She Rises

April 15, 2013
Worsley’s first novel is a choppy affair. Set in 1740, it features dual first-person narratives from the points of view of Luke and Louise Fletcher. At 15, Luke is press-ganged (i.e. forcibly drafted) into the Britain’s Royal Navy and vows to do anything to find his way back to his love. His sister Louise, who is raised from a young age to believe that the sea lures men from their families, moves to a small village on the coast to become a lady’s maid to Rebecca Handley, a lovely and headstrong young woman. Of the two stories, Luke’s adventure is the more interesting and perilous. His narrative vividly captures the danger, sights, and sounds—not to mention the smells—of 18th-century shipboard life. Rebecca’s near-death bout of smallpox and the women’s subsequent intimate relationship is fraught with danger of a different sort—that of ruinous public exposure. While the chapter-by-chapter alternation of protagonists makes for a rocky reading experience, it eventually pays off with a satisfyingly unexpected, if not wholly plausible, late development. Worsley deserves kudos for her bold approach to the familiar naval adventure genre. Agent: Veronique Baxter, David Higham Associates (U.K.).

March 15, 2013
In a notably ambitious British debut, an 18th-century English dairymaid leaves home to enter a world of secrecy, survival and forbidden love. It's young Louise Fletcher's good character and willingness that rescue her from a life of rural drudgery and transform her into a lady's maid. Employed by Capt. Handley to tend his pretty second daughter, Rebecca, who is about to make a good marriage, Louise moves to the port town of Harwich, where she quickly falls under willful Rebecca's spell, even risking her life to save her mistress when she falls ill with smallpox. Both women survive, but Rebecca loses her looks and her marriage prospects. Then the two women become lovers. Louise's story alternates, chapter by chapter, with that of her brother Luke, who was "pressed"--forced--into the English Navy for a brutal life of fighting, flogging, hard work and danger, from which he eventually makes a violent escape. Worsley's richly atmospheric twin tales capture the flavor of the era, especially the limited options for women, and the passion of illicit love. After an impressive late plot swerve, she reunites her lovers, but their future is bittersweet and pervaded by the call of the sea. Despite excessive length and some overly ornate period language, this unusual, seductive period tale of love and transformation creates its own memorable world.

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Starred review from April 15, 2013

Life would not have held much promise for anyone unlucky enough to be born of lowly means in the early 1700s. Such is the case for Louise Fletcher, working with her mother on an Essex dairy farm after her father and brother, Luke, went to sea and were never heard from again. When Louise is asked to go into service as a lady's maid to Rebecca, the newly engaged daughter of a prosperous ship captain, Louise accepts the post in the hope of improving her lot and possibly learning the fate of her brother. The story then shifts back and forth from Louise and her headstrong, capricious mistress to Luke, who has been pressed into naval service aboard the Essex, bound for the West Indies. In Louise's tale, loyalty deepens to devotion after Rebecca contracts smallpox and Louise's ministrations save her life. Luke's story is one of high adventure, filled with dangerous work and violent men. VERDICT Patrick O'Brien meets Sarah Waters in a deeply satisfying and surprising novel that is part swashbuckling sea adventure and part sizzling romance. Highly recommended.--Barbara Love, Kingston Frontenac P.L., Ontario

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 15, 2013
A placid opening scenean eighteenth-century dairy farm and a naive milkmaid's elevation to lady's maidbelies the inventive and absorbing tale to come in this well-crafted, multilayered love story and adventure. Louise Fletcher's life changes dramatically when she meets Rebecca, her new mistress, in the port town of Harwich in southeast England. Louise's tale alternates with that of Luke, a boy press-ganged by the Royal Navy and sent to sea. Luke's training is brutal, and he's lucky to gain a protector aboard ship right from the start, though eventually circumstances turn grim indeed as the voyage drags on. Meanwhile, all is not rosy on land, either, and as the two stories progress, the reader gradually comes to understand the uncommon love between Louise and Rebecca and the significance of Luke's dire situation. Worsley deftly handles the intricate and contrasting plot lines, balancing action and adventure with a wrenching love story and finally bringing them together in a surprising, dramatic ending. This first novel certainly recalls Dickens' seedy characters but also evokes the clever insight and plotting of Sarah Waters, the multiple perspectives and psychological tension in John Crowley's Lord Byron's Novel (2005), and the addictive adventures of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey and Maturin series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)