Hi Everyone,

Happy middle of the week/hump day/Wednesday. I’m having a relatively good week. Not had a lot going on but have done some nice home activities with my 8 year old step daughter as she’s not in school. Then had a “lovely” time in the gym today with my 14 year old step son. I had intended on a lot more reading today, but I’ve been quite distracted.

Book 📖

Thank you to @simonschusteruk and @franquinn21 for this copy of That Bonesetter Woman in return for an honest review. That Bonesetter Woman was published on 21st July 2022 and you can get a copy here.

Description 🔖

Endurance Proudfoot has found that she doesn’t have many talents. She’s not pretty and graceful like her sister Lucinda but she has determination and she’s strong. By chance, she discovers that she does have a gift and it’s following in the footsteps of her father and his father before him. She’s a fantastic bonesetter.

Bonesetting however is not a job for a woman. It requires strength, a hard stomach and discretion; all of which Durie has, but will the rest of society be able to see past the fact that she’s a woman and will she be able to forge herself a career as the first female bonesetter?

General Thoughts 🤔

I didn’t fully know what to expect from this book as I didn’t do an awful amount of research into it, however what I ended up getting was such a lovely story that was heart warming and heart breaking all at the same time.

I don’t know why I don’t read more historical fiction, because every time I do, I enjoy it. This book transported me back into 1700’s England and it felt very real to me. The way the characters carried and conducted themselves and the descriptions of the settings were fantastic and brought the whole story to life.

Characters 👫👭👬

I think I fell a little bit in love with Durie. She was clumsy and definitely not socially “polite” but she was a gentle woman with such a good heart. I liked that she found her thing and put her whole being behind making it work for herself, no matter what stood in her way. I felt incredibly sad imagining how hurtful it must have been for her having to face the backlash and abuse that she did just for helping people.

I started off not liking Aunt Ellen very much. I thought that she was hard faced and strict and was going to rinse every bit of labour out of Durie and Lucinda that she could. However as the story progressed, she slowly grew on me and I realised that ultimately, she wanted the best for both girls and probably would have done anything to help them succeed.

Writing Style ✍️

I haven’t read Frances Quinn’s first book but I will definitely be adding it to my TBR as I really enjoyed her style of writing. She created characters that felt like friends that as a reader I could empathise with, love and also disapprove of. As mentioned previously, I really liked how this author was able to make the time and the place come to life and transport me way back in time without overdoing descriptions and context setting. I especially liked the short chapters in this book; this always makes me turn the pages faster.

Conclusion & Scoring 🎖

This was a relatively easy going read, but it did tug on the heart strings. If you like stories with a main character that you can get behind, root for and want to pick up every time they’re knocked down; then you will enjoy this book. I’m looking forward to reading this author’s first book and also seeing what she comes out with next.

😍😍😍😍😩