Reviewed by Marcella

TITLE: Sixpenny Octavo

SERIES: Old Bridge Inn Series

AUTHOR: Annick Trent

PUBLISHER: Self Published

LENGTH: 282 pages

RELEASE DATE:  December 2, 2022

BLURB:

A standalone F/F historical romance

Clockmender Hannah Croft’s friend Molly has been arrested for her connections to a Jacobin club. In the tumultuous political climate of 1790s Britain, being in the wrong place at the wrong time is enough to land Molly in gaol. Hannah’s one hope to free her lies in the testimony of housemaid Lucy Boone.

Lucy has spent her entire life moving from one household to another, never forming a true connection with her fellow servants—nor with her occasional lovers. She prefers it that way. When you can rely on yourself, why would you need anyone else? But when Hannah Croft asks for help, she cannot say no.

Working together to free Molly, the two women don’t try to ignore their growing attraction. For Hannah, Lucy is a beacon of hope at a difficult time. And Lucy finds herself loving her new life, made welcome by Hannah and her friends.

But their situation is fraught with danger. Rumours abound of an informant in their midst, and a sinister man from the magistrate’s office dogs Lucy’s steps. One wrong move could land them in gaol—or splinter their new relationship from within.

REVIEW:

While, as the blurb shows, Lucy and Hannah work together to get Molly out of gaol, they both have their own struggles. Lucy’s employer, Mr Oldham, has been charged for his possible ties to the Jacobins, which means she’s out of a job. Hannah used to work with Mr Oldham from time to time, which means she seems to be tied to the Jacobins as well and doesn’t get any customers any more either. On top of that, they have the reading club they both attend, which seems to be holding a traitor in its midst, or are they safe now that they moved locations?

I absolutely adored this book. The history is accurate and there was not a single moment that felt misplaced in the time period, even the language was perfectly adjusted to it. The book showed the struggles of working women from Hannah’s stand as well as Lucy’s, both portrayed so clearly that for the reader, it is easy to put yourself in the shoes of Hannah and Lucy.

For same-sex historical romance stories, it is always tricky to portray everything properly because in those times it was not allowed after all. This book did a tremendous job showing that from the paranoid thoughts of ‘will people notice’ to the stolen kisses in hidden alleys. It was great to read how well this was done.

Also, the flow of the story was great. There was a clear omniscient narrator as it was written in the third person, yet it changed per chapter, and sometimes per paragraph, who we followed, either Hannah or Lucy. This made the book all the more interesting for the reader, as the reader gets so much more insight into two completely different lifestyles in this time period, as well as their gradual growth towards one another.

The characters themselves were wonderfully round and with depth. Not a single character in there gave me the impression that they was there just to have some filler, everyone had a purpose and everyone made sense. I would have loved to read more about Mr Raeburn as he was an absolute cinnamon roll, but you can’t have all, unfortunately.

I simply thoroughly enjoyed this story and even though there are no steamy scenes, the romance is there, the happy ending is there and all the fluff in there makes the story a worthy read!

RATING:

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