thebooktrail88's review
5.0
Visit the locations in the novel - come to Ironbridge!
MEET THE AUTHOR IN IRONBRIDGE HERE!
This really is a great series. This second novel immerses you even more into the town of Ironbridge and its wonderful characters. This time there’s two new characters to follow as we met Margaret and daughter Beatrice. Queenie, Margaret’s grandmother, Queenie has called them back from France. What will they find in Ironbridge?
This outsider coming into the small community is a fascinating premise. There’s a great sense of the industrial. Margaret’s been away for years and her family is the owner of the local Brick and Tile works. The secrets in the title come from these changes and the discoveries made along the way. The problems that differences in social classes can bring are carefully explored and this really was moving to read about. In addition to that, there was the horror of discovering the reality of what working life in factories was like at the time. There really is so much rich detail and charaterisation here, it’s hard not to feel part of the story and not just a reader.
I do love a saga but I feel Mollie has taken this in a whole new direction and created a wonderful snapshot of life back in 1850s Shropshire. After the recent flooding in the town, I felt especially moved even though I’ve never been there as I feel so attached and invested in it now due to these books.
Recommended.
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