Rating: ★★★
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Clara Kelly is sent by her family from Ireland to America to seek a new life, and hopefully some money to send home. When she arrives, someone is there to meet here – or at least, another Clara Kelly. She assumes the place and identity of the missing Clara Kelly, who was making the journey to America to take a job as a lady’s maid for the wealthy Mrs Carnegie. Using her wit and work ethic, Clara manages to excel at her job and along the way, becomes close to Mrs Carnegie, the successful businessman Mr Andrew Carnegie. However, can she keep her secret in this new world?
This book was a really interesting insight to American history and industry in the 19th century, and the plight of immigrants in America. Clara sees the intense poverty of most immigrants and the luxurious wealth of families like the Carnegie’s and so the book contrasts both really well. There are also small insights to the experiences of freed slaves and female nurses in the civil war which I liked, although I would have seen some more of these.
The concept behind this book is that a romance between Andrew Carnegie and a servant, Clara, could have been what incited him to become a philanthropist and give away so much of his wealth. This was an interesting idea but wasn’t really convincing. I also felt that Clara sometimes fell a bit flat. I would have also really liked for her to have to accept and own her identity, which didn’t happen.
This was quite a short book so I finished it quite quickly. In hindsight, it really did slow down in the middle, with the story ending quite clunkily at the end, but it wasn’t quite long enough for me to get bored.
Ink Drops Books 