Mrs Boots of Pelham Street (Mrs Boots #2) by Deborah Carr
Genre: Historical fiction, General Fiction
Read: 16th May 2020
Purchase: Amazon
(publication date: 15th May 2020)
★★★★ 4 stars
Easing myself back into reading after surgery, developing clots and now recovering, I thought I would lose myself to some delightful historical fiction. I thoroughly enjoyed the first book "Mrs Boots" and decided to jump right into this one.
MRS BOOTS OF PELHAM STREET begins in 1891, six years after Florence and Jesse Boot married on the island of Jersey and they are now living in Nottingham working on building both their family and the Boots empire. They have two children, two year old John and nine month old Dorothy. But Florence feels the need to increase her brood and confides in Jesse that they should have another child.
Fast forward a year later in 1892 and Florence is pregnant with her third child whilst continuing to work in their Boots stores. Jesse implores her to take it easy as the pregnancy tires her while at the same time Florence tries to get Jesse to slow down due to his growing ailments. Neither of them wish to as they continue to build their growing empire. Then in the midst of her seventh month of pregnancy, Jesse announced that he had bought them a majestic house in the beautiful and sprawling The Park estate and named it in honour of her hometown on Jersey, St Heliers. Of course the last thing Florence wished to be doing at seven months pregnant was move house, but with another baby on the way the move made sense. Baby Margery was born on a night they were visiting old friends, keeping Florence bedridden for some ten days before she was able to go back home...and even longer before she could return to work at Boots.
Life had changed for Florence since her days living on Jersey with her family. She had always been an independent young woman, wanting both a career and a family and never losing sight of what she wants from life...but can she fit it all in?
When Jesse buys a massive floorspace on Pelham Street, Florence sees a chance to expand the chain into other departments. But Jesse is adamant. Boots is and always will be first and foremost, a chemist. But Florence has an eye for things that would draw a customer into their store who might never enter and the lure of gifts and pretty things is just the ticket. When that proves successful, Florence decides to expand into stationery and book lending...but all the while Jesse still feels that Boots should remain a chemist. Stubborn to the core, Florence and Jesse butt heads a number of times throughout the course of building up Boots from sixty stores into two hundred and fifty.
One thing Jesse has given his wife full control over is the female staff. She has made it her mission to help the women less fortunate than herself by giving them positions within one of their many Boots stores. Of course she would love to help them all, but of course that isn't possible. Her mind often wanders back to Jersey and young teenage Lily Buttons, whom she had taken off the street and given a job in her father's stationer's store. Lily was her success story and she was proud to have had a hand in helping the young woman find her feet.
So when her secretary announces that there is a Miss Lily Buttons who wishes to see her, Florence couldn't believe her eyes or her ears. Lily had handed in her notice at her father's store and had saved every penny to come to Nottingham to make something of herself. And she hoped Florence had a position for her in one of her stores. Florence was thrilled and promptly gave Lily a supervisory position within the Pelham Street store.
Jesse's health continues to decline but he refuses to slow down. A workaholic, he says he must work and as the head of the Boots empire it is up to him to continue to make it work. When he has a sudden health scare, Florence hopes he would take this as a sign that he must slow down but all that ensues is an even grumpier old man who cannot do all he used to do.
Florence continues to be a stalwart for the company and for women, as she organises outings for several hundred female employees, Christmas gifts for them women and gifts for those who are struggling to make ends meet. She gives positions to those who need it most and takes the women under her wing, hoping to help make their lives better. Despite her mother's pleading and against her wishes, Florence continues to work and take her children to the office with her when they are young so that she can be both a working woman and a hands-on mother for her children. This is very forward thinking for the time particularly as women didn't work once they married or had children, staying at home instead with their family.
However with the number of Boots stores opening up across the country, the empire continues to grow at a rapid rate and fast becoming more than just a chemist, but a gift shop as well. Then they began their own printing means to reduce the need to outsource which was incredibly progressive for the time.
The scenes at Florence and Jesse's home amidst their children and servants had echoes of Downton Abbey, though not as much a grand scale. It had that warmth and homeliness about it despite being a majestic house with half a dozen servants. And their loyalty and appreciation to their servants reminded me those that had graced the halls of Downton.
I really enjoyed this second installment of the Boots empire, though admittedly not as much as the first. I think my biggest issue was with Jesse and his constant grumpiness which was so at odds with the man we met in the first book. Also his stubbornness regarding his children, particularly John, and their education contradicted his acceptance of Florence's position as an independent woman. Contrary to that forward notion, the one regarding John's education was completely belied his position as a forward-thinking man.
But Florence annoyed me in the beginning also when she demanded to remain independent, working at Boots whilst bringing up three children. When Jesse implored her to let him know if it ever became too much to let him know, she silently promised herself she would do no such thing. And then, she had the audacity to plead with Jesse to slow down whilst silently watching him for signs of pain when she decided he would need to slow down. I thought that to be somewhat hypocritical when she endeavoured to do the complete opposite herself. Did their children's well being mean nothing to them that they would both risk their health for the sake of being independent?
Aside from those little niggles, I did find a couple discrepancies in the plot and its timeline. Firstly, in April 1893 Florence was taking her three children to the office and alluded to Margery being just six months old...which was entirely incorrect as Margery was born in April 1892, making her 12 months old. The second inconsistency I found was with regards to Florence's family. She made mention of her own brother Willie. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I honestly do not recall her ever having a brother - just two sisters, Adelaide and Amy. Had she had a brother, wouldn't he have been the most likely to work alongside her father at Rowe's stationers rather than Florence herself and her sister Amy?
Niggles and inconsistencies aside (though I felt I did have to mention them), MRS BOOTS OF PELHAM STREET is a lovely gentle read of times past and while it is the second in the series, it could be read as a standalone.
By the end of the book, they have entered a new century with the year now 1907 and Florence and Jesse are now celebrating twenty one years of marriage. I wonder, where do they go from here? Is there a third book to come to continue their story? I hope so as I would thoroughly enjoy revisiting the Boot family and their growing empire.
A wonderful nod to what has become one of the UK's biggest chemist chains, MRS BOOTS OF PELHAM STREET is an enjoyable step back in time, along with the first in the series "Mrs Boots".
I would like to thank #DeborahCarr, #NetGalley and #OneMoreChapter and #HarperCollinsUK for an ARC of #MrsBootsOfPelhamStreet in exchange for an honest review.
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