Book picks similar to
Outcasts: A Novel of Mary Shelley by Sarah Stegall


historical-fiction
19th-century
romantics
historical

An Invitation To Murder


Norman Russell - 2021
    Even if that means marrying his daughter off to a rich American.Unfortunately for him, she is already in love with a penniless nobody named Alan Lavender — to the glee of Alan’s greedy uncle Guy.He’s been nosing into the Renfields’ murky past, and he says he’s uncovered a secret. Something so shocking it casts a shadow over Frank’s entire legacy.Tensions run high at the hall, until Guy Lavender turns up dead.A convenient coincidence for Frank?Detectives French and Edwards are on the case. But in a town full of secrets, the truth can be hard to find.And Guy’s won’t be the only body to fall before their work is done . . .Who will be next to die under the Renfields’ roof?

House Maid: A story behind the suffering of a Sri Lankan Migrant worker in Saudi Arabia.


Indika Guruge - 2017
    She thinks migrating to a foreign land would be the only hope. The only qualification she has to migrate to a foreign country is to be a housemaid. That salary would be way better than in Sri Lanka, flying to Saudi Arabia as a housemaid would be a dream come true.Yet day after day, Kamala comprehends her mistake and regrets her stupid actions of leaving her beloveds. She is trapped by the secured walls of the Arabian house and by the rules, regulations and her negligence on working. She gets punished by horrific physical and mental abuse by the hands of her employer. Finally trapped her in a room as a punishment with nonpayment of her salary.When she tries to escape she is being physically tortured by the employer with nailing her body feet beating her with chains and sticks. Finally, when she escapes and returns to her mother land, everything what she worked have gone on a waste by her husband and leaving it all for nothing.Why I wrote this book.Labor migration to the Middle East has become a main feature of Sri Lankan economy strategies making it the second biggest foreign exchange earnings. Migration is likely to continue in the future. Foreign embassies continued to receive many reports that employers abused foreign women working as domestic servants. Some embassies of countries with large domestic servant populations maintained safe houses to which their citizens may flee to escape work situations that included forced confinement, withholding of food, nonpayment of salaries, beating and other physical abuse, and rape.These are few stories... "One particular day I dropped a saucer which broke into pieces. My employer was angry and he heated up five nails and drove them into my hand. When I shouted out in pain my employer's wife held a knife to my neck," she said.Why you should read this book?When you Google Sri Lanka all you see is a beautiful island with beautiful sceneries and nature surrounded by lovely sandy beaches, diverse landscapes ranging from plains to highlands, rainforests, wildlife and exotic food.But not many know how the Sri Lankan lower middle class suffer. How everyday is a challenge for them to make their ends meet. How much they suffer to keep their families alive, insufficient money to feed their children and to spend for their education.I was inspired by so many stories about how these migrant workers suffer. I have been fortunate enough to help these people and listen to their stories.This shows us how cruel the world is. Another side of life which many has not seen, or even think about, simply a nightmare. Why cannot the governments take any action about this? Non-government organizations? Is there anyone at all? When they send their hard earn money with high hopes, most of the time husbands waste money on alcohol and gambling, children go astray and get abused. These women and families fall of from the frying pan into fire. Time, money, pain all gets wasted. Everything end up in tears.This story will give you the inner aspect in depth about the middle class migrant workers and their lives, how hard they work, how much they sacrifice, how hard they hide their feelings and pain, suffer and struggle to survive every day.This book is a story about a family that went through this horrific abuse and torture. Hope you enjoy this book.Scroll up and grab your copy now.

