Regency England was not very kind to its womenfolk. At least not from my opinion! the only way forward was to make an advantageous match and this had to be planned and maneuvered by female relatives who were past masters at the game.
The Langbournes and the Blakes are two mining families in a small village. But the similarity seems to end there. Mr. Langbourne is a businessman first and foremost and the livelihood and life of his miners does not affect him. It is a matter of profit only. Of the Blake brothers the eldest seems to be disinterested in the mine he has inherited and leaves the working and management of it to his brother Isaac.
The closure of the mine owned by the Langbournes has brought about a lot of hardship, resentment and anger amongst the community but the owner is not bothered by this at all. Into this comes Julia their niece, escaping a romance which went wrong at home and being a companion to the daughter of the house who is presently pregnant and rather ill.
The story is not just a romance, which was nice as it is but it also gave one a descriptive story of the mines and how these formed the backbone of the community and how the entire village depended on it for their wellbeing. Added to the story is a tale of treasure, of debts and deals within deals which go horribly wrong and you have a very interesting story set in Regency England.
Sent to me by Netgalley for an unbiased review, courtesy of Thomas Nelson Fiction.
Similar to a Georgette Heyer.
This sounds like a nice, change of pace book, for my future reading.
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