Accidents of Providence

This is the story of Rachel Lockyer, a glovemaker's apprentice in 17th century England. It's not a cool time to be living in England - Cromwell and his crazy Puritans are in power, and they've pretty much banned everything fun - even Christmas! Being a woman during this time is even worse, since anything you do can be construed as "lewd."

So what does Rachel do? She falls in love with a married older man and gets pregnant. Then when the baby dies in childbirth, she secretly buries her. But of course someone sees what happens, digs up the baby, and Rachel is made to stand trial for murdering her bastard child.

I found the book hard to get into - the language is a bit stilted. But once I got into it I really enjoyed it. The males characters are sort of accessories - and they are actual historical people - but the author, Stacia Brown, really develops the female characters, mostly Rachel of course. And I'm glad I stuck with it, because the ending of the book was a real surprise, and a really cool surprise at that. Definitely an intriguing read.

Accidents of Providence