The Lake District and it is the 1960s. Abbie returns home and finds that her family holds her responsible for her mother's suicide. Unable to bear this false allegation Abbie knows that she must seek new pastures and found a new life for herself - she also needs to pursue a perplexing tale told by her grandmother and decides to go overseas.
Taking herself to pre revolutionary Russia is rather astonishing and completely different to the life that Abbie knew. She faces it with courage and boldness and willingness to take on anything new. Abbie is not the subservient servant the Russian aristocracy is used to and she is also not a girl who will bow down unnecessarily. Her Russian mistress finds this English governess so different to what she is used to.
The story set against the complications of the beginnings of the Russian revolution and the overthrow of the aristocracy and the end of the King's rule in Russia are very descriptive and detailed. For anyone with a love of historical fiction, this was ideal. It was a wonderful introduction to me as well of the way of life in Russia at the time and more importantly the mindset of the aristocrats who seemed to live in a bubble. As usual there were decent people and one of whom was positively evil.
I found the ending too neat though it was a happy ending and was a nice note. It was too simple for it to end so well! Life very seldom is so neat.
The book was sent to me by Netgalley courtesy of Lake Union Publishing. Thank you.
Yeah, sometimes endings can be too tidy. Otherwise, this book sounds good.
ReplyDeleteI've found in recent years that I am interested in reading more and more books set in Russia. This does sound good, even with the too neat ending.
ReplyDeleteI liked this one a lot. Even though the ending was tied up with a neat bow, the whole story was very enjoyable.
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