The Jewel of Gresham Green

June 1, 2008
Picking up where the "Gresham Chronicles" series ("The Widow of Larkspur Inn; The Courtship of the Vicar's Daughter; The Dowry of Miss Lydia Clark") left off, this title revolves around the children of Vicar Andrew Phelps and Julia Hollis in the English village of Gresham. Aleda is a reclusive writer, while Philip is a successful London surgeon who returns home to help his ailing father. Romance and mystery complicate their lives. Blackwell lives in Louisiana.

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2008
Single mother Jewel Libby has a dead-end job, day-care problems, and a pedophile for a landlord. As difficult as it would be in todays world, Jewels prospects seem hopeless in 1884 in Birmingham, England, where she sews corsetsin a Dickensian factory. Living in the vicarage of the picturesque dairy village of Gresham Green, writer Adela Phelpsloves her big, noisy family but needs quiet to work. As shemoves toa forest cottage, Jewel, concerned for the safely of her daughter, flees the city and seeks sanctuary in Gresham Green. However, evil can existin even the most idyllic little town. Blackwell skillfully revealsthe good, bad, beautiful, and ugly aspects oflife in nineteenth-century England, creating awell-written, faith-based book that doesnt get bogged down in didacticism or dogma, making it appealing to a broad audience. A nice addition to Blackwells Gresham Chronicles (The Widow of Larkspur Inn, 1998; The Courtship of the Vicars Daughter, 1998; The Dowry of Miss Lydia Clark, 1999).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)