Title: Davenport House

Author: Marie Silk

Rating: 4/5

Purchase: Davenport House on Amazon

*Davenport House was just released today (03/30/2016).  It is available on Kindle Unlimited or you can buy it for $2.99 which is quite a bargain.

Davenport house is a historical fiction filled with mystery and intrigue.  The synopsis of the novel is as follows:

“The wealthy family upstairs and lowly servants downstairs have more in common than they ever imagined.

Emotions are running high in the midst of a family scandal at Davenport House, where social classes collide and discretion is the secret to survival.

Mary Davenport is a 22-year-old idealist who worries that the world in the Progressive Era is leaving her behind. She lives isolated in the Pennsylvania countryside with her affluent and secretive family. When her father dies suddenly, Mary becomes pained with grief and increasingly suspicious of those around her.

A humble servant girl has the chance of a lifetime to become a lady’s companion. Costly dresses, exquisite rooms, and fine dinners are pleasant distractions from what is really happening in the house.”

I am quite a sucker for any historical fiction.  I am a history buff and Marie Silk’s novel did not disappoint.  The novel follows Mary, the daughter of the house who seems to be understood by only her father.  Her mother and brother are constantly shaming her and making her feel as though she is as lowly as the servants.  I felt for Mary through these challenges and when she discovers that her father has died.  I will not reveal much about the circumstances of the death of Mary’s father, but I will say that her losing him left her in a bit of a Cinderella position.

I loved the mix of the wealthy with the servants in this novel.  It reminded me of The Luxe Series by Anna Godberson in this way.  Silk had a full understanding of the time period that she was writing about and her knowledge showed.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading her novel because of the way it transported me back in time.  It was also clear to me that Silk has a strong awareness of people and what hardships they go through.  One of my favorite quotes from the book proves this:

“’You are like me, Mary.  We can read and understand people like reading pages in a book.  But we only wish to focus on the good pages.  Sometimes it is important to see the bad pages for what they are.  I have been fooled many times by skipping over the bad, and I have paid dearly for it.  I hope you can forgive me and not the mistakes that I have.”

The only critique that I have about the novel is that it provided lengthy detail that was too much in some circumstances.  I know that it is important to provide detailing in historical fiction, but sometimes it works best to have the reader fill in the blanks with their imagination.  This is something that I also struggle with as a writer, because I oftentimes want the reader to see exactly what I am seeing.  So I am also trying to work on this in my own writing as well.

Overall, I highly recommend this fast paced, beautifully worded novel by Marie Silk.  The cover will lure you in and the writing will make you stay.  Get ready for a beautiful journey to the past.

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