Book Review: Finding Lady Enderly

If you had the opportunity to improve your life and all you had to do was pretend to be someone else, would you do it? The book, Finding Lady Enderly, written by Joanna Davidson Politano, asks this question of both the heroine and readers.

The year is 1871. Raina Bretton, a young woman living in London’s East End, is just scraping by. Paucity and pain are pervasive in Raina’s home of Spitalfields.

Despite the poverty, Raina survives and thrives because of the support of her longtime love, Sullivan McKenna. Sully, as she calls him, anchors Raina and assures her that she is not defined by the world around her. She alone defines who she is and determines her own destiny.

This above all: to thine own self be true…  ~Hamlet Act 1, Scene 3

But when Sully sails off to find his fortune and is lost at sea, Raina’s self-assurance goes with him. Unmoored, she drifts through life, alive but not living. That is, until one day when a well-spoken, wealthy, charismatic confidence man offers Raina a way out of poverty. The catch: She must leave everything behind and reinvent herself as the Countess of Enderly.

Raina’s new home, Rothburne Abbey, is not all that it appears. Decency and abundance disguise deception and decay. Secrets hide behind every door. Amid the subterfuge, Raina struggles to balance who she is with who she is supposed to be.

Thought-provoking and poignant, Finding Lady Enderly forces readers to consider: What makes you, you?  And, would you trade your identity for the chance at a better life? In addition to the philosophical bend, literary allusions and quotes from England’s most-respected authors pepper the pages, guiding Raina on her quest for self-awareness. Well-written and captivating, Finding Lady Enderly is a must-read for anyone who enjoys historical fiction or women’s fiction.

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I received a complimentary copy of this book from Revell Publishing, courtesy of a LibraryThing Early Reviewers giveaway. Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.