Review Tour + #Giveaway: A Scarlet Woman by Lorna Peel @PeelLorna @GoddessFish

A Scarlet Woman

by Lorna Peel

GENRE: Historical Fiction, Historical Saga

BLURB:

Can an idealistic young doctor and a fallen woman find love when Victorian society believes they should not?

Dublin, Ireland, 1880. Tired of treating rich hypochondriacs, Dr Will Fitzgerald left his father's medical practice and his home on Merrion Square to live and practice medicine in the Liberties. His parents were appalled and his fiancée broke off their engagement. But when Will spends a night in a brothel on the eve of his best friend's wedding, little does he know that the scarred and disgraced young woman he meets there will alter the course of his life.

Isobel Stevens was schooled to be a lady, but a seduction put an end to all her father's hopes for her. Disowned, she left Co Galway for Dublin and fell into prostitution. On the advice of a handsome young doctor, she leaves the brothel and enters domestic service. But can Isobel escape her past and adapt to life and the chance of love on Merrion Square? Or will she always be seen as a scarlet woman?

Excerpt:

By four o'clock on Sunday afternoon, she was fit to drop as she arrived at the Harvey residence on Merrion Square. Mrs Black brought her upstairs to a tiny attic bedroom which she was to share with the other as yet unnamed parlourmaid. She longed to simply crawl into the narrow single bed allocated to her and sleep, but she had to go back downstairs to the servants’ hall to meet the other servants at dinner.

Mr Johnston sat at one end of the long dining table and Mrs Black sat at the other. Mrs Harvey's lady’s maid, Edith Lear, Mrs Gordon the cook, Claire – the other parlourmaid – and Bessie and Winnie – the two housemaids – sat along one side. Down the other side, she was placed beside Frank, the footman, and Mary, the tiny kitchenmaid. She couldn’t help but notice a large number of servants for what was actually a very small household.

They all seemed friendly, asking her where she had been born, why she had come back to Ireland after her mother’s death, and telling her the Harveys were a good and fair couple to work for.

As early as she dared she excused herself and climbed the stairs to the bedroom with a small oil lamp. Unlike the rest of the house, Mrs Black informed her, none of the servants’ bedrooms was lit by gas lighting. There was no rug on the bedroom floor either, only a small threadbare mat, and the window and door were draughty. She smiled all the same, as she unpacked her few belongings and ran her fingers over the two uniforms. She really needed two of each, but the others would have to wait until she received her wages. Being a parlourmaid was going to be hard work but it was infinitely better than being a prostitute.

My Review:

A Scarlet Woman is the first historical romance that I have in a long time as I have been pulled away from this genre and into the world of dystopia, apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic and science fiction with a twist of romance.

When I read the summary it drew me in but not too deep at first well because I was like no not historical romance but it wouldn't leave me alone I kept thinking about that summary and the more I thought about it the more it pulled me into its depth and I knew I had to read it and boy I am I glad I did.

I just had to know about that scarlet woman and Dublin, Ireland in 1880. I had to know the story behind her seduction and her father disowning her and how one man a doctor could change her world in one night. Who was this doctor and what kind of person was he? What was so charming about this man? Well for that matter what was so charming about this scarlet woman?

A Scarlet Woman is about more than one man and one woman meeting and changing each other’s lives. It is about betrayal, lies, hurt, pain, misery, love and so much more.

A Scarlet Woman will pull you into its depth and have you flipping the pages faster and faster falling into Isobel’s life as she tries so hard to overcome her past and put it behind her. It is about a woman who is trying to dig her way out of a whole that her father tossed her in and each time she grabs onto another step higher on that ladder something or someone knocks her off and she goes tumbling back down only to pick herself up and start climbing again.

I have to say that I have enjoyed stepping back into the world of historical romance and reading Isobel and Will’s story and I would very much like to continue their story in the next book of The Fitzgeralds of Dublin in A Suitable Wife.

If you are a fan of historical romance then I would highly recommend that you add A Scarlet Woman to your to be read list. 

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Lorna Peel is an author of historical fiction and mystery romance novels set in the UK and Ireland. Lorna was born in England and lived in North Wales until her family moved to Ireland to become farmers, which is a book in itself! She lives in rural Ireland, where she writes, researches her family history, and grows fruit and vegetables. She also keeps chickens and guinea hens.

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