Maid of Steel by Kate Baker is an intriguing historical novel, strong on atmosphere and well-plotted.
Blurb:
It's 1911 and, against her mother's wishes, quiet New Yorker Emma dreams of winning the right to vote. She is sent away by her parents in the hope distance will curb her desire to be involved with the growing suffrage movement and told to spend time learning about where her grandparents came from.
Across the Atlantic - Queenstown, Southern Ireland - hotelier Thomas dreams of being loved, even noticed, by his actress wife, Alice. On their wedding day, Alice's father had assured him that adoration comes with time. It's been eight years. But Alice has plans of her own and they certainly don't include the fight for equality or her dull husband.
Emma's arrival in Ireland leads her to discover family secrets and become involved in the Irish Women's Suffrage Society in Cork. However, Emma's path to suffrage was never meant to lead to a forbidden love affair.
We meet young Emma as she hurries across Manhattan to the Joseph Cobb factory, where her best friend Martina and she work. "Emma had known little about the American Women's Suffrage Movement until she'd met Martina". Her mother Maggie is horrified and tells Emma to stay away from the growing movement.
The working conditions at the factory are abysmal, and there are no safety procedures. The women who work there are treated with derision and contempt. There is a big sign above the door in capital letters, "BE QUIET AND GRATEFUL".
When there is a fire the floor below, women at the factory are unable to escape. The manager has locked the doors. They try to scramble outside the window to the fire escape. Emma manages to get to the roof , where she is rescued. Emma's friend and many other women are not so lucky. Only Emma doesn't feel lucky. She suffers with a survivor's guilt after this traumatic event.
Her parents hold old-fashioned views on the role of women in family and society. They don't want their daughter to go to rallies and make a spectacle of herself. Perhaps going away to her aunt on the coast would help her recover. Emma, however, has other plans in mind.
"As she went around the corner and slowed to a walk, she thought again about Ireland and the tales her grandmother had shared. It was there she would tell them she could go. Putting some ocean between herself and her parents seemed like the only chance she'd have to be herself".
Having arrived to Queensland, Emma stays at The Admiral hotel which belongs to Thomas and Alice. Alice is an actress, who believes she is destined to become famous.
This is a marriage of convenience, and there is a growing resentment on both sides. Alice is a free spirit, who cannot be contained by constraints of any marriage. Staying at home with her "boring" husband is not what she wants. Thomas feels despised, "and the notion was catching".
When Emma arrives to the hotel, Thomas begins to feel appreciated.
Emma is searching for an information about her family in Ireland, and is brimming with ideas of starting a local suffrage group. She is not looking for love.
Emma, Thomas and Alice's fates get more and more entwined.
The romance plotline is set against the backdrop of the changing political and societal rules and mores.
This is a well-researched historical novel. The main character's path and the suffrage movement are closely interconnected.
The suffrage movement is as important nowadays as it was a hundred years ago. "The women were getting their message across. They were united in wanting to be taken seriously".
Over a century passes, misogyny is rife, and women are still fighting to be heard, challenging the new face of patriarchy to get their message across and be taken seriously.
Maid of Steel is an evoctive, gripping story, with multi-faceted characters and a strong feminist streak. It is written with appreciation for the suffrage struggle of the era.
I would also like to mention the stylish and elegant book cover design, reminiscent of the glamorous and modern patterns of art deco.
Trigger alert: Apart from the catastophe of the Titanic story, the novel begins with the graphic description of the fire at the factory which could be triggering, bringing in the thoughts of the tragedy of Grenfell Tower fire and even the events of 9/11, with people being stuck in the upper floors and not being able to escape.
We lived in the States when 9/11 happened, and I am still haunted by the memories of those tragic events. I remember that day as if it were only yesterday.
The description of the fire at the factory and the horrible deaths might be too much for someone deeply affected by the tragedies mentioned above.
This post is one of the blog stops on the blog tour for Maid of Steel.
Many thanks to Kate Baker, The Book Guild Ltd and Rachel's Random Resources for my copy of the book!
Purchase Links
Publisher’s link: https://www.bookguild.co.uk/bookshop/book/486/maid-of-steel-SMwd/
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/191535269X/
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/191535269X/
Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/maid-of-steel/kate-baker/9781915352699
Author Bio
Kate Baker wrote terrible holiday diaries as a child, which her husband regularly asks her to read out loud for their entertainment. She has since improved and has written with intent since 2018. Maid of Steel is her second novel; the first is lining drawers in the vegetable rack at their farmhouse.
https://twitter.com/katefbaker
https://www.instagram.com/KateFrancesWrites/
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