It’s over a year since I read, enjoyed and reviewed Maid of Steel by Kate Baker – and I’m delighted to share it again as part of her book birthday blitz, as well as offering you the chance of adding a signed copy (with that glorious cover!) to your bookshelves. Published by The Book Guild on 23rd February 2023, it’s available for kindle and in paperback via Amazon in the UK and US (and, should you prefer reading in paperback, via the publishers, from Waterstones, or any of your favourite high street or online booksellers). Many thanks to Rachel at Rachel’s Random Resources for the invitation and support.
It’s 1911 and, against her mother’s wishes, quiet New Yorker Emma dreams of winning the right to vote. She is sent away by her parents in the hope distance will curb her desire to be involved with the growing suffrage movement and told to spend time learning about where her grandparents came from.
Across the Atlantic – Queenstown, southern Ireland – hotelier Thomas dreams of being loved, even noticed, by his actress wife, Alice. On their wedding day, Alice’s father had assured him that adoration comes with time. It’s been eight years. But Alice has plans of her own and they certainly don’t include the fight for equality or her dull husband.
Emma’s arrival in Ireland leads her to discover family secrets and become involved in the Irish Women’s Suffrage Society in Cork. However, Emma’s path to suffrage was never meant to lead to a forbidden love affair…
And one more time for that review? My pleasure…
Already mourning the death of her twin brother under particularly tragic circumstances, Emma herself becomes involved in an escape from a life-threatening situation at her workplace in New York’s garment district – a dramatic start, and a strong introduction to our heroine and her friendships, and their shared interest in the Women’s Suffrage Movement. To help her recovery, she travels to Queenstown in southern Ireland – her grandmother’s former home, and an opportunity to explore her own roots and the dark history of workhouses and female oppression. Her passion for universal suffrage certainly hasn’t dimmed as her parents might have hoped, as she becomes involved with the Women’s Suffrage Society in Cork, rallying the women of Queenstown to join the fight. But this is her more personal story too – her new friendships, and a sense of purpose and belonging. It’s also the story of her developing close relationship with Thomas who runs the hotel where she’s staying, his wife Alice largely absent while pursuing her career on the stage – and that forbidden relationship certainly has its consequences.
I won’t tell more of the story – the author does it far better, and its many twists and turns are for the reader to discover. The romance at its centre was entirely convincing, heart-wrenching and particularly poignant – the book’s characters are really well-drawn, and I felt deeply for them through their trials and tribulations and desperately wanted them to have their unlikely happy ending. The historical aspects are excellent too – the depth of the author’s research very evident, and particularly well utilised to breathe life into the story. And then there’s the drama – and there’s considerably more to come as the story unfolds, along with a few real surprises, and I found the pages turning ever faster.
The author’s acknowledgements are almost as compelling a read as the story itself – her long struggle to bring this book into being, and a testament to both her own tenacity and the support of the wider writing community. And this is a book of which she should be justifiably proud – I’ll be very much looking forward to seeing where her journey takes her next.
Giveaway
With thanks to Kate and Rachel, I’m delighted to offer one lucky reader the chance to win a signed paperback copy of Maid of Steel, candle and lipsil (open to UK readers only).
Here’s the rafflecopter for entry:
Terms and Conditions
UK entries welcome. The winner will be selected at random via Rafflecopter from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and used only for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.
About the author
Maid of Steel is Kate’s first full length novel to be published. She also writes short stories and is presently drafting a second novel.
She writes at a desk covered in to-do lists and lights candles in the hope the lists disappear in the shadows.
She lives in East Anglia in the UK with her husband where they attempt to look after farmland for generations to come.
A small, very small, dog can be frequently found on Kate’s lap. Otis is her first miniature dachshund.
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A great book and lovely author!