Eleanor Courtown: Review by Canada Reads American Style

Review by Rebecca @canadareadsamericanstyle

HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

Author @lucyemblack does three things exceptionally well: historical research, creates compelling characters that you come to love, and crafts irresistible tales with real-life events as narrative background.

So it is that we meet Eleanor Courtown, a privileged, young Irishwoman who travels secretly to Canada out of concern for her newly married cousin Lily. Eleanor’s worst fears are confirmed when she finds her cousin living in harsh conditions and lacking the civility that was once a tenet of her lifestyle.

But while Eleanor contemplates how to remove Lily from her circumstances, she begins to develop relationships with the people around her—the husband-and-wife innkeepers, local schoolgirls, and even Doctor Stewart whom she describes as, “quite ugly, with an unnaturally large brow and an over-large mouth.”

In Eleanor Courtown, I have found my literary unicorn! This is the type of romance I grew up on and have missed. I am confident that late 19th century Canada from Black’s POV is my go-to fictional landscape!