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Ancestral Virgins is the first book in a new series from author Fiona J Mackinstosh.
“There was a pain in her chest, a numbness she could feel all down her left side to her fingertips. Behind the closed doors of the bedrooms, there were muffled voices, people dressing on a summer’s evening, looking forward to nothing more than a good dinner, nothing that would rip their lives into two halves like a long, jagged seam.”
Set just before the First World War in London and Nottinghamshire, Ancestral Virgins (Part One) is Downton Abbey with a harder edge and a more shocking secret. Lady Celia Mapperley, young, innocent, and unmarried, is emerging from her protected childhood into a world that seems to hold no place for her. Her mother is pushing her to marry the rich industrialist George Ingham, but Celia is reluctant. Though she is told nothing but hints and whispers, she’s both intrigued and repulsed by the mystery of what happens in the dark between a bride and her husband. Feeling ill at ease in every situation, from London’s society balls to its suffrage meetings, she despairs of ever finding what will make her truly happy. When a new and wholly unexpected lover comes along, Celia learns the devastating power of desire and is thrust into a scandal so damning it could cost her everything she’s ever known.
Ancestral Virgins is brilliant. It opens and ends on a secret which underpins the wonderfully plotted story. It draws you in from the very first page and has you hooked.
The research and care Fiona has taken when writing this period of history is plain to see and is absolutely meticulous. The growth of Celia in this book is phenomenal.
Looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
You can get a copy of Ancestral Virgins here!
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