BOOK REVIEW: Bethlehem by Karen Kelly

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence my review.

I love multi-generational historical sagas. Bethlehem by Karen Kelly is a perfect example of the genre. Alternating between a current day (early 1960s) storyline and that of a past generation (40-50 years earlier), the reader meets two very different women whose lives converge around family and scandalous secrets.

Joanna is a young woman from a working class background who marries into a fantastically wealthy Bethlehem Steel family, the Colliers. She and her husband, Frank, have two young children. They have been building a life for themselves when the death of Frank’s father leads to a change. Frank’s work hours with the family business increase astronomically. His mother and grandmother, alone in the ancestral home, need support. Nothing makes more sense than for Joanna and Frank to move into the mansion. Joanna is now a fish-out-of-water. The older Collier women are courteous, but aloof. Joanna feels isolated and bullied into conforming to a lifestyle she doesn’t want. Frank dismisses her complaints as unreasonable. She feels her identity melting away. Her only refuge is, unfortunately, the handsome young caretaker of the family cemetery, a man who seems to be a kindred spirit.

Joanna’s mother-in-law, Susannah Collier, is the most closed-off person Joanna has ever met. She seems to live in her own private world. Grief is understandable, she just lost her husband of many years, but Susannah’s cold shoulder goes beyond grief.

The reader is also cast back in time to Susannah’s childhood and young adulthood. Susannah Parrish, her sister India, and brother Kit, are the children of Bethlehem Steel’s chief engineer, Hollins Parrish. Kit is best friends with Chap Collier (the elder son of Bethlehem Steel’s owner) and close as well to Wyatt Collier (the younger son.) The children play together and get into all manner of mischief. For as long as anyone can remember, Wyatt has been desperately in love with Susannah and India has been infatuated with Chap.

We watch the Parrish and Collier children grow up and we follow Susannah’s successes and disappointments. She and Wyatt are the closest of friends, childhood sweethearts destined for marriage and happily-ever-after. But things don’t always go according to plan.

Meanwhile, in the current-day storyline, as Joanna’s life spirals out of control, the person who reaches out to her is Susannah, the mother-in-law with secrets of her own.

The story is lovely, full of warmth, love, and familial support. While not brimful of historical context, the period details set the scene well. The love stories are complex, realistic, and satisfying. This novel is recommended for fans of emotionally gripping multi-generational fiction.

BOOK REVIEW: Someone to Honor by Mary Balogh

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence my review.

The Westcotts are back in Someone to Honor! I’ve been compulsively following Mary Balogh’s Someone to... series, watching all the members of the convoluted Westcott family (legitimate and illegitimate) fall in love and marry in Regency England.

Abigail Westcott is the younger daughter of the deceased Earl of Riverdale. When he died six years earlier, the world learned his secret: the earl was still married to his first wife when the wedding to Abigail’s mother took place. He had a daughter, Anna. His will left everything to her except the title and entailed property.

At a stroke, Abigail, her siblings, and her mother were rendered penniless. Her mother’s marriage was invalid. Abigail and her siblings were illegitimate. The scandalized ton shut them out. But that was Anna’s story (see Someone to Love.) Now it’s Abigail’s turn.

Abigail was born to take her place in society and never gave much thought to alternatives. The catastrophe following her father’s death not only showed the depth of her family’s love and unconditional support for each other, it also frees Abigail to discover who she is. She doesn’t have to define herself by society’s expectations any longer.

Lieutenant Colonel Gil Bennington is also illegitimate. He’s the son of a blacksmith’s daughter and a man he doesn’t know and doesn’t wish to know (a viscount, of course.) He grew up in extreme poverty but made his own way in the military. Unfortunately, he married the wrong woman. They had a daughter. His wife abandoned them while he was away at war. Then she died. The grandparents took the child and refuse to return her. Gil has engaged a lawyer but is terrified he won’t win.

Gil was in France with Abigail’s brother, Harry. (Harry would have been the new earl, but when disinherited, he went into the army.) He was wounded and has been trapped in France, withering away rather than recovering, for two years. Gil escorts him home, where Harry’s family descends, ecstatic to have him back.

Abigail comes to visit and decides to stay rather than accompany her family to London and another season, which she has been dreading.

Phew. So that’s the set-up.

Abigail and Gil meet cute. They immediately take a dislike to one another. But, when the family departs, they both stay on to help Harry and to lick their own wounds. Before long, their initial impressions change. When Abigail and Harry learn of Gil’s dilemma, Harry suggests they marry. It would help Gil’s case immensely to have a wife (and the backing of their cousin, the powerful Duke of Neverby). But Gil has been burned before and doesn’t want to wed again. And Abigail worries Gil’s lowly background will prove a stumbling block to gaining her family’s acceptance. Plus, is this really a reason to marry?

With her usual aplomb, Mary Balogh draws the reader along as the protagonists work through their conflicting emotions and face the trials before them. Once again, the carefully crafted storyline (with some familiar-feeling plotting and a comfortably predictable outcome) is enlivened by wonderful characters who pull at the heartstrings. Balogh’s characters are what keep drawing me back. I eagerly await what’s in store for the next of the Westcotts.

BOOK REVIEW: Elizabeth of Bohemia: A Novel about Elizabeth Stuart, The Winter Queen by David Elias

I received this book for free from Netgalley. This did not influence my review.

Elizabeth Stuart, the daughter of King James (VI of Scotland and I of England) and his queen, Anne of Denmark, is one of those obscure but fascinating women of the Middle Ages/Renaissance whose lives provide material for historical novels that inform while they entertain.

Elizabeth of Bohemia: A Novel about Elizabeth Stuart, The Winter Queen by David Elias begins in October 1612 when the young princess is about to meet the man who will become her husband, Frederick V of the Palatine. Elizabeth is tired of being paraded in front of potential suitors. Beautiful, clever, and stubborn, she has strong opinions about everything, including her extravagant parents for whom she feels mostly contempt. The only person she cares for is her older brother Henry, who she believes would be a much better king.

Frederick woos her persistently, befriending Henry in the process. Unfortunately, Henry suffers from a recurrent illness that seems suspiciously like chronic poisoning. During Frederick’s visit, Henry dies. Elizabeth accepts Frederick’s proposal while in a deep depression. This is more than simply mourning; it appears Elizabeth suffers from bipolar disease, which influences her later behavior.

Frederick’s primary appeal, aside from his devotion to her, is his potential claim to the throne of Bohemia. In the novel, Elias portrays Frederick as a sensible, sensitive man content with the title and riches he possesses. Elizabeth, on the other hand, finds an outlet for her discontent: ambition. She bullies her husband into pursuing the throne against the advice of his counselors.

The novel closely follows the historical timeline. Frederick obtains the crown but cannot hold it for more than a couple of months. (Hence Elizabeth’s nickname, the Winter Queen). They are driven from the castle into exile. Frederick spends the rest of his life fighting a war he cannot win. Elizabeth falls from being a pampered, wealthy daughter of a king to being an impoverished exile, living on the charity of sympathetic nobles.

The historical detail is superb, bringing this woman out of the shadows. However, Elizabeth is not a warm protagonist. She does not love her husband. (She never really loves anyone but her dead brother.) She takes no interest in her many, many children until they are adults. She has no qualms about using men who fall for her to help her achieve largely selfish aims. Her political acumen is lacking. It’s difficult to root for her success.

Nevertheless, despite a somewhat unlikeable protagonist, the story itself is compelling enough to make this an enjoyable read.