Description

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Bridgerton fans rejoice! This epistolary confection—told in letters among three school friends—is perfect for devotees of gossipy costume drama.

Tirzah, Sophia, and Polly are best friends who’ve left boarding school and gone back to very different lives. The year is 1896, and Polly is teaching in an orphanage, Sophia is scouting for a rich husband at the London Season, and Tirzah is stuck acting as an unpaid companion to her grandmother. In a series of letters buzzing with atmosphere and drama, the friends air their dreams, hopes, frustrations, and romances. Can this trio of very different young women—one industrious, one artful, and one in exile—find happiness and love near the dawn of the Edwardian era? From the award-winning author of the Carnegie Medal–nominated historical romance The Silent Stars Go By comes a playful, feel-good story of friendship and aspiration pitched just right for fans of Jane Austen and her contemporary disciples.

About the Author

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Sally Nicholls is the renowned author of The Silent Stars Go By and several other historical romances. Her first novel, Ways to Live Forever, won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and inspired a feature film. Her books have been short-listed for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, the Costa Children’s Book Award, and the Carnegie Medal, and have been translated into more than twenty languages. She lives in Oxford, England.

Praise For…

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Via letters rendered using a chatty, confiding tone, Nicholls (The Silent Stars Go By) presents a captivating epistolary novel set in 1896 that chronicles the friendship of teens Tirzah, Sophia, and Polly after they leave boarding school and embark on separate lives. . . . With great affection and sympathy, these winning heroines forge their own paths in this highly readable, tautly paced work.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

The voices of the three girls and their other correspondents are spot-on. The form of the novel feels contemporary (with letters like video-chats and telegrams as texts), while remaining true to the ­historical period. . . . A delightful, addictive epistolary tale of female friendship and romance.
—School Library Journal (starred review)

An epistolary novel unfolding through letters, primarily round-robin correspondence between three young women in late-19th-century Britain. . . . This clever novel’s strength lies in its structure: The format effectively supports the drama, character development, voice, and pacing. . . A warm, gentle work with well-drawn characters and brisk pacing celebrating female friendship and independence.
—Kirkus Reviews

In 1896, Sophia, Tirzah, and Polly graduated from their British boarding school and went their separate ways in a society that has offered them few options. . . Nicholls tells their intertwined stories as they share their experiences and respond to each other’s thoughts and questions. . . Romance plays an increasingly large part in their lives and letters as time passes. With eye-catching jacket art, this engaging novel will appeal to readers intrigued by the late Victorian era.
—Booklist

If Jane Austen were alive today, this is just the kind of book she might have written.
—We Are Teachers