The Wretched Needle Worker


Iris Cole - 2021
    Her father was a monster.How could Vera have been so blind to what was right before her eyes?After the death of her kind and loving Papa, Vera’s home is claimed by ne’er do well Uncle Merritt, who drives the household with cruelty and deprivation. Working for her keep, the once privileged Vera is driven to skin and bone and dreads the harsh beatings that Merritt regularly delivers.Ralph, Papa’s loyal and brave stableboy, cannot bear to see Vera shrinking daily under the hand of Merritt. In an attempt protect her, he challenges Merritt and now, tossed to streets, must survive however he can.With the loss of Ralph, Vera’s soul aches, made worse as she watches her father’s elderly servants treated with cruel indignity. In a desperate bid to protect them from Uncle Merritt, his rage is fuelled, and Vera is delivered an ultimatum, causing her to flee from her home. With nowhere to go, Vera too, finds herself on the streets.As starvation threatens, it is only Ralph and her new friend, Maggie, that keep her alive. But when Maggie unexpectedly reveals the truth about Vera's Papa, Vera is plunged to new despair. Will the truth destroy her? Can she keep secrets for the rest of her life? Will she ever be able to make things right? And will she agree to Ralphs’s plan, even though it means she may lose him forever?For fans of Dilly Court and Historical Romance

The Whore's Tale: Sarah (A Jacobite Chronicles Story)


Julia Brannan - 2018
    This is a companion series and can be read independently of the Chronicles. The year is 1731 and in a small village in Cheshire, England, the Reverend Browne has determined the future of his young daughter Sarah. Her life will be dedicated to caring for him and his household affairs while he, acting as one of God’s chosen few, saves souls from the devil. Sarah dreams of a different future, one in which she will be happy and independent. As she grows older she starts to see glimpses of a tantalising world beyond her reach and longs one day to escape the drudgery of her life, to become part of it all and maybe even have her own business. However, a chance meeting leads first to joy and blossoming and then to the destruction of her whole world. It changes her life forever, forcing her down a path which is the very opposite of the glittering one she had hoped for, one for which she has to pay a terrible price to survive.

Oaklayne, The Reconstruction


Karen Shriver - 2013
    Oaklayne Plantation is in ruins, a stark reflection of the condition of a once prosperous country and her families who have been torn apart by war. Was anything gained by the deaths of so many Americans? Is all hope for restoration gone?The Reconstruction Era is an often overlooked, but politically charged time in American history. Oaklayne, The Reconstruction presents an engaging mix of heart rending tragedy, sabotage, murder, corruption and intrigue, together with humor, romance, joy, faith, hope and love. Come along with General Adam Layne as he walks the tumultuous road toward rebuilding his live, his family, his childhood home and his country in this historically accurate portrayal of a man who refuses to accept meaningless loss.

Sunshine After Rain


Dee Williams - 2005
    But their happy world is shattered when, in 1912, William takes a trip to America that ends in tragedy.

No Blacks No Dogs No Irish


Ruby Lord - 2013
    She does so without thinking about the consequences until it’s too late. By the end she realises the man she wants to marry is not in any position to marry her and never will be. Well let’s think about it, he’s not in any position to marry anyone. The Catholic Church don’t allow their priests to get married let alone have secret affairs with desperate women. This isn’t your standard love story, it’s a dark and intense tale of life for one woman in 1960’s Manchester and to some extent what life is/was like for priests of the Roman Catholic Church.

Pregnant Mail Order Bride And Her Troubled Rancher (A Western Historical Romance Book) (Evergreen Frontier)


Florence Linnington - 2020
    

Dark Rosaleen


Michael Nicholson - 2015
    Historically accurate, it is a story of murder and betrayal, of a failed rebellion, and the love of a national scandal.  Charles Trevelyan was Secretary of the Treasury, and Director of the Famine Relief Programme at a time when famine raged and antipathy in English politics towards the plight of those affected raged equally. Kathryn, Charles' daughter, likewise felt no sympathy until the very scale of the tragedy became apparent. Joining the underground, she preached insurrection, stole food for the starving, and became the lover of the leader of the rebellion. She became known as Dark Rosaleen, the heroine of banned nationalist poem, was branded as both traitor and cause celebré. This is her story.

