The Bride's Sister (The Goswell Quartet #3) by Kate Hewitt
Genre: Historical fiction, Contemporary fiction, Dual timeline, Victorian era
Read: 14th November 2022
Published: 17th November 2022
★★★★★ 5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
She clutched the piece of paper close to her chest, tears welling in her eyes, hardly believing what she had read. Silently thanking Sarah for all she sacrificed, she took the death certificate and slipped it under a loose floorboard – no one must ever find out what she’d done…
England, 1868: Orphaned and penniless, 18-year-old Sarah is left the sole guardian of her beloved little sister Lucy – who she’s vowed to protect at all costs. With nowhere left to turn, she is forced to accept mysterious widower James Mills’ proposal of marriage.
She believes being his bride can’t possibly be as bad as the threat of the workhouse. But nothing prepares her for the darkness of her marriage, the shocking secrets of her new family and the lengths she will have to go to, to keep her sister safe…
Now: Living in the beautiful village of Goswell, Ellen believes her family life to be idyllic… until her estranged seventeen-year-old stepdaughter Annabelle moves in and shatters the peace. Ellen fears they will never bond, until she finds a death certificate – for a woman named Sarah, from over a century earlier – hidden under the floorboards of their house, and Annabelle starts to help her unravel the mystery.
Yet as Ellen and Annabelle dig deeper into Sarah’s life and death, shocking truths, both past and present, come to light which change everything Ellen thought she knew about Sarah’s family – and the new addition to her own…
The Bride’s Sister is a powerful and moving story about what it means to be a family, second chances, and the lengths we go to for those we love. Fans of Lucinda Riley, Barbara O’Neal and Fiona Valpy will absolutely love this gripping and emotional read.
This novel can be enjoyed as a standalone.
Previously published as The Second Bride by Katharine Swartz.
MY THOUGHTS:
I am excited to be taking part in the #BooksOnTour #BlogTour for Kate Hewitt's delightful dual timeline tale THE BRIDE'S SISTER.
It began with a death certificate under the floorboards...
Sarah Mills. River Cottage, Kendal. General debility. July 1872.
Kendal, 1868: Eighteen year old Sarah and her ten year old mute sister Lucy step off the train after the long journey from Goswell. Having been left orphaned after the death of their mother, they find themselves in the strange town awaiting the aunt they have never met. Edith was their mother's sister but for reasons unknown to the girls, they never spoke again after their mother met and married their father, a curate in Goswell.
Aunt Edith is a stern and strict figure, though not unkind. She takes the girls in, feeds them generous meals, gives them a roof over their heads and clothes them. She does not believe in idle hands and keeps the sabbath holy. But when a sudden tragedy occurs, leaving Sarah and Lucy destitute, an offer of marriage to a friend of her late father's gives the girls the prospect of a home in which they are cared for.
But marriage to James Mills is not without its problems. It seems he does not really want a wife but an unpaid skivvy, which is what Sarah and Lucy become. His 14 year old daughter Clara who parades herself about town in all manner of colourful flounces of gowns, totally inappropriate for a girl her age, incredibly spoilt having been the only child of her husband and his late wife. Clara makes life difficult for Sarah and her sister Lucy, whose bed is now a pile of blankets on the kitchen floor, like a servant.
Then when Clara finds herself in a position of disgrace, it's Sarah she comes to begging her for help. And so she does. But when James discovers the subterfuge, his wrath is such that he all but destroys Sarah.
Goswell, present day: During renovations of an upstairs attic room, builders comes across a piece of paper hidden under the floorboards. Ellen is intrigued by the mystery behind the words:
"Sarah Mills. River Cottage, Kendal. General debility. July 1872."
Who was Sarah Mills? And if she lived and died in Kendal, what was her death certificate doing hidden under the floorboards of her house here in Goswell? And what on earth does general debility mean? Ellen begins initial enquiries which are quickly abandoned when when her husband Alex, who she describes as having the emotion intelligence of a hermit crab, announces that his his ex wife contacted him asking that they take his 17 year old daughter Annabelle in for a year while she does her final year of A levels, as she jetsets off to New York.
Ellen is dubious. Past experiences with Annabelle have not been pleasant and in the ten years since she has seen her, she fears it will not be different. But she makes an effort and relinquishes the room she has waited twelve years for to make room for Annabelle...who is anything but grateful. The teenager is rude, truculent with an uncompromising attitude. She gives the greatest death stare than anyone Ellen knows. And nothing she does is right.
In an attempt to remain positive, Ellen coaxes the spoilt madam into a little project she had all but forgotten in the busyness and upheaval of their lives created by Annabelle's arrival. The mystery of Sarah Mills and who she was and why her death certificate was found under the floorboards of the room that is now Annabelle's. The teenager shows some interest and Ellen hopes this could go some way to extending a kind of olive branch to the girl.
But is it enough?
THE BRIDE'S SISTER is a deeply heartbreaking tale that will certainly tug at your heartstrings. The Victorian timeline is especially difficult and uneasy, just as times were, and your heart just goes out to the young Sarah and her little sister Lucy who is so obviously autistic (a condition not known about in those days let alone tolerated). Lucy was slated as an "imbecile" and yet she was intelligent and understood everything, her communication silent and her hatred of being touched. The story surrounding Sarah and her sister was incredibly heartbreaking. Life was unkind to those without any means as well as to those who were different in any way, as Lucy was. The lengths to which Sarah goes to ensure the safety of her sister is admirable. And yet the threat of the workhouse was always there.
And then there was the present day story, which was equally uncomfortable. Annabelle was immediately unlikeable and her scenes made for incredibly uncomfortable reading. She was rude, truculent, sulky, sullen and incredibly uncompromising. She hated Ellen and made no bones about it.
As with all the stories in this delightful quartet, Kate Hewitt entwines the lives of past and present characters. Ellen is the mother of Sophie, who is the best friend of Merrie from the first book "The Wife's Promise", and Jane (also from the first book) is Ellen's close friend. Interestingly, the teenagers in these stories have grown with the subsequent additions of further tales, with Natalie, who was 14 in the first book then 15 when Rebecca appeared in the second "The Daughter's Garden", is now 17 and the same agae as Annabelle. I love how Hewitt connects all these characters in the subsequent tales, as each of their lives entwine within the sleepy coastal village of Goswell.
The title THE BRIDE'S SISTER conjures up images of happiness and contentment though this story is anything but. It is far more poignant than the first two but just as heart wrenching. Although we know of Sarah's ultimate fate from the beginning, the journey we are taken on is one filled with tragedy and heartache as we prepare ourselves for the tugging of our emotional heartstrings.
I love dual timelines and this tale is no different as each chapter alternates between the past and the present with the two seamlessly entwined through the discovery of a 150 year old death certificate. I had only ever read one Kate Hewitt book before (an historical fiction one as I'm not generally a contemporary fiction fan unless it's coupled with a historical timeline like this) and this series is fast becoming one of my favourites. Although each tale is different and standalone, Hewitt cleverly entwines previous characters with new ones with each new story.
Overall, though not an easy read, THE BRIDE'S SISTER is perfect for fans of dual timelines.
I would like to thank #KateHewitt, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheBridesSister in exchange for an honest review.
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