Review – The Gray Chamber by Grace Hitchcock @grace_hitchcock #Netgalley #historical
Synopsis
Step into True Colors — a new series of Historical Stories of Romance and American Crime
Will Edyth prove her sanity before it is too late?
On Blackwell Island, New York, a hospital was built to keep its patients from ever leaving.
With her late father’s fortune under her uncle’s care until her twenty-fifth birthday in the year 1887, Edyth Foster does not feel pressured to marry or to bow to society’s demands. She freely indulges in eccentric hobbies like fencing and riding her velocipede in her cycling costume about the city for all to see. Finding a loophole in the will, though, her uncle whisks Edyth off to the women’s lunatic asylum just weeks before her birthday. Do any of Edyth’s friends care that she disappeared?
At the asylum she meets another inmate, who upon discovering Edyth’s plight, confesses that she is Nellie Bly, an undercover journalist for The World. Will either woman find a way to leave the terrifying island and reclaim her true self?
Review
What a combination – historical romance and true crime! The true crime is based on Nelly Bly’s secret admission to an insane asylum in the late 1800s to reveal the truth behind the conditions and how women were treated. Let’s just say I’m glad I didn’t live during that time frame because men really thought women were fragile and not sane. Frightening is really the word.
When this book first starts, it is like most other romances. Edyth is a woman of means despite the fact that her Uncle controls the pursestrings. She is in love with her fencing instructor and has been for many years. He doesn’t see her as more than a friend until a party when her cousin helps her dress for a ball and is a sight to behold. This is where the story gets interesting. Edyth and Bane admit their attraction for one another and Bane has decided to court her. Her Uncle has discovered a loophole in her parent’s will and decides that Edyth needs to be diagnosed as insane. What happens from there is where the story really gets interesting. Edyth tries to escape the asylum with the help of a few friends. Bane is trying to find her because she has just vanished and he doesn’t believe the stories he is being told by her Uncle.
I found the story to be engaging and fascinating and I liked the tie to an actual event in history. The author even discusses what she changed to make it fit the actual events. I”m now intrigued to read the book about Nelly Bly’s time in the asylum and what she encountered. I can’t believe women were treated this badly a century and more ago, but I know it did happen. It makes me appreciate what I have now in this time and how far women have come in this world.
We give this 4 paws up.
About the Author
Grace Hitchcock is the author of The White City and The Gray Chamber from Barbour Publishing. She has written multiple novellas in The Second Chance Brides, The Southern Belle Brides, and the Thimbles and Threads collections with Barbour Publishing. She holds a Masters in Creative Writing and a Bachelor of Arts in English with a minor in History. Grace lives in southern Louisiana with her husband, Dakota, and son.
