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Neniu kovrilo — Cinder Bella (EBook, Kathleen Shoop)

Bitlibro, 251 paĝoj

Lingvo: English

Eldonita de Kathleen Shoop.

(1 recenzo)

She never had anything. He lost everything. Together they create a Christmas to remember.

December, 1893 Shadyside, Pennyslvania

Bella Darling lives in a cozy barn at Maple Grove, an estate owned by industrialist Archibald Westminster. The Westminster family is stranded overseas and have sent word to relieve all employees of their duties except Margaret, the pregnant maid, James the butler, and Bella. Content with borrowed books and a toasty home festooned with pine boughs and cinnamon sticks, she coaxes the old hens to lay eggs--extraordinary eggs. Bella yearns for just one thing—someone to share her life with. Always inventive, she has a plan for that. She just needs the right egg into the hands of the right man.

Bartholomew Baines, a Harvard-educated banker, is reeling in the aftermath of his bank's collapse. With his friends and fiancé ostracizing him for what he thought was an act of generosity, he is …

She never had anything. He lost everything. Together they create a Christmas to remember.

December, 1893 Shadyside, Pennyslvania

Bella Darling lives in a cozy barn at Maple Grove, an estate owned by industrialist Archibald Westminster. The Westminster family is stranded overseas and have sent word to relieve all employees of their duties except Margaret, the pregnant maid, James the butler, and Bella. Content with borrowed books and a toasty home festooned with pine boughs and cinnamon sticks, she coaxes the old hens to lay eggs--extraordinary eggs. Bella yearns for just one thing—someone to share her life with. Always inventive, she has a plan for that. She just needs the right egg into the hands of the right man.

Bartholomew Baines, a Harvard-educated banker, is reeling in the aftermath of his bank's collapse. With his friends and fiancé ostracizing him for what he thought was an act of generosity, he is penniless and alone. A kind woman welcomes him into her boarding house under conditions that he reluctantly accepts. Completely undone by his current, lowly position, and by the motley crew of fellow boarders who view him as one of them, Bartholomew wrestles with how to rebuild.

With the special eggs as the impetus, the first meeting between Bella and Bartholomew gives each the wrong idea about the other. And when the boarding house burns down a week before Christmas it’s Bella who is there to lend a hand. She, Margaret, and James invite the homeless group to stay at the estate through the holidays. But as Christmas draws closer, eviction papers arrive. Maple Grove is being foreclosed upon. Can Bella work her magic and save their Christmas? Is the growing attraction between Bella and Bartholomew enough for them to see past their differences? Only time will tell and only if time doesn’t run out before they all have the Christmas of their lives.

1 eldono

Stephanie Jane recenzis Cinder Bella de Kathleen Shoop

A Cinderella retelling

4 steloj

Cinder Bella is, as its title suggests, a retelling of the Cinderella fairytale, but in this novel the tale has been transposed to 1890s Pittsburgh and I felt the combination of a historical fiction narrative with elements of the traditional tale worked really well. I loved how nods to other seasonal traditions are incorporated, such as Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, but there is also a serious side with poignant depictions of the realities of starving families in the wake of the 1893 financial Panic which created mass unemployment and homelessness. Indeed, the unfortunate banker, Bartholomew Baines, was left destitute as a result of this financial disaster.

As in her previous 'Tis The Season story, The Tin Whistle, Shoop creates a plausible, yet heartwarming cast of characters. At the heart of Cinder Bella, young Bella Darling is a quiet recluse, happier in solitude than in the midst of a crowd, …

Cinder Bella is, as its title suggests, a retelling of the Cinderella fairytale, but in this novel the tale has been transposed to 1890s Pittsburgh and I felt the combination of a historical fiction narrative with elements of the traditional tale worked really well. I loved how nods to other seasonal traditions are incorporated, such as Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, but there is also a serious side with poignant depictions of the realities of starving families in the wake of the 1893 financial Panic which created mass unemployment and homelessness. Indeed, the unfortunate banker, Bartholomew Baines, was left destitute as a result of this financial disaster.

As in her previous 'Tis The Season story, The Tin Whistle, Shoop creates a plausible, yet heartwarming cast of characters. At the heart of Cinder Bella, young Bella Darling is a quiet recluse, happier in solitude than in the midst of a crowd, but with a heart of gold and the ability to always look on the bright side. She doesn't have much except for a cat, a few hens and plenty borrowed books. I really liked Bella, although I was disappointed with the hens being portrayed as egg-laying machines. Their seemingly magical eggs are central to the storyline and I could understand those eggs needing to be special, however modern commercial hens are engineered to lay just one egg every single day and the toll on their bodies is immense. I cringed whenever Bella's 'spent' hens were laying even more.

That niggle aside, Cinder Bella is a lovely read which gets much of its cheering atmosphere from the interactions between its disparate characters. I loved how each of the boarding house residents had their own unique talents and foibles. Seeing how they made their skills mesh to create a beautiful Christmas in their borrowed home really captured my imagination. Bartholomew's recognition of the importance of making things by hand chimed with my own philosophy. Cinder Bella is, of course, very much a Christmas story so that aspect of it did feel a little strange for me, reading the book as I did in late August. However I did come away feeling a cosy Christmassy glow so if Kathleen Shoop can work her seasonal magic on me in the summertime, I can only imagine what a joy Cinder Bella would be to read in November or December.

Temoj

Historical fiction
Christmas