Rosie Goodwin
AS the dark days of winter start to ebb and spring draws
ever nearer, Rosie Goodwin, one of Britain’s best-loved saga queens, conjures
up her storytelling magic for the first book in a brand-new Flower Girls
series.
A former social worker and foster mother, four-million-copy
bestselling author Goodwin (pictured below) has penned over forty beautiful, heartwarming sagas,
exploring life and love in days gone by. She was also awarded the rights to
follow three of the late, great Tyneside writer Catherine Cookson’s trilogies
with her own sequels.
And now she’s back to win our hearts again with a gritty and
drama-filled tale which stars a young parlour maid whose life changes overnight
when she is called on to go far beyond the duties of a household servant.
In Warwickshire in 1875, Lily Moon, the local miner’s daughter, spends her days as a parlour maid for Lord and Lady Bellingham at Oakley Manor on the outskirts of Nuneaton. She has always been happy with her lot in life and never expected more. But that changes when she temporarily becomes lady’s maid to the Bellinghams’ daughter, Lady Arabella, who is pregnant with the illegitimate child of her army captain lover and about to be unhappily married off to Lord Lumley, a man twice her age.
It is only Arabella’s brother Louis, the handsome son and
heir of the estate, who shows any interest in the child and through his
kindness, a friendship forms between him and Lily... or perhaps more than a
friendship if the village gossips are to be believed.
Lily knows she is no match for Louis... a humble pit girl could never steal the heart of the lord of the manor. They must both deny their feelings and exist as they are... from two very different worlds. But when Lily is called to Paris to try to bring Arabella home to her family, a new opportunity emerges which could change her life forever. Could she dare to believe that she could be more than just a parlour maid?
It’s no surprise that Goodwin is one of the most borrowed
authors from UK libraries and here she packs in all those human events and
emotions – births and deaths, loves and losses, good people and bad people –
that have made her novels so beloved by readers over the decades.
Lily’s journey from humble miner’s daughter to the chance of
a new life far from home proves to be a gripping emotional rollercoaster ride with
plot twists aplenty and a story full of intrigue and heartache but also
friendship, resilience and love. Full of Goodwin’s wisdom and warmth, Our Fair Lily is a
romantic gem and the first book to blossom in what promises to be a colourful
new series.
(Zaffre, hardback, £14.99)
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