Serabelle
Where the Wealthy Come to Play
by Tavi Taylor Black
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Pub Date 25 Apr 2024 | Archive Date 30 Jul 2024
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Description
An island sheltered from modern progress. Strict lines between servants and masters. Will crossing them leave her fatally exposed?
Bar Harbor, Maine. 1913. Mabel Rae is smart, reckless, and naïve. So when the ambitious seventeen-year-old joins the staff at a rocky cliffside cottage, she willingly lets the boisterous estate owner's improper advances sweep her off her feet. And the slender young woman dismisses the vulnerability of her position when she discovers she's pregnant with his unacknowledged child.
Brought harshly down to earth after she's caught up in the machinations of a family feud, Mabel decides it's time to take matters into her own hands. But with no money and few rights, she fears a forced marriage to the brutish gardener is her only socially acceptable option.
Is her future forever stunted, or can she become a beacon of change?
In a classic upstairs-downstairs tale, award-winning author Tavi Taylor Black spins an intricate web of idealism's battle against harsh reality. Set at a time when suffrage was at its height, temperance was gaining momentum, and war loomed in Europe, this spellbinding novel shines a light on inequities we still face today.
Serabelle is a darkly humorous work of historical fiction. If you like intricate relationships, lyrical prose, and stories that tackle serious issues, then you'll love Tavi Taylor Black's vivid portrait of the Gilded Age.
A Note From the Publisher
Available Editions
| EDITION | Ebook |
| ISBN | 9781685134068 |
| PRICE | US$5.99 (USD) |
| PAGES | 327 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Sandra M, Reviewer
This was a very interesting well written story portraying the period of history before America acknowledged that all people count and poorer people were not owned by the rich as playthings. The story is mainly about Mabel and her interaction with other the servants as well as the rich owners of the Cottage.
It was a good read that I did enjoy but it ended suddenly and I felt that it needed a much better ending to conclude all that had gone on with Mabel.
Reviewer 1086825
“Serabelle” by Tavi Taylor Black is a historical fiction set in the early 1900s. Mabel, a young girl, takes up a position as a housemaid in a luxurious summer house in Bar Harbour, Main. Fresh and naive, she draws the attention of Alastair, the master of the house. Of course, she is flattered, and he takes advantage of her in every way possible that men of that position and in that era could. Alastair is not the only person in the house who is untrustworthy—his own son doesn’t hesitate to betray his father. And of course, Alastair’s wife is more than willing to extract revenge on her husband for his betrayals. Mabel ending up pregnant and abandoned by the father is not unexpected. She is the one who is seen as the harlot while the man can do what he likes. Luckily Mabel has some friends in the house who help her find some alternatives to ending up being cast out on the streets.
I enjoyed this book a lot, but it made me angry to think of how many poor young women suffered in that era from the hands of men, especially men of power. And it also made me angry to think that such things still happen today in many instances, but at the same time, appreciate the “me too” movement bringing accountability for such actions.
This was a well-written book and I highly recommend it! Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC. My opinion is my own.
Kathleen B, Reviewer
Serabelle is a work of historical fiction set in 1913. Mabel, a 17 year old girl, takes a position as a housemaid at the Ainsworth-Hunt coastal cottage in Bar Harbor, ME.
Throughout the story there was family drama, drama among the servants, family betrayal, revenge, and differences between upper and lower classes. There were a few storylines and they all came together. Overall I enjoyed this story and was interested to see what drama came next.
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