The Widow's Vow by Rachel Brimble #Review #PublicationDay
Today's historical fiction takes us to Victorian England and Bath. Published by Boldwood today on December 16th, A Widow's Vow is the first in the Ladies of Carson Street saga series by Rachel Brimble.
From grieving widow...
1851. After her merchant husband saved her from a life of prostitution, Louisa Hill was briefly happy as a housewife in Bristol. But then a constable arrives at her door. Her husband has been found hanged in a Bath hotel room, a note and a key to a property in Bath the only things she has left of him. And now the debt collectors will come calling.
To a new life as a madam.
Forced to leave everything she knows behind, Louisa finds more painful betrayals waiting for her in the house in Bath. Left with no means of income, Louisa knows she has nothing to turn to but her old way of life. But this time, she'll do it on her own terms – by turning her home into a brothel for upper class gentleman. And she's determined to spare the girls she saves from the street the horrors she endured in the past.
Enlisting the help of Jacob Jackson, a quiet but feared boxer, to watch over the house, Louisa is about to embark on a life she never envisaged. Can she find the courage to forge this new path?
My Thoughts
Plunged into Victorian Bath, you get to see a section of society which is not often featured. An underclass of prostitutes and shady characters co-exist alongside the prosperous middle classes and at times, on the surface, are indistinguishable from the respectable citizens. This is the first in a trilogy and you are introduced to three women who are all surviving despite everything. A Widow's Vow centres on Louisa and Jacob who both have huge trust issues, following difficult childhoods.
Because of her past life, Louisa is determined to retain her independence and to set up a brothel which she will run in the interests of its staff. The three women, Louisa, Nancy and Octavia form a tight household, a surrogate family even and I am sure that future books will shed more light on their backgrounds. This is an enjoyable historical novel which has a strong sense of time and place and which poses some interesting questions about the place of women in society, their right to establish their own lives as individuals, rather than as goods 'owned' by men.
In short: Sharply drawn characters and a great sense of the period.
About the Author
Rachel Brimble is the bestselling author of over thirty works of historical romance and saga fiction. The first book in her series, The Home Front Nurses, is set in Bath.
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