📖 Blog Tour ~ Maid of Steel by Kate Baker

 

28 February 2023

My thanks to the author for my copy of this book
and to Rachel's Random Resources for the invitation to the blog tour

It’s 1911 and, against her mother’s wishes, quiet New Yorker Emma dreams of winning the right to vote. She is sent away by her parents in the hope distance will curb her desire to be involved with the growing suffrage movement and told to spend time learning about where her grandparents came from.

Across the Atlantic – Queenstown, southern Ireland – hotelier Thomas dreams of being loved, even noticed, by his actress wife, Alice. On their wedding day, Alice’s father had assured him that adoration comes with time. It’s been eight years. But Alice has plans of her own and they certainly don’t include the fight for equality or her dull husband.

Emma’s arrival in Ireland leads her to discover family secrets and become involved in the Irish Women’s Suffrage Society in Cork. However, Emma’s path to suffrage was never meant to lead to a forbidden love affair…

📖 My Review...

The early part of the twentieth century was a difficult time for women especially for those who felt that women deserved the same rights as men and who were prepared to support the Women's Suffrage Movement. After a tragic accident in her workplace Emma leaves her native New York and heads to Queenstown in southern Ireland where her parents hope that she will forget all about her desire to be involved with the suffragettes. However, Emma finds that Ireland too is undergoing a time of great social change and her growing involvement with the Women’s Suffrage Society in Cork makes her realise just how much is at stake.

The historical aspects of the story, both real and imaginary, are obviously well researched and this shows in the strength of the writing which brings places and people alive. I especially enjoyed Emma's quest to discover more about her own family history and there are enough elements of surprise to keep the story moving along nicely. Combining a sense of history with a forbidden love affair certainly gives the novel a nice romantic edge and I followed this aspect of the story with interest and hoped that everything would work out well in the end. I'm not going to spoil the story by giving much away as this is one of those lovely stories which should be allowed to unfold with all of its surprises intact.

About the Author

Kate Baker wrote terrible holiday diaries as a child, which her husband regularly asks her to read out loud for their entertainment. She has since improved and has written with intent since 2018. Maid of Steel is her second novel; the first is lining drawers in the vegetable rack at their farmhouse.

Twitter @katefbaker #MaidofSteel

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