Julie Daines was born in Massachusetts, but was raised in Utah. Her ability to create the lightness and fluff of an era focused on high society while creating an awareness of the darkness and unfairness of that period serves to make her one of the premier Regency writers. (She has worked as a maid and her mother was raised in a fashionable home.)ĭaines draws attention to several negative realities of the Regency period the powerless position of women, society’s indifference to the extreme poverty of a large portion of the population, the inhumane treatment of the mentally ill, and a class system that withheld advancement opportunities from those born to the lower classes. Their language is authentic, though Charlotte uses more slang and references awkward topics more than even a woman growing up in a seaport might be expected to use. In spite of her blunt language and lack of suitable wardrobe, Charlotte is soon courted by a handsome, eligible gentleman of the ton, is the object of fortune hunters, and has to make some serious choices concerning her sister, the estate, the last remnants of her family, and her heart.Ĭharlotte and Henry are both carefully executed characters with large amounts of reader appeal. She trusts Henry and he becomes one of the few people who can calm her when she’s upset. He does all he can to smooth her way and becomes a favorite of Charlotte’s sister who has an hysterical, screaming fit when approached by most people other than her sister. He soon finds himself falling in love with the new heiress even though he knows marriage to someone above his class cannot be. He’s paid well, but will never accumulate enough funds to pay off his father’s debts and free him from debtors’ prison. Henry Morland, steward to the Willowkeep estate, runs the estate efficiently and is well liked by the tenants, servants, and surrounding villagers. Shortly after, the estate’s steward arrives to transport Charlotte and her sister to Willowkeep. Her uncle, her mother’s brother, has died leaving Charlotte an heiress to one of the largest fortunes and estates in England. One day a solicitor from London arrives with unbelievable news. She is constantly told by doctors and mere acquaintances that she should put her sister in an asylum. Now she is out of money and items she might sell to keep herself and her sister alive. ![]() While still mourning her loss, Charlotte’s father was lost at sea. ![]() ![]() Their mother committed suicide when life became unbearable several years earlier. Charlotte Darby lives in the rough seaport town of Hull with her mentally handicapped younger sister.
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