The Rescue Sisters - Elaine Whiteford - ★★★.½
AUTHOR: Elaine Whiteford
GENRE: Historical Fiction
PUBLICATION DATE: September 2, 2024
RATING: 3.5 stars.
In a Nutshell: A historical drama about two women trying to forget trauma from the past and tackling a new challenge in their present. Interesting character arcs and fast-paced writing. It went a different way than what I had assumed from the title, but a decent experience, overall.
Plot Preview:
1900. Stirling. Eliza Frew has spent many years taking care of unwanted children, giving them a home and vocational training so that they get gainful employment when older. But now, a secret from the past has returned to haunt her.
Jane Knight is struggling emotionally after her brother’s death in the Boer war. For a chance to move away from her grief, she goes to stay at her Aunt Alice’s place, where she ends up volunteering at Eliza’s charitable home. But when one of the inmates reveals a secret, Jane know that she has to step in and help.
How do these two women of varied ages and circumstances face the challenges thrown at them?
The story comes to us through the alternating third-person perspectives of Eliza and Jane, mainly from 1900, though there are a few chapters from other years as well.
The title, the cover, and the blurb created certain expectations in my mind about this book. While the book does deliver a good story, it doesn’t exactly match the packaging. That cover is gorgeous, but it doesn’t indicated the content of the book that accurately. (I’m still trying to figure out the significance of the animal on the cover. Is it one of Eliza’s dogs?) The title is interesting, but it is more figurative than literal. The two women are unrelated, dissimilar in age and disposition, and on distinct missions, so there’s no common ‘rescue’ project to tie them into sisterhood. The vague blurb doesn’t help.
This line in the blurb caught my eye while checking this book out: “A tale of blackmail, kidnap and terrible secrets. Of children being sent abroad, and of women trying to do the right thing at a time when they were second class citizens.” Combined with the title, the premise promised a tale of children being forced abroad into employment and of some brave women trying to save them. This turned out to be a partly wrong conclusion on my part. While both Eliza and Jane work towards saving children, they aren’t working as a team, and each of them faces a different kind of personal challenge. Plus, the “kidnap’ doesn’t even happen until the final quarter, and even then, it isn’t immediately clear if the incident was a kidnapping or an elopement.
Another sentence from the blurb is more accurately indicative of the content: “Child rescue and migration are the backdrops to this historical drama that packs a punch.” The main focus isn’t the rescue or the migration, but the lives of the two women who are at the forefront of this story. Once I readjusted my expectations, the book went better.
Eliza and Jane are interesting leading characters, each with their clear strengths and weaknesses. While some of their decisions show them to be quite impulsive, they both work out of the good of their heart, and are hence easy to root for. But my favourite character in the book was easily Jane’s Aunt Alice: a strong woman ahead of her time, unhesitant to voice her opinion, not afraid to choose the untrodden path if it means success, and living by her own rules without worrying about social norms.
The book is slightly based on an actual children’s home in Scotland that sent children to Canada to work on farms. However, all the characters are fictional, and the events are only partially based on real-life contexts. While I would have liked this angle to be the main focus of the story because it had so much potential to create a impactful novel, it still serves well as the side plot. The author’s historical note at the end of the book offers clarification on her writing choices.
The pacing is quite fast, and the almost-300 pages go by without any slog. However the descriptions are somewhat lacklustre. I would have appreciated a greater visual of the scenes and the characters.
One thing I didn’t expect was the strong thread of faith. One main character is highly devout, so her arc contains constant refrains about reliance on God’s will, having faith in Him no matter the circumstances, and also plenty of biblical verses. Overdoing the biblical quotes isn’t my preferred style of writing in Christian fiction. As a practising Christian, I didn’t mind this, but I wish I had known about it beforehand. I am not sure how general readers will feel about this unexpected Christian content.
Here’s a funny (and embarrassing) confession. It took me a long time to place the setting of the story, mainly due to a gap in my geographical knowhow. There is no location mentioned outright at the start, but the initial chapters refer to Stirling, Dundee, Gowanlea, Perth, and Glasgow. Of these places, I knew that Dundee and Glasgow are in Scotland, and I *knew* that Stirling and Perth are in Australia. Gowanlea was a totally new name to me. As there was no other description about the location (and I totally forgot that the author is Scottish), I kept jumping between Australia and Scotland in my head (It didn’t help that there were multiple references to Canada, which ALSO has a Stirling!) It was only around the 25% mark that I finally understood that the setting was Scotland. (Which ALSO has a Perth AND a Stirling!! Who knew?! You did? Okay, I didn’t know!)
There is a track of romance in the book, not surprising considering the era and Jane’s age. But at no point in the book does the romance supersede the main storyline. It is kept in the background, and only serves as a way to provide Jane a happy ending. I always appreciate it when authors don’t make romance the focal point of non-romance novels.
Some dialogues in the book feel a bit too melodramatic, as if they would better suit a movie. But they mostly work for the plot and the personality of the characters in question. Only the ending went a bit too Hollywood-ish for my liking.
All in all, this debut work keeps its plot and its themes clear, and successfully avoids the infamous kitchen sink of dumping in too many themes. However, the incorrect expectations I had thanks to the title and blurb led me to have slightly mixed feelings about this read. I am sure it will work better if you go in with a clearer picture of what to expect, and have a greater fondness for emotional dramas.
Recommended to readers of historical fiction looking for a dramatic storyline with strong Christian elements and two (or more) brave women.
My thanks to Love Books Tours and author Elaine Whiteford for a complimentary copy of 'The Rescue Sisters', and for allowing me to be a part of this blog tour. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Blurb:
Stirling and Quebec, 1900.
A tale of blackmail, kidnap and terrible secrets. Of children being sent abroad, and of women trying to do the right thing at a time when they were second class citizens.
How far will Jane Knight and Eliza Frew go to protect the ones they love ... and save themselves?
Child rescue and migration are the backdrops to this historical drama that packs a punch.
An intelligent and emotionally rich story which is truly engaging.
Highly commended in the Pitlochry Quaich Historical Novel competition.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Author Elaine Whiteford:
The Rescue Sisters is the first of her historical novels to be published. She has had extracts of two novels published in Gold Dust magazine and short fiction published by Stryvling Press.
In non-fiction Elaine is the author of The Story of Stirling Golf Club, a contributor to Wild & Temperate Seas and has had photo articles about scuba diving and marine life published in a wide range of magazines.
Connect with her on:
Website: https://www.elainewhiteford.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/elainewhiteford
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Check out this book:
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/216869623-the-rescue-sistersPurchase from:
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DB8T9MZK/
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DB8T9MZK/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This has been a stop on the #TheRescueSisters blog tour conducted by Love Books Tours. (@lovebookstours on Twitter and Instagram.) Thanks for visiting!
Comments
Post a Comment