The Wild Card


Teresa Crane - 2000
    With them is Mary McCarthy and her volatile son, Liam. All is well until the arrival of Siobhan’s husband George. A man of strong views and even stronger temper, he browbeats his gentle wife, belittles his daughter Christine and treats Liam like a servant…A year later, on a visit to Ireland, Liam unexpectedly comes face to face with the father he has never known. Liam wants nothing to do with him, but when George Clough throws him out, he has little choice but to enter his father’s dangerous world of Irish politics…As the Clough children grow up they each react to their domineering father in different ways, and his daughter Christine finds herself attracted to the man her father would disapprove of above all others, the wild card Liam McCarthy… Perfect for fans of Emily Gunnis, Fiona Valpy and Santa Montefiore, The Wild Card is an intensely gripping and unforgettable read.

The Forest, Part 1 of 2


Edward Rutherfurd - 2000
    . . A sprawling tome that combines fact with fiction and covers 900 years in the history of New Forest, a 100,000-acre woodland in southern England . . . Rutherfurd sketches the histories of six fictional families, ranging from aristocrats to peasants, who have lived in the forest for generations. . . . But the real success is in how Rutherfurd paints his picture of the wooded enclave with images of treachery and violence, as well as magic and beauty.”–The New York Post

The River: A Christopher Radcliff Short Story


A.D. Swanston - 2018
    . . Cambridge on the morning of a day in April, the year of Our Lord 1569.And Christopher Radcliff, Doctor of Civil Laws at Pembroke Hall and recruiter of clever young men to the service of the Earl of Leicester, is amongst a crowd of excited townsfolk and university scholars gathered on a field to watch a game of foot ball. It is to be played between the apprentices of the town and pupils of the colleges and it is hoped it will reconcile differences between town and gown. Bets are placed, wagers made. On the field long-standing animosities surface and violence breaks out but not before the college team is victorious, thanks to the skill of a Pembroke Hall man, John Groom.Later that day, Radcliff is summoned to the senior tutor’s rooms. It transpires that John Groom has been locked up on a serious charge of assault – he’d nearly caused a cobbler’s apprentice to drown. If found guilty, Groom would be expelled from college and face imprisonment. But Christopher smells a rat. He believes the charge to be the fabrication of someone with a serious grudge against the young man, and yet it does seem as if Groom is hiding something. Enlisting the help of his friend Edward Allington and his wife Katherine, Dr Radcliff knows the truth lies somewhere within the infamous den that is Slegge’s gaming house…

Foxden Acres


Madalyn Morgan - 2013
    Bess and James played together as equals when they were children, but now James is engaged to the more socially acceptable Annabel Hadleigh.Bess takes up a teaching post in London but when war breaks out and London schoolchildren are evacuated she returns to Foxden to organise a troop of Land Girls. Traditional barriers come crashing down when Flying Officer James Foxden falls in love with Bess. But by this time Bess has come to know and respect Annabel. Can she be with James if it means breaking her best friend’s heart?And besides, Bess has a shameful secret that she has vowed to keep from James at any cost…

No Good Like It Is


McKendree R. Long III - 2010
     2d Lieutenant Dobey Walls meets and bonds with veteran Corporal Jimmy Melton. As the Civil War begins, they leave to join the 8th Texas Cavalry in Houston, then take part in the first and the final charges of the Army of Tennessee. Between those events, they ride with Nathan Bedford Forrest, play an honorable role in the Fort Pillow Massacre, harass Sherman with Shannon's Raiders, and visit the second best brothel in Atlanta. As surrender looms, they're released to search for Dobey's long-missing family in the Texas Panhandle. Their efforts are hampered by destitute farmers, lonely widows, dangerous militia, freed slaves, and runaways, who increase their numbers and excitement. In the process, they save a quadroon and her daughter from Yankee deserters who have stolen a Union payroll. This act of mercy brings them romance but puts Pinkerton detectives and a renegade lawman on their trail.

Blood & Honour


Richard Foreman - 2018
    But what is his ultimate plan?Varro must get to the heart of the conspiracy, or die trying.'Spies of Rome: Blood & Honour' is the first book in a new series by bestselling author Richard Foreman.