"It makes me laugh that women are permitted so few alternatives, and are then punished for resorting to the ones they have."

This is another one of those books that I've been sitting on for well over a year, and now that I've finally gotten around to reading it I could kick myself for not picking it up sooner.

Part Jane Austen, part Charles Dickens, and part "Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life," this novel is about a baby (Amy Snow) abandoned on the estate of an aristocratic British family. While the estate's owner's are aghast that an orphan would sully their home, their daughter, Aurelia, insists on raising the child, and thus begins a life-long friendship.

Rees writes lyrically and listening to the audio was a sheer pleasure. I was transported to the English countryside and moors of York as Amy Snow traversed the land on a "treasure hunt" of Aurelia's design to uncover her friend's deepest secrets.

Thank you to NetGally and Simon & Schuster for a galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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Reading this book was like pulling on a comfy old sweater - I felt the echoes of some of my favorite nineteenth-century British novels. Amy Snow is an orphan abandoned in a snowdrift as an infant, but she is adopted as a companion by a wealthy heiress. Years later, the heiress dies and leaves Amy a series of letters which urge her on a fascinating journey across England, a journey in which Amy must discover both herself and her past. A great read that left me wanted more stories like this! ( )

Enjoyable debut novel 3.75 * as my interest waned a little in the middle of the book. Will certainly read other books by this author ( )

Aardig verhaal, maar net geen topper. Aurelia vind een kleine naakte baby in de sneeuw op het landgoed van haar ouders, Lord en Lady Vennaway. Ze neemt het meisje mee naar huis en noemt haar Amy Snow. Het verhaal begint echt als Amy op zeventienjarige het landgoed moet verlaten na het overlijden van de 8 jaar oudere Aurelia. Met een volle koffer met al haar bezittingen en een brief van Aurelia gaat ze op pad zonder doel. Aurelia geeft in haar brief aan waar ze naar toe moet en vertelt dat het een zoektocht wordt en dat ze er niemand iets over mag vertellen. Bovendien zit er in de brief een behoorlijk bedrag om haar zoektocht te bekostigen. Amy gaat van stad naar stad en ontmoet steeds nieuwe mensen die haar verder helpen. En ook haar grote liefde. ( )

I tried but... The idea of "I have this very dark and important secret that I must tell you but instead of just telling I'll make it into a treasure hunt of multiple letters and a 400 pages long book" reaaaaaaally grates on me. ( )