Manor of Secrets

December 2, 2013
Longshore (Gilt; Tarnish) will delight fans of British period pieces à la Downton Abbey as she introduces 16-year-old Lady Charlotte Edmonds and Janie Seward, a kitchen maid, both of whom yearn to throw caution to the wind. Charlotte's mother, Lady Diane, plans for her to marry Lord Andrew Broadhurst, the dull but stable heir to an earldom, who will assure that Charlotte's dreams are confined to her imagination. After living in extreme poverty with her relatives, Janie is reunited with her mother in the manor's kitchen. While Janie loves to cook, she feels displaced, and house rules forbid her to act on her growing affection for a childhood friend. Charlotte's loneliness and a burgeoning interest in a dashing new footman draw her downstairs, where she and Janie form a clandestine partnership to uncover the meaning behind an unexpected visitor's arrival. Drama between servants, an approaching shooting party and ball, and the interlacing of social classes thicken the plot. Longshore excels at switching between the girls' perspectives as she intimately explores two richly detailed worlds. Ages 12âup. Agent: Catherine Drayton, Inkwell Management.

November 15, 2013
Upstairs, Lady Charlotte pines for a more adventurous, purposeful life, while downstairs, kitchen maid Janie doesn't allow herself to consider any possibilities other than servitude. The Manor is home to the Edmondses and all of the servants they require. Charlotte, age 16, understands that her mother, the icy Lady Diane wants her to marry dull Lord Andrew, but it's a handsome footman who catches her eye and kisses her. She also forges a friendship with maid Janie, drawn to her adventurousness as well as her practical skills, though the admiration is not mutual. Alternating chapters reflect the two girls' perspectives. The arrival of Charlotte's cosmopolitan aunt, the Lady Beatrice, creates new questions in Charlotte's mind about societal expectations and also about the mysterious coolness between Beatrice and Diane. References to corsets, airplanes, Worth gowns and "suffragettes" place the tale around 1910, as Old World values were beginning to shift. Longshore works in interesting details about period food and clothing, but characters' speech and behavior often seem off, as, for instance, when servants riff on Shakespeare and the oh-so-proper Lady Diane refers to a "shiner." The choppy prose style relies heavily on sentence fragments: "This was a test. Of her fortitude. But also of her ability to disregard the wall that separated mistress from servant." Pitched for Downton Abbey fans but lacking both the style and the accuracy. (Historical romance. 12-16)

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March 1, 2014

Gr 7 Up-A divisive wall exists between the upstairs and downstairs quarters of the English Manor where Lady Charlotte Edmonds, 16, and kitchen servant Janie Seward reside. Charlotte yearns for an adventure beyond the stringent structure of upper-crust society, while her new friend Janie seems content to remain a cook. Neither suspects the secrets that lurk within the manor when Charlotte's mysterious Aunt Beatrice comes to visit. Reminiscent of the British television series Upstairs Downstairs, the plot starts at a leisurely pace, providing a detailed portrait of the daily mechanisms of 19th-century manor life and how both classes coexist. Longshore captures the tension expressed by Charlotte and Janie in their efforts to cope with limitations and unfulfilled dreams. She compares the harsh, never-ending workday of one paired with the other's tediously predictable station in life. The novel's dominant theme emerges midway through when hidden truths appear beneath masklike facades. Andrew Broadhurst, Charlotte's intended, is not as dull as he first seems, nor is Lawrence, the footman, truly worth Charlotte's lifelong devotion. Despite a predictably happy ending, the message is clear: people are far more complex than they appear on the surface, no matter their class or station in life. This is a light historical romance.-Etta Anton, Yeshiva of Central Queens, NY

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