misfitandmom

"Molly O'Dowd crouched in her doorway staring in stunned disbelief at the two bloody, shattered bundles that had been such a short time before her youngest brother and the boy she was to marry."

Irish lass Molly is left without many options - follow her dastardly father to America (not gonna happen), or head to London and try to find gainful employment. She's had book learning and knows her sums, so that should be no problem right? Wrong. London is not the best place for a girl on her own without a friend in the world, but Molly's got sand and doesn't let even the worst panderer on the block get the best of her.

"Tomorrow she would start her new life. Tomorrow would be better."

This is at heart a rags to riches story that begins in late 19C London and continues to the end of The Great War. While the book blurb makes it sound like Molly was a bit of a ruthless business woman aspiring to wealth and power, she really was someone who wanted to make the best of herself and to build a business (an employment agency for women) she could be proud of and one that would support her family along with her husband's income. Since this book is set mainly in London in the early 1900s, you will see the characters involved in the suffragette movement, as well as the social upheavals and demands for reform. I found it mostly interesting, but not being well informed on these events, nor the inner workings of the British government, I did get a wee bit lost at times, but I soldiered on and was pretty engrossed during WWI - and not everyone makes it out...

*sniff*

I did enjoy this a lot and would recommend it, but be warned as there is a plot development with Molly and a business associate that may not sit with all readers - I know I have some friends that draw the line at

.