Lady Maybe: A Novel. Julie Klassen. Penguin Group (USA). July 2015.
400 pp. ISBN#: 9780425282076.
Marianna
and her husband, Sir John, are moving because of Marianna’s infidelity. So he is a very, very angry man but is
determined to save his marriage by removing her from temptation. Marianna’s only comfort is that her former
companion or servant agrees to travel with them. Chaos erupts, however, when they are in a
terrible accident where their carriage turns over and over off a road.
The
next thing we know is that Hannah awakens in a strange bed, learns that Sir
John has been seriously injured and is lying unconscious in the same house and
Marianna is assumed to have drowned in the water near where they fell. At first Hannah doesn’t remember much and is
uncomfortable with the delicate and caring attention she is getting from the
doctor and other servants in what is obviously Sir John’s home.
This
then is the story of a woman who at first allows everyone to think she is
Marianna and that Hannah died. But
Hannah’s vague memories of a baby compel her to escape from this false identity
she has assumed through her silence. How
this novel evolves is stunning!
A
solicitor (lawyer) is highly suspicious of Hannah and even challenges Sir John
multiple times, in literal and legal ways.
Another woman, a former lover, someone who abducts children for financial
gain, and so many other characters appear and turn the basic story upside down
in a delightful way. It’s a mystery as
well as a romance story that keeps the reader wanting to know more about these
so-called members of the aristocracy and those beneath them.
Julie
Klassen knows her time period as well and has given a Gothic and historic
romance to readers who will be more than pleased at this story that reads like
a true classic Regency novel. Finely
written, Julie Klassen!
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