A dazzling combination of historical fiction and romance fiction - you choose which you want it to be. A rag to riches story that opens in the squalor and poverty of the east end of London in the 1880s, moves to New York, then back to London - rag to riches complete. Fiona Finnegan is in her teens when the story begins, madly in love with barrow boy Joe. Fiona works in a tea factory, blessed with a perfect nose for blending teas, but is stuck on the packing floor, Her and Joe dream of opening their own shop, working hard to save money so they can do this. Despite their youthful optimism, life is tough in the East End with no social welfare available, no unionised labour. A tragedy completely destroys Fiona's family, and her dreams with Joe. Her grief and desperate survival instinct take her and her young brother to New York where her uncle lives. He has a successful grocery business, and Fiona knows she will be welcomed with a place to live and work as well as people to care for her and her brother. Naturally things don't go quite as planned and Fiona finds herself again relying on her instincts, pulling up her sleeves, and getting on with it. Eventually her determination, her feistiness, tenacity and ability for sheer hard work give her the rewards and happiness she is looking for and so clearly deserves. And of course there is love! It wouldn't be a romance novel without a bit of love.
This is completely immersive reading. The author has clearly done her research on the east end of London during this time, complete with Jack the Ripper, the quite terrible living conditions, the raucousness of the markets, family life, the day-to-day struggle to live. The close family and community ties, and always the optimism that every day is going to be better than the next. Fiona is a marvellous character, flawed like all of us, so likeable with her complete lack of pretence, hard working, ambitious. All the characters are well drawn and developed, and there are many of them. I enjoyed this very much, and also pleased to see that there are three novels in this series. Look forward to reading them all. Perfect for reading with a cup of tea.
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