Review: An Untitled Lady
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 7, 2014
Madeline Wetherby is called back to the town where she grew up by the Earl of Shaftsbury but he has died before he can put his plans into place. He has been paying for Madeline's education - he is her godfather - and he has had her trained to help run the estate so she can marry his son. But his son, the new Earl wants nothing to do with her. Madeline also learns some unsettling things about her family and now finds herself adrift as she is no longer to be a countess but she has no other skills. A solution is found but will it be the answer to her prayers?It is a time of great unrest in Manchester, England, as machines start to take over the jobs men had been performing for years. The business owners are firing workers and depressing wagers and the workers just want an honest wage for their day's work. The city is a powder keg and Madeline finds herself in the middle.I could tell while reading An Untitled Lady that the novel was well researched and Ms. Penttila does an excellent job of immersing her reader into the boiling pot that was Manchester in the time of the industrial revolution. The characters are drawn from all aspects of society of the time; the aristocracy, the merchant class and the working poor. The class system in England was rigid and women especially were held to very strict standards. By using her characters Ms. Pentilla really shows just how hard it was for the women of the time to simply exist. One small error and a woman could be "ruined" forever - even by something not of her control.I did feel at times that the political aspects of the book overtook all other story lines to the point where I was a bit annoyed. I understood what the fight was about. I understood who was fighting it. I didn't need to hear it umpteen times. Madeline was also one of the more maddening heroines I've read in a while. But I suppose that given her circumstances and the times (I'm not spoiling any plot points) she felt she needed to do what she did. But at times I wanted to shake her!An Untitled Lady was an enjoyable read covering important events in the history of labor with a satisfying romance woven throughout.3.5