A Lady in Attendance

 

RACHEL FORDHAM

Stats for my copy: Trade paperback, Revell, June 2021.

How acquired: Revell Reads Blogger Program, for review. 

(Goodreads synopsis below.)

My thoughts: Rachel Fordham has a true talent for creating realistic, fallible characters who are strong yet vulnerable. Hazel was a young, thoughtless and immature girl, whose flirtatious actions led her to a forced marriage, which ended when her husband was murdered and Hazel was sent to reformatory after being found guilty of stealing jewels. A crime of which she was innocent. Five years later she is free and starting her life over. Now, instead of living a pampered existence, she resides in a boarding house for women, and takes a job as a lady in attendance to a dentist to support herself.

I read a lot of romance with alpha heroes - strong, arrogant, masterful men. As much as I love those men (on paper anyway!), its refreshing to read about a hero like Gilbert. Quiet, unassuming, mild-mannered, a bit shy around women and resigned to remaining a bachelor. Hesitant about hiring a woman to work side by side with every day, but having reached a point in his practice where he needs an assistant, he settles on Hazel after she assures him she has “...no motives other than working...ours will be a most proper arrangement.”

I love watching a relationship develop slowly over time, and Ms. Fordham wrote Hazel and Gilbert’s relationship beautifully. There’s no holding hands and flirting, but rather an easy, growing friendship filled with conversation and laughter. Until that scene at - well, I won’t give it all away, but who knew a kiss on the cheek could be so romantic!

The themes of forgiveness and acceptance run throughout the book. Forgiveness of others and of one’s self. Acceptance of others, and of one’s self as a worthy person despite one’s past or flaws, or perceived flaws. Much of Hazel’s character growth occurs off page, during the five years she spends in the reformatory, but we are given enough glimpses at her background to appreciate her growth. Gilbert’s growth is more internal, in that he’s already a good man and an upstanding member of the community. But his personality blossoms more and more thanks to Hazel’s influence, as he becomes more talkative and social, and begins to think maybe there’s more to life than permanent bachelorhood.

This is just such a sweet and engaging story. There’s romance of course, and redemption, and adventure as Hazel and Gilbert and their friends dig deeper into the events surrounding Hazel’s arrest and her husband’s death in an effort to clear her name. I teared up more than once, and it all wrapped up beautifully in the end.

Goodreads synopsis: Five years in a New York state reformatory have left a blemish on Hazel's real name. So when she takes a job as Doctor Gilbert Watts's lady in attendance in 1898, she does so under an alias. In the presence of her quiet and pious employer, Hazel finds more than an income. She finds a friend and a hope that if she can set her tarnished past in order, she might have a future after all.

As Gilbert becomes accustomed to the pleasant chatter of his new dental assistant, he can't help but sense something secretive about her. Perhaps there is more to this woman than meets the eye. Can the questions that loom between them ever be answered? Or will the deeds of days gone by forever rob the future of its possibilities?

Rachel Fordham pens a tender tale of a soft-spoken man, a hardened woman, and the friends that stand by them as they work toward a common purpose--to expunge the record of someone society deemed beyond saving--and perhaps find love along the way.