Edwardian England. Agnes Ashford knows that her duty is threefold: she needs to work on cataloguing the archive of the titled Bryant family…
– GoodReads
Book Links
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My Review
Hey all, it’s been a while since I did a blog tour but I’m happy to bring a review for one today! The author reached out to me about this book and I was really excited to join after reading the synopsis! I love historical fiction, it’s something I don’t read as often as I want but I’m always so overjoyed to get a good book for it. Also, this is set in Edwardian times and that is a period in time that is just totally underrepresented unless you go diffing around for books set in it.
Did I mention this is not only historical fiction but LGBTQIA fiction? (F/F)
To start off, Fielding has a super smooth writing style, she reels you in and sets the scene perfectly in the first chapter. The tone of the book was set so early and yet there was still so much more to discover and love about this book.
Agnes has risen to a job that could arguably be seen as above her station, an archivist with no archival background, she is thrown into the history of the Bryants. Soon she’s pulled into their world completely unable to keep herself from falling under the lure of Lady Bryant; especially as death strikes the family.
The intrigue and Agnes’s ambition was perfection for me, nothing too convoluted for the story Fielding’s trying to tell and I was fully invested.
This was on par with Downton Abbey as far as historical ‘I love it’ fiction (despite one being TV) goes for me. I really thought this was so great and I love that we saw this change in Agnes. The reveals through out definitely had me turning the next page until I hit the end and was shocked at how I just sped through it.
The ending was great, fantastic in its execution and though I didn’t see it coming, I don’t think it could have been done any differently.
If you’re a fan of historical fiction, if you like Downton Abbey or even Parade’s End, I highly recommend this. 4/5 cups of coffee from me and thanks so much to the Author and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion!
Author Links
The Caffeinated Reader 