This book is one of my highly anticipated reads for this year and I was so excited to get into reading it. I became sold out to the author after I read her two books ‘The Familiars’ and ‘The Foundling’ (check out my review of these books in “Book Reviews”) and I know for sure that I will be reading whatever she writes.
‘Mrs. England’ is a story told from the eyes of Ruby May also known as Nurse May, who is a graduate of the prestigious Institute for children’s nurses. Ruby is employed by “The Englands” who live in faraway Yorkshire and are the parents of four children. Although Ruby does not have the experience to care for so many children all at once, she is determined to take up the challenge. On arrival, Ruby instantly bonds with the children however, she observes a very strange dynamic between the couple and as time goes on, she discovers that the Englands are full of secrets although she also has hers.
This was a slow burn for me. I got into the story but was tired of waiting for the climax to happen until it finally did towards the end and it was a hell of a climax. Stacy Halls has done it again with this captivating, mind boggling, complex tale that captures the essence of the Edwardian times in which this story is set. I am not one for too much descriptive writing in novels but this story was different in the sense that the description of the scenery and everything else brought more life to the story and made it so real. The characters were believable and either likable or easy to hate (which is fine). I have lowered my rating for this one because I would have preferred a faster paced story.
I highly recommend.
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Published: June 10th 2021 by Bonnier Zaffre (first published June 1st 2021)
Pages: 400
Genre: Historical Fiction
The Author:
Stacey Halls grew up in Rossendale, Lancashire, as the daughter of market traders. She has always been fascinated by the Pendle witches. She studied journalism at the University of Central Lancashire and moved to London aged 21. She was media editor at The Bookseller and books editor at Stylist.co.uk, and has also written for Psychologies, the Independent and Fabulous magazine, where she now works as Deputy Chief Sub Editor.
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great review! i’m glad you enjoyed this one. i adore that cover!
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Yes the cover is lovely. This you for stopping by.
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