BOOK CLUB: The Postmistress

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Author: Alison Stuart
ISBN:9781489256461
RRP: $32.99
Publication Date: 17 June 2019
Publisher:
Harlequin Mira
Copy: Courtesy of the Publisher

A wonderfully entertaining and well written historical fiction tale of love, loss and courage.

It is the story of Adelaide Greaves; her young son Danny, her maid and friend Nelly, who are living in Maiden’s Creek where Adelaide is the town’s Postmistress. Adelaide has created a new life, a new identity and a new future but the arrival of Caleb Hunt, a handsome American who is reeling from the horrors of the American civil war changes Adelaide’s life.

Adelaide’s past is always on her mind and Danny is a constant reminder but he is her life and when her past catches up to her in Maiden’s Creek Adelaide turns to Caleb for help.

The Postmistress is a journey into an Australian gold mining town in 1871. The descriptive dialogue in the book gives you a real sense of life and the dangers of living in the bush.

I really enjoyed getting to know Adelaide who grew to be a very strong independent woman in a man’s world. 4/5

This guest review was submitted by our Beauty and Lace Club member: Karyn. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us Karyn.

The Postmistress is available now through Harlequin Mira and where all good books are sold.

Alison Stuart can be contacted on AlisonStuart.com or Facebook.

Thanks to Harlequin Mira 15 of our Beauty and Lace Club Members will be reading The Postmistress so please be aware there may be spoilers in the comments below.

14 thoughts on “BOOK CLUB: The Postmistress

  1. Thank you so much, Beauty and Lace and Harlequin Mira for introducing me to Alison Stuart through The Postmistress. A book with many levels and factual accounts through bushfires, gold fields and the American Civil War with every aspect of the story beautifully told with nothing disjointed. Historical Fiction, especially Australian, is possibly my favourite genre and this book did not disappoint in any way.

    The characters were very well drawn, even the ones who were almost incidental. The Postmistress, Adelaide, is a wonderful and inspiring young woman whose strength is obvious. Her devotion to her maid and friend, Nellie and her young son, Daniel is very real but there is nothing soppy about this woman who has made a life for herself in the harsh Australian environment when women weren’t meant to be independent. Her strength and courage are evident from the outset when she decides she must leave her privileged life in England and make her way to Australia due to an unplanned and unexpected pregnancy which her father will not understand or sympathise with in any way. Her life is disturbed and “turned upside down” when a handsome but scarred Confederate soldier arrives in Adelaide’s village.

    The story is very believable. Many aspects are sad but also very real. I found myself holding my breath on more than one occasion as the tension was so well written. It is a very “real” book, the historical aspects are excellently written and the characters beautifully developed. Overall a very satisfying and lovely story, beautifully told.

    This is my first Alison Stuart book – it definitely won’t be my last.

  2. The Post Mistress by Alison Stuart is a book I highly recommend .
    Such a page turner for me it was one that once I started I nearly finished in one sitting but actually didnt want to turn the last few pages as I knew the end was coming.
    A great example of historical Australian fiction that I am sure anyone would enjoy.
    Highlighting life in the goldfields of country Victoria,
    Adelaide and her maid Netty and son Danny weave a wonderful tale of strong women, Adelaide leaves her privileged life in England and makes a life in a harsh Australian environment.
    So many aspects to this story , peace and troubled times, illness , disease and death, fire and pasts coming back to haunt .
    I thoroughly recommend The Post Mistress .
    Thanks to Beauty and Lace and Harlequin MIra for allowing me to read and review this great novel. .

  3. Thank you to Beauty and Lace Bookclub and Harlequin Mira for the opportunity to read and review The Postmistress by Alison Stuart.

    After hearing of the loss at sea of the man who was to ask for her hand in marriage and is the father of her unborn child, 17 year old Adelaide Lewis flees England with her maid Netty rather than risk her father’s wrath when he finds out she is pregnant, taking with her only the jewelry bequeathed to her by her mother.

    We next find her and her now nine year old son Danny living in Maiden’s Creek Victoria where she is the village postmistress, and on Sundays teaches two of the working girls from Lil’s Place, Sissy and Nell how to read and write.

    Then there is Caleb Hunt, a Confederate survivor of the American civil war, prone to wearing fancy waistcoats, who barely 24 hours after landing in Australia has won a mining claim, Pretty Sally, in Maiden’s Creek off an Irishman in a game of two up.

    Throw in Will Penrose, mine engineer, nephew of Charles Cowper the major shareholder and manager of the Maiden Creek Mine, who is madly in love with Sissy and wants to rescue her from her life as a whore but can’t while he works for his uncle, plus the local doctor who looks at life through the bottom of a whisky bottle and you have all the ingredients for a comedic farce. Yet somehow Stuart manages to take these disparate characters and meld them together to create an engaging tale.

    While I wouldn’t put this book in the class of some other Australian Historical romance/fiction authors it is an enjoyable, well researched, easy read. The plot is not overly complicated and often predictable, but some of the interactions are quite amusing, with some of the action that take place in Lil’s Place being reminiscent of scenes from cowboy movies from the 1960’s.

    There is action aplenty, romance and confusion, hidden pasts and emotional baggage, the appearance of a person from Adelaide’s past to rock her safe world, danger from the Australian Bush and a find that will change all their lives.

    I give it 3.5 stars.

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