Trading places!

-

Trouble: A Novel by Lex Croucher   

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️


Emily Laurence is a fighter. When her father dies, she and her mother and sister realize they have very little in the way of assets. Emily doesn’t take their change of fortune lying down. Troubled and determined, Emily fights to keep them all going, taking a job in the mill, whatever it takes. 

When her sister Amy lands a job as a governess she’s happy for her. Amy falls ill before she can take up the position so Emily swaps identities with her sister and presents herself to her employer as Amy. After all, how hard can it be?

So Emily who can’t relate to children, and knows nothing about teaching, finds herself posing as a governess to two young women, Grace Edwards who has the same sort of illness as Amy, and Aster who refuses to be governessed. 

Ah well, Emily just lets Amy read and talk about her beloved books and Aster stays in her room with plenty of drawing supplies.

It’s a strange household. There’s  Captain Edwards, with some sort of scandal in his past, and the servants who are even more peculiar. What’s more Emily seems to get into arguments with the Captain at the drop of a hat. How he hasn’t dismissed her is beyond her.

Emily helps herself to a couple of trinkets, drinks too much at the Rose and Crown (the Village Inn) and meets a stranger, Charles, who will pay her for any information she can dig up about the Captain. A chance to make money for her invalided sister and mother! She takes the opportunity!

It niggles at her, and when Charles brings pressure to bear Emily is truly conflicted and worried, because by this time she’s come to appreciate the Captain, her charges and the household’s servants

Whoa! a galloping read with misunderstandings and conflicted moments on every page!

I am loving Lex Croucher’s writings. Her books are wonderfully different, her characters bouncing with energy, and Emily is definitely a mouthy one! Well read!


A St. Martin’s Press ARC via NetGalley.                                              

Many thanks to the author and publisher.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Things aren’t as they seem!

-
Image
A Murderous Tryst  (Beatrice Hyde-Care Mystery #11) by Lynn Messina    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Oh my! Bea certainly has a lot to contend with. Bea’s rattled! The Duke has been missing from their bed for a night. When a distraught Bea come downstairs the next morning she finds her beloved husband Damien clasped in the arms of a glamorous female. A female who turns out to be Kesgrave’s first mistress, Mrs. Penelope Taylor! What?! Of course Bea’s heart sinks and she falls back on her painful memories of Aunt Vera’s responses to such a situation. Bea is both shaken and traumatised, but determined not to show it.  It seems Penny has been accused of murder. Actually  Penny’s desperately trying to avoid Newgate.    As a former mistress Penny does the unthinkable thing in society’s eyes. She asks for help from Bea. Bea’s response is just as shocking. She says yes. Kesgrave is as usual inscrutable. Of course this is the beginning of a harebrained chase, complications between Bea  and Amien,  and an investiga
Read more

Women in war—Internment by the Japanese 1942-45.

-
Image
Sisters Under the Rising Sun  by Heather Morris    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A fitting tribute to the women interred by the Japanese in Indonesia and Malaya during 1942 until liberation in 1945. Amongst the internees are a group of Australian Army nurses who were not given recognition by the Japanese as members of the armed forces and therefore not prisoners of war according to the Conventions of war.  Sister Vivian Bullwinkle is the only survivor of the massacre of a group of soldiers and nurses on Radji Beach, Bangka Island near Sumatra  in 1942, after the sinking of  HMS Vyner Brooke. There are a number of civilian prisoners in the camps like Norah Chambers and her sister Ena.  Combined, the story of these women interred under terrible conditions, their struggles and achievements are monumental.  Their gifts to their fellows beyond speech. Music plays an important part in uplifting the prisoners’ spirits. It’s truly a privilege to read about their plight, their vows to each other, and their braver
Read more

The Three Muscateers—three widows, three sets of different circumstances

-
Image
The Widows' Wine Club  by Julia Jarman    ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Different enough to be interesting but I kept losing which character was which. I almost feel I need to read it again to follow who’s who. I do know that three women came together to form a support group, going to the pub for lunch etc. Better than the local widow’s group in the church hall.  All three had recently lost their husbands and now had to find a way to face their new lives. Viv Halliday is a knowledgeable gardener. Zelda Fielding is setting herself up with internet dates and searching the web for her unknown father. Janet had a controlling husband who it turned out was having affairs, and their son is just as controlling. How their lives unfold is the new challenge. A Boldwood Books ARC via NetGalley.                                               Many thanks to the author and publisher.
Read more