealing a hot air balloon should do the trick.
Eleanor is discovering that she and Anima can do even more with the unusual mage powers, even free people from the influence of vampires, which could come in very handy if they run into the mysterious Prince of Paris, or even the undead Marie Anoinette.
This is another fantastic, rip roaring adventure, the second in this trilogy and protagonist Eleanor has grown in so many ways, this story has her really coming into her own. Separated from the others, she has to take charge and make decisions herself, often asking “what would the Chief do?” and thinking like the Pimpernel. She’s really brave and uses the fact that people in power don’t pay attention to servants to access the inner sanctum of the Committee on Public Safety, coming face to face with Robespierre.
She might be the best asset the League has, and they don’t really seem to realise it yet. I really enjoyed this book, as I did Scarlet, but I think this is definitely the best one yet. Can’t wait for book three!
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Fans of Kristy Cambron, Stephanie Dray, and Julia Quinn will adore this Victorian romance from historical fiction dynamo, Rachel Brimble.
Seamstress Rose Watson cannot believe her good fortune when she’s plucked from obscurity to work for Lady Christina, the Countess of Bath. Despite her parents’ distrust that the position will come with conditions, Rose accepts the unexpected offer. When she arrives at the royal residence of Henlow House, a strange sense of destiny whispers through her, and Rose cannot wait for this new adventure to begin. Although, she has Henry Ward to deal with, the handsome, risk-taking and—though she is loath to admit it—exciting royal saddler and horse trainer, who both fascinates and frustrates her in equal measure.
They could not be more different…with the exception of their hunger for more. But as they begin to trust one another, and their bond flourishes, Rose’s connection with Henry could cause her to lose her position at Henlow House, which would destroy her. Will she be forced to choose between love and ambition? Either choice will change her life irrevocably. A captivating escape that will touch your heart and keep you turning pages with impatient hope for Rose…
Rachel lives with her husband, two adult daughters and beloved Labrador in a small town near Bath, England. She is the author of 30 novels and has been published by Harlequin Mills & Boon, Kensington Books and others. Her latest series includes the Ladies of Carson Street trilogy and the Shop Girl series, both published with Aria Fiction. She also has several single titles with The Wild Rose Press. Her debut novel with Harpeth Road Press, Dressing The Countess, was released in May 2024. Rachel is a member of the Romantic Novelists Association and the Female Entrepreneur Association and has thousands of social media followers all over the world. She is also studying for a history degree with the Open University in her spare time…
My thoughts: I really liked this Victorian set story about a young seamstress and her exciting new role as couturier for Lady Christina, Countess of Bath. Invited to design a dress for a mystery client at her parents’ dress shop, she later discovers that the client is the Countess, who hires Rose to design and create outfits just for her.
There she meets Henry who works with his uncle as the Earl’s saddler and assistant horse trainer. There’s an instant spark between the two, and while Henry frustrates Rose at first, with his gambling and restlessness, they soon become close.
As Rose’s career flourishes and the Countess trusts her more and more, not just with her clothes but also with her secrets, Henry risks it all to find the future he thinks he wants. But will love thrive below stairs and bring Rose and Henry back together?
Rose is a delightful protagonist, clever and talented, she shines when given the Countess as a muse for her designs and as she helps Henry rid himself of his vices and evaluate what he really wants from life. Henry too is charming, the opposite of their employer, the Earl.
This is a charming and enjoyable story of two young people making their way in the world, following their dreams and falling in love as they do.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 