Review: readingbetweenthe__wines

Thank you @tlcbooktours for my free copy of Eleanor Courtown by Lucy E. M. Black! Today is my stop on the Instagram review tour. And since I was sent an extra copy, be on the lookout for a giveaway!
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“Eleanor Courtown is the story of a young woman of privilege. When her cousin marries and sails for Canada in the 1870s, Eleanor determines to follow. Having left home in secret, she soon has reason to regret her decision. Friendless in a strange new country, both women fall victim to a brutality that threatens to destroy them. This is a work of historical fiction based on events of the period. Written with a masterful command of the voices it inhabits, the novel’s endearing characters come alive in a nineteenth century setting. The journey of its protagonist highlights the importance of those immigrants, of every class, who came to North America and who have played essential roles in the establishment of a developing social fabric.”
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Growing up, I was an avid reader of the Dear America series; Eleanor brought me right back to my childhood. I’ve never read anything that specifically focuses on early Canadian history. Maybe because it’s similar enough to early settlement in America, there hasn’t been as much written about it, or maybe it’s just because I don’t live in Canada that I don’t know of anything else. I enjoyed that it was a unique subject matter and the bits of Irish culture mixed in. It started off a little slow, as the language takes some getting used to, but I soon found myself invested in Eleanor’s journey. I empathized with her through all of her hardships and fell in love with her quirky naivety. Incredibly well researched and beautifully written Eleanor Courtown is both educational and heart wrenching. ★★★★