Emma Woodhouse has just lost her former governess and favorite friend to marriage, and she is now a bored, lonely matchmaker looking for her next project. Harriet Smith is an agreeable, obedient acquaintance attending the local boarding school, with no known family or influences—the perfect pliable pupil. Emma tries to set her up with a…
Category: Historic Fiction
“The Princess Bride” Book Discussion and Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting Recipe
Buttercup is an “impossibly lovely” milkmaid living on a farm in the fictional city of Florin. There is a farm boy named Westley who loves her, and says so with every utterance of his famous quote “As you wish.” He travels to America to obtain a fortune so he can marry her, but his ship…
“Far From the Madding Crowd” Book Discussion and Bacon, Ham, and Cheddar Biscuit Recipe
Bathsheba Everdeen is a stubborn but hardworking young woman who inherits her grandfather’s farm just as her once-dear friend falls into personal tragedy. Independently making a living in a man’s world leads her to arrogance and in doubt of ever finding marriage. She thinks love to be a joke and plays a foolish trick on…
“Pride and Prejudice” Book Discussion and Peach Cupcake Recipe
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” —such is the philosophy of Mrs. Bennet, mother to five daughters, including the opinionated, fond-of-walking Elizabeth Bennett, Lizzie to her sisters. When a wealthy, attractive young man by the name of Mr….
“Once Upon a River” Book Discussion and Easy Apple Cinnamon Buns Recipe
Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield At winter solstice in the Swan at Radcot, a weathered pub beside the Thames river, where stories are told and retold round the bar and a roaring fire, a man washes up, banged-up and nearly dead, with a very young girl, as lifeless as a mannequin. Until her…
“A Christmas Carol” Book Discussion and Citrus Spice Cupcakes Recipe
“Marley was dead: to begin with”—one of the greatest opening lines of a novel. Ebenezer Scrooge, money and mortgage lender, miserable miser, and wretched soul despises Christmas and anything to do with the happiness he has lost. Then the ghost of his former work partner, Jacob Marley, comes to warn him of the greater sorrows…
The Lost Castle by Kristy Cambron
A castle in a forest inspires the stories of three women, scattered across centuries. Adeline is engaged to a Duke in 18th century France, though her opinions are more aligned with the “rabble” than the wealthy aristocracy to which she will belong. But when the Duke’s castle is burned by angry serfs, and Adeline as…
The Address by Fiona Davis
The Dakota in New York is America’s first luxury apartment building, designed by the architect Theodore Camden. In 1884, a woman working at a hotel named Sara Smythe earns Theo’s respect and admiration, and he hires her to be the managerette of his new apartments, set to rival New York’s famous Fifth Avenue. But their…
The Cottingley Secret by Hazel Gaynor
A young girl named Frances is relocated to her mother’s hometown in England during the first world war. Little does she realize, this event will change her life and affect her entire country. Frances loves playing by the stream in the woods behind her aunt’s house, sometimes with her older cousin Elsie, but typically alone….
The Sea House by Elisabeth Gifford
On the shores of Scotland is a sea house where two tales unravel. Ruth, who is renovating the house, and hiding from her past and found another: mermaid bones buried beneath the floorboards. Ruth’s mother drowned when her daughter was very young, leaving her orphaned. In an attempt to find a piece of her family…