📖 Blog Tour ~ Freeborn Girls by Sally Keeble

 

Eleanor Press
15 February 2024

My thanks to Random Things Tours for my copy of the book
and the invitation to the blog tour.

“Did life ever deal you a real wild card?”

It’s June 2019 and London’s in turmoil. But steely MP Frances Quilter is distracted from affairs of state by affairs of the heart: a new love affair and the demands of her ailing mother.

So, when trouble erupts on the Cooper, a sink estate in her south London constituency, Frances misjudges the public mood—with fatal consequences. Disaster looms.

Once the Cooper estate was idyllic farmland, beloved home of the Gardiner family. But when the English Civil War erupts, the farm is attacked and the family members scattered. One, a feisty girl called Elizabeth, is sold as an indentured labourer and in 1643 boards a sailing ship for the perilous voyage to America.

In “Freeborn Girls,” former MP Sally Keeble weaves a captivating story of intrigue, love and adventure following the fortunes of Frances and Elizabeth: two women separated by almost 400 years of history—but linked by a twist of fate.

Can Frances salvage her career, or her love affair? Does Elizabeth survive? And who’s the enigmatic American who arrives in London to intern for Frances that eventful summer?

A page-turner of a time-slip novel for readers of historical fiction books about women finding freedom in tough times.

📖 My Review..

Local MP Frances Quilter represents an area of London which is ripe for redevelopment although the residents of the Cooper estate are determined to fight for their survival. Frances has a history with this area and is doing what she can, amidst the jumble of 2019 politics, to fight for the resident's rights. Four hundred years ago at the start of the English Civil War this area of London was home to Elizabeth Gardiner, a 'freeborn girl' who finds that she too is about to become a displaced person when her life, and livelihood, take a very different direction.

This is a very much a story of two distinct sections and I enjoyed slipping forwards and backwards in time and followed both time frames with interest. The author captures the post-Brexit political world well and shows the insider dealings and the general shenanigans that go on behind the scenes but never forgets that at the heart of story are people who have been dealt a rough hand in life. The historical aspect of the story is atmospheric and shows in stark reality the lack of choice that women had and how they maintained the strength of will to deal with the hardships of their lives and search for their own form of freedom.

Freeborn Girls is a well written story about how women struggle to get by and, despite the four hundred year gap, the freeborn girls, in Frances Quilter's part of London, are just about surviving despite the challenges which come their way.

About the Author

Sally's debut novel, She, You, I, has been hailed as "a book of our time," and "a gem of a novel."

It's an emotional roller-coaster of a story of lost love, buried hurt and strong women over three generations.

Sally writes about the things she’s passionate about—the triumphs and tragedies of people’s lives. It’s what originally took her into journalism and then politics, in the UK and beyond. She spent her early years in the USA, Switzerland and Australia, returning to the UK after working as a journalist in South Africa. After serving as an MP in the UK, she worked in international development and travelled widely, especially in Asia and Africa.

Now she splits her time between Northampton and Bawdsey, a village in coastal Suffolk.

You can find out more about Sally on her website at www.sallykeeblebooks.com or follow her on Facebook: at Sally Keeble Author or on Instagram @sallykeeblebooks or Tik Tok @sallykbooks

Twitter / X @Sally_Keeble #FreebornGirls

Instagram @sallykeeblebooks

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