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| Zaffre 30 April 2020 My thanks to the publishers for my ecopy of this novel |
1850s Shropshire.
Returning to her mother's birthplace at the age of eighteen, Beatrice Ashford encounters a complex family she barely knows. Her great-grandmother Queenie adores her, but the privileged social position of Beatrice's family as masters of the local brickworks begins to make her uncomfortable.
And then she meets Owen Malone: handsome, different, refreshing - and from a class beneath her own. They fall for each other fast, but an old family feud and growing industrial unrest threatens to drive them apart.
Can they overcome their different backgrounds? And can Beatrice make amends for her family's past?
What did I think about it..
Beatrice Ashford returns to the small town of Ironbridge in Shropshire which is her mother's birthplace. Meeting her grandmother Queenie for the first time, Beatrice is initially impressed with her grandmother's ability to control the family's industrial empire. However, Beatrice is more idealistic than any of her family and her discomfort at the way the family run the local brick works means that there is soon an air of unease between them. Beatrice's growing friendship with local lad, Owen Malone, only highlights the social divide.
The Secrets of Ironbridge continues the story of this industrial area in Ironbridge which we were first introduced to in The Daughters of Ironbridge. I enjoyed meeting up with the characters, who are now several years older and with rather more worries than before, especially Queenie, the stoic matriarch of the King family who is deeply troubled by a secret from her past. Beatrice is a lovely addition to the story, she is a delightful character, who you warm to from the very start. I have enjoyed watching her character progress from a rather unsure young girl, into a determined young woman.
Beautifully written as ever, the author does a great job of bringing the industrial age to life and the town of Ironbridge is just as much a character in the novel as any of the people. The dreadful working conditions of those who toiled in the brick making industry is brought to life in vivid detail and I learned much about the process of making bricks, and the horrible deprivation of those who earned such low wages for such back breaking work.
The Secrets of Ironbridge is the second book in this series and I hope that we will see more of Ironbridge, and the King family, in future historical sagas.
The Secrets of Ironbridge continues the story of this industrial area in Ironbridge which we were first introduced to in The Daughters of Ironbridge. I enjoyed meeting up with the characters, who are now several years older and with rather more worries than before, especially Queenie, the stoic matriarch of the King family who is deeply troubled by a secret from her past. Beatrice is a lovely addition to the story, she is a delightful character, who you warm to from the very start. I have enjoyed watching her character progress from a rather unsure young girl, into a determined young woman.
Beautifully written as ever, the author does a great job of bringing the industrial age to life and the town of Ironbridge is just as much a character in the novel as any of the people. The dreadful working conditions of those who toiled in the brick making industry is brought to life in vivid detail and I learned much about the process of making bricks, and the horrible deprivation of those who earned such low wages for such back breaking work.
The Secrets of Ironbridge is the second book in this series and I hope that we will see more of Ironbridge, and the King family, in future historical sagas.
About the Author
Mollie Walton has always been fascinated by history and on a trip to Shropshire, while gazing down from the iron bridge, found the inspiration for what has become her Ironbridge series of historical sagas.
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