I really must stop taking review books away on holiday with me! Once again, I’ve spent every travelling and resting moment ignoring my poor husband, with my nose in a book – this book. I started it as we pulled out of the station on the way to an anniversary weekend in London – and finished it just before the train arrived back in the station two days later. It’s fair to say that I couldn’t put it down.
Governess Grace Harper finds her family of young charges frustrating and quite a handful. Yet she clearly loves all of them and wants to keep them safe. When the family of orphans moves from Hampshire to London and meets up for the first time with their guardian, Lord David Shalham, they find themselves in an unexpected and dangerous situation. Despite Grace’s attempts to protect them, supported by a growing number of friends, including Shalham’s grandmother, things spiral out of control and the consequences are extremely serious for at least one member of the family.
The book is set in 1816, and has a certain Austenesque feel to it. The languge used by the characters is authentic for the early nineteenth century and this spills over into the narrative as well. Grace is described as being ‘one and twenty’ when she applied to Mrs Clovis’s Select Agency for a position as a governess. Yet despite the historic setting of the story there is a relevance to it that makes it very readable. The ‘dark secret’ from Lord Shalham’s past, which unfolds slowly and fluidly throughout the book, would fit just as easily into a modern-day story.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and have no hesitation in recommending it to others. Just don’t take it with you on a special occasion.
Published by Murrell Press; ISBN 978-09554135-6-8
(Review first published in The Women Writer by Society of Women Writers and Journalists)
