The Riverside Maid (The Waterfront Women #3) by AnneMarie Brear
Genre: Historical fiction, Sagas, Victorian era
Read: 20th March 2025
Published: 20th March 2025
★★★★★ 5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
From rags to riches... but will happiness follow?
Orphaned as a child, Fliss Atkins has spent her life working at her uncle’s pub, The Bay Horse Inn, nestled along the banks of the River Calder. Life has been anything but easy for Fliss. Her aunt is unloving, and her older cousin Gerald is cruel.
Then she meets Oscar Nolan, whose adventurous spirit makes her wonder if there might be more to life beyond the only home she’s known. Could Oscar and his dreams of travel be her chance at a fresh start? The thought is tempting, but leaving her best friends, Lorrie and Meg, and their beloved families behind seems unimaginable.
When tragedy strikes, Fliss is presented with an unexpected opportunity to shape a new life for herself. But will new riches bring her the happiness she longs for, or will it lead to even greater troubles for this riverside maid?
A compelling and emotional read set in Victorian Yorkshire, perfect for fans of Dilly Court and Rosie Goodwin.
MY THOUGHTS:
From rags to riches...but will happiness follow...?
What a delightful rags to riches story this is! Felicity "Fliss" Atkins was orphaned from a a young age and taken in by her uncle Terry, landlord and owner of the Bay Horse public house, on the banks of the River Calder. Over the years, trade from the river has slowed as steam trains have taken over the carrying of cargo across land leaving the narrowboats often without work. The Bay Horse is a working man's pub in which the dockers from the wharf drink at the end of a long day.
But for Fliss, life has been anything but easy. Orphaned at a young age, her uncle's family didn't want her and her cousin Gerald made her life a misery, while her aunt Hilda remained cold and aloof. As she grew into adulthood, Gerald's torture never waned and her aunt treated her like a skivvy. Only her uncle had any love for her. And then there were her friends Meg and Lorrie, whom she befriended when Meg used to work behind the bar before marrying wealthy Christian Henderson. But the friendships formed between the three women remained.
Now at 25 years of age, as she watched her two friends happily married with young children of their own, Fliss wonders if there will ever be someone special for her. She thinks not as her aunt as always been at pains to say she is nothing special and Gerald taunts her mercilessly about her ugly looks. Who would want a redheaded orphan without a bean to her name?
Then one day she meets Oscar Nolan, a young surveyor measuring up the vacant building adjoining the Bay Horse. What had once been an old shop was to be sold and Fliss couldn't help but wonder how much the asking price was. She had often regaled her ideas of expansion into the adjoining building to her uncle but he was happy keeping things as they are. But a twist of fate sees her holding the keys as she begins work on expanding the Bay Horse into an Inn in which travellers can rest with beer, food and lodgings. But not everyone is happy with how things have played out and Fliss soon finds herself in danger.
When Fliss finds Oscar Nolan stopping by one day to ask her to go for a walk, she dares to dream of stepping out with a man. But what would someone as dashing and adventurous as him want with an old maid like her? And yet Oscar continues to visit, even melting aunt Hilda's ice cold heart. The couple are attracted to each other and soon Fliss begins to dream of the possibilities. But when she discovers Oscar has a job offer that will take him away from her, Fliss wonders if she could bare to let him go.
Set in the late 1800s towards the end of the old Queen's reign, this delightful tale rounds off those of the Waterfront Women that we have come to know and love in each of their respective stories. As with all sagas of this time kind, there is plenty love, heartache and tragedy to go round as well as a heartwarming ending to round things off.
Despite this being the obvious end to the series, I would love to see what's in store next for the women in sunnier climes. It would shed a different light and perspective on life and I would love to see it play out...should it do so.
Another delightful tale at the pen of AnneMarie Brear.
I would like to thank #AnneMarieBrear, #Netgalley, #BoldwoodBooks and #RachelsRandomResources for an ARC of #TheRiversideMaid in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Living in England during the 1980s and more recently, AnneMarie developed a love of history from visiting grand old English houses and this grew into a fascination with what may have happened behind their walls over their long existence.
Her enjoyment of visiting old country estates and castles when travelling and, her interest in genealogy and researching her family tree, has been put to good use, providing backgrounds and names for her historical novels which are mainly set in Yorkshire or Australia between Victorian times and WWII.
A long and winding road to publication led to her first novel being published in 2006. She has now published over twenty-seven historical family saga novels, becoming an Amazon UK best seller and with her novel, The Slum Angel, winning a gold medal at the USA Reader's Favourite International Awards in 2019, and a silver medal for The Market Stall Girl in 2021. Two of her books have been nominated for the Romance Writer’s Australia Ruby Award and the In’dtale Magazine Rone award.
AnneMarie now lives in the Southern Highlands of N.S.W. Australia with her husband and her family.
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