Ashes on the Moor

November 6, 2017
Eden (the Longing for Home series) blends a bucolic historical setting with deep characters for a rewarding tale. Spunky but socially conventional Evangeline Blake lost all her family except her young sister, Lucy, to a sudden illness in late-19th-century England. Her austere aunt takes over their care, separating the sisters and foisting untrained Evangeline into teaching in the northern English mill town owned by the girls’ grandfather. Eden provides solid historical details to highlight Evangeline’s struggles with understanding Yorkshire accents, living in poverty, and being socially isolated because she has to keep her family connections secret. Never having lived on her own, she relies on a neighbor, ambitious Irish immigrant Dermot McCormick. Evangeline’s slightly anachronistic acceptance of his son’s autistic traits captures Dermot’s affections. As they grow more attached, the secret of Evangeline’s true social status slips out and threatens everything. Eden ably
captures the changing of an era, the horrors of factory work, and the displacements of being Irish in England, a lady among the working classes, and a Southern Englishwoman in the North. Despite a few moments that feel too modern, the novel will appeal to readers seeking a chaste romance that makes gentle challenges to conventions of feminine propriety.

February 1, 2018
An orphaned Victorian heiress becomes friends with an Irish mason who helps her stand on her own and fight for the downtrodden Yorkshire town she comes to love.When well-to-do Evangeline and Lucy lose their parents and brothers, their rich grandfather sends Lucy to boarding school and forces Evangeline to take over as schoolteacher in Smeatley, a Yorkshire village where he owns a textile mill. Rising to the occasion, she not only figures out how to teach the children to read, but also learns to take care of her meager finances as well as cook, clean, and mend with help from Irish brick mason and single father Dermot McCormick, the first person she meets in Smeatley. It's not the easy life she expected, but she's determined to work hard and do anything possible to gain her grandfather's trust, access her inheritance, and care for Lucy. However, getting to know her students means understanding the Victorian trials their families endure. Choosing to stand up for her Yorkshire neighbors, she fights for them to keep their language and develops texts using their dialect. Evangeline's conviction and authentic concern for her friends give everyone a new sense of hope, and her strengthening moral compass, aided by her growing feelings for Dermot, opens her grandfather's eyes to better opportunities for everyone. Determined to be a woman of both dignity and courage, she becomes an agent of change and encouragement. Once again, Eden (For Love Or Honor, 2017, etc.) proves herself a gifted writer dedicated to unique, out-of-the-box storytelling with inspiring and thought-provoking elements.Exploring one woman's struggle to find her place in a world where every step forward is a challenge offers an uplifting--and very clean--romance.

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February 1, 2018
The day she buries her parents and two brothers, Evangeline finds herself serving as the new school teacher in a small West Yorkshire mill town. This is a far cry from her upper-class Cambridgeshire life, and she must prove that she is a competent teacher to gain custody of her younger sister. Evangeline relies heavily on her Irish brick-layer neighbor, Dermot, to help her survive as she finds her way. Eden (The Sheriffs of Savage Wells, 2016) does not shy away from the realities of life for the working poor in a Victorian mill town, including class issues and southern disdain for the northern way of life, deftly weaving such elements into Evangeline's fish-out-of-water experiences as she adjusts to her new circumstances and tries to fathom the Yorkshire dialect. A strong supporting cast of students and families (including Dermot's neuro-atypical son) adds context and depth. Readers will enjoy Evangeline's growth as a strong woman almost as much as the steady, slow burn of her relationship with Dermot, which moves from wariness to friendship to sweet romance.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)