Review by Nanette Donohue HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY

Roisin Harcup was raised as the middle daughter in a clergyman’s family, but she feels like she’s meant for greater excitement. A secret trip to the Brighton Fair with her lady’s maid opens Roisin’s eyes to the world outside her provincial town and her betrothal to Anthony March, a kind, if dull, local gentleman.

When her father’s punishment for escaping the house
in pursuit of earthly pleasures proves too much, Roisin flees to Brighton where she finds a job as a seamstress—and a male admirer named Leo Penrose. Roisin soon discovers that the dressmaking shop is a front for a house of ill repute and escapes yet again, this time to work as a governess.

While employed as a governess, Roisin begins to discover the truth about her heritage—that she was adopted, and that her mother went insane when she was jilted by her lover. Now Roisin fears that she could take after her mother in unexpected ways.

Cole seems to be trying to accomplish too much in this brief novel, which shifts from a gothic tale of a doomed relationship to, in the last chapter, a blow-by-blow
history of Napoleon’s final battle at Waterloo. The gothic aspects of the novel are far more successful, and Cole manages to avoid the clichés that tend to plague similar books.

Roisin has pluck and spirit, and though the brevity of the book forces her relationship with Leo to develop and escalate quickly, it’s still believable enough to be entertaining.

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http://www.pilgrimrose.com

http:/www.redroom.com/author/rosy-cole

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