Also, his new found obsession with the latest technological advancements in weather forecasting are made even more interesting when some of his students visit the new weather station Geoffrey has had installed in the garden of the house (hence the unusual chapter headings, which are directly relevant to the storyline!) Ever the pragmatist, she resolves to make Geoffrey as happy as she can and she actually surprises herself when she begins to discover quite a lot of common ground, as she indulges him in his passion for the advancement of the railways and the increasing number of visitors it will draw to the area.

However she is a little jealous when she sees that her two most dear friends, have married for love rather than convenience, and what a much more fulfilled and joyful experience life is for them. Whilst Rebecca is not deep down happy, she is grateful and content enough with her life, especially with the arrival of her son and daughter. However, my own research soon shot that mistaken theory down in flames and sent me back to school, as by the latter part of the nineteenth century, it transpires that change and increased personal freedom for women was just over the horizon, with the era of strict gentility already beginning to merge into the transformational modernity of the twentieth century, which made everything completely in keeping and authentic! I was still rather shocked to learn that it was more dangerous to give birth in a ‘modern’ infirmary back then, than it was to suffer the potential complications of a home birth though, although it became clear that hygiene standards possibly hadn’t quite kept up with the progressive pace of innovation in childbirth, and that cholera caused by filthy drinking water, was still killing tens of thousands of people all around the world!Ĭompromise in order to secure a stable future for herself, was the primary driver for Rebecca, when she decides to marry Geoffrey, an entrepreneur several years her senior, who already has his own home and staff. Of course for me, accurate research is a must when I am reading about a specific period in history and my first thoughts were that Rebecca and her friends might have appeared a little too progressive for the Victorian setting of the storyline. Beginning of course with that haunting and wistful cover art, which almost sets the scene alone, without the need for words. Period historical romance isn’t a genre I could read too often, but every once in a while, a book such as this one will come along, which just grabs my attention and then I’m hooked.

What a lovely debut novel and a wonderfully enjoyable few hours of immersive escapism, into a sweet, yet heart-wrenching and rather melancholic story, narrated totally in the first person by Rebecca herself, beautifully simply and poignantly told.

Rebecca's Choice by Heidi Gallacher