The Orphan in the Peacock Shawl: A gripping historical novel from AnneMarie Brear

AnneBelle Wallis is an orphan raised by an herbal lady who lives in a cottage on the estate of the wealthy Hartley family. After the death of her guardian she is alone in the cottage when a young woman in the throes of childbirth arrives at her door in the middle of a bad storm. AnneBelle helps with the birth and wraps the child in a peacock shawl the lady hands her. While AnneBelle sleeps the lady slips away. Later AnneBelle finds a note asking her to care for the child. When she hears of the death of Eliza Hartley she is frightened that she will be blamed for the murder and she feels she needs to honor the promise she made to Eliza to keep the child from the family. AnneBelle takes the child and hides in the slums of York, not a good place for her or the babe. It is a story of a young woman afraid to tell her family of her pregnancy because it will ruin their good name and they will force her to put the child in an orphanage. She knows AnneBelle's guardian took her in as an orphan and she asks AnneBelle to care for her child in the same way. I think that Annabelle showed great courage in taking the child and trying to keep her promise, but I thought the characters were all set well, the descriptions of the cottage and the Hartley estate were very vivid as was the descriptions of the York slums. I like the character of AnneBelle and of John Hartley, he was a compassionate and caring character. I liked the character of Dickie, he was a good friend to AnnaBelle as was Ginny. It was a good story about the shame of an unwed mother in the this time period, the power of friends and the courage of the young women in the story. I enjoyed reading this book and I recommend it. Thanks to AnneMarie Brear for writing a great story, to Boldwood Books for publishing it, and to NetGalley for making it available for me to read.

I could not put the book down it brought tears to my eyes and I am a man it was what real life is like