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The Street Orphans
The Street Orphans is an emotional story set in 1850s Lancashire, from Mary Wood, the author of In Their Mother’s Footsteps and Brighter Days Ahead.
Born with a club foot in a remote village in the Pennines, Ruth is feared and ridiculed by her superstitious neighbours who see her affliction as a sign of witchcraft. When her father is killed in an accident and her family evicted from their cottage, she hopes to leave her old life behind, to start afresh in the Blackburn cotton mills. But tragedy strikes once again, setting in motion a chain of events that will unravel her family’s lives.
Their fate is in the hands of the Earl of Harrogate, and his betrothed, Lady Katrina. But more sinister is the scheming Marcia, Lady Katrina’s jealous sister. Impossible dreams beset Ruth from the moment she meets the Earl. Dreams that lead her to hope that he will save her from the terrible fate that awaits those accused of witchcraft. Dreams that one day her destiny and the Earl’s will be entwined.
- GenresHistorical Fiction
465 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 17, 2018
37 people are currently reading
64 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
May 28, 2018
Now I know of the name, have seen a few books but have never read a book by this author. Looking through her books there is definitely a theme of historical based family sagas and social history. The Street Orphans is one that falls into these categories.
The story is of Ruth, a young woman with a club foot in 1850’s Lancashire. Her disability gives cause for concern for people as she is seen as “different” and therefore cannot be trusted and quite possibly a witch. A time where superstition and stigma are attached just as quick as mud to a shoe.
I loved this book and for so many reasons. I like to be taken into a the social aspects of a story and the contrasts between the various classes is wonderful. She explains within the story how stereotypes and stigmas cause mistrust and twists perceptions. This is very evident with another character, Katerina. Her parents have a mixed background marriage and the expectations of wealthy and titled as well as untitled people have their own set of problems. Arranged marriages for financial security, business deals, social status are among some of the challenges that are set out.
I really liked the way the author has used the local dialect for some of her characters. For me this worked really well and showed an emphasis on the differences between the locals and some other characters.
As with many things then as is now, power is an all-encompassing beast. The more you have, the more you can lose. The more you have, the more you want. This is played out really well within one of the plots of the story. Even though we follow the story of Ruth there are other stories that cross and intertwine with hers.
The story takes you into a world that is tragic, heartbreaking, cruel and nasty but it is gently balanced with a heartwarming and hopeful thread. I went through quite a few emotions with this story from shock and horror at some of the treatment and opinions, heartbreaking moments as things for the characters changed and the consequences that followed.
As I mentioned earlier, this is my first experience with this author and if this book is anything to go by i will be reading more. I would have quite happily sat and read tis book in a day if I had started it earlier, as it was I read it over two evenings. It was a story that caught me right from its shocking start and kept my attention throughout.
It is an amazing story with some wonderful characters and fantastic dialogue and setting descriptions. The plot took me through the highs, lows and some of the characters I loved some I loathed as I was transported back to the Victorian era of Lancashire. This author knows how to write a good story and I would highly recommend this book for readers of historical fiction, historical romance, social history,
The story is of Ruth, a young woman with a club foot in 1850’s Lancashire. Her disability gives cause for concern for people as she is seen as “different” and therefore cannot be trusted and quite possibly a witch. A time where superstition and stigma are attached just as quick as mud to a shoe.
I loved this book and for so many reasons. I like to be taken into a the social aspects of a story and the contrasts between the various classes is wonderful. She explains within the story how stereotypes and stigmas cause mistrust and twists perceptions. This is very evident with another character, Katerina. Her parents have a mixed background marriage and the expectations of wealthy and titled as well as untitled people have their own set of problems. Arranged marriages for financial security, business deals, social status are among some of the challenges that are set out.
I really liked the way the author has used the local dialect for some of her characters. For me this worked really well and showed an emphasis on the differences between the locals and some other characters.
As with many things then as is now, power is an all-encompassing beast. The more you have, the more you can lose. The more you have, the more you want. This is played out really well within one of the plots of the story. Even though we follow the story of Ruth there are other stories that cross and intertwine with hers.
The story takes you into a world that is tragic, heartbreaking, cruel and nasty but it is gently balanced with a heartwarming and hopeful thread. I went through quite a few emotions with this story from shock and horror at some of the treatment and opinions, heartbreaking moments as things for the characters changed and the consequences that followed.
As I mentioned earlier, this is my first experience with this author and if this book is anything to go by i will be reading more. I would have quite happily sat and read tis book in a day if I had started it earlier, as it was I read it over two evenings. It was a story that caught me right from its shocking start and kept my attention throughout.
It is an amazing story with some wonderful characters and fantastic dialogue and setting descriptions. The plot took me through the highs, lows and some of the characters I loved some I loathed as I was transported back to the Victorian era of Lancashire. This author knows how to write a good story and I would highly recommend this book for readers of historical fiction, historical romance, social history,
May 19, 2018
Street orphans
Ruth ,Amy ,george,seth, Elsie .A loving family pulled apart by tragedy this book has it all a family with a lot of heartache . I can thoroughly recommend this Mary Wood at her best 5 STARS wish I could give more .
Ruth ,Amy ,george,seth, Elsie .A loving family pulled apart by tragedy this book has it all a family with a lot of heartache . I can thoroughly recommend this Mary Wood at her best 5 STARS wish I could give more .
July 29, 2018
lovely story.............. again another great book from Mary Wood, she never writes a bad book. really enjoyed this one.
May 22, 2018
YOUR EMOTIONS WILL RUN WILD READING THIS BOOK this starts the year 1850. Ruth Dovecote story. after her father's death, ruth and her ma and family are turned out of their home, and head for Blackburn to her ma's cousins hoping to get set on to work in the cotton mill, then tragedy hits the whole family. my two favourite characters are ruth and katrina. mary wood's books never fail to bring tears to my eyes, and to me that's a good thing for an author, its show's readers are emotionally involved reading. a lot of loving research has gone into this book that is all spot on. i found the whole book as one of her best yet.
June 8, 2018
Wonderful Story
I hate when i finish one of Marys books. As i am always left wanting more. It was lovely to follow Ruth and Amy’s journey. You feel you know them and keep hoping for the best for them! Life back then must of been awful in real life. This makes the story so real xxx
I hate when i finish one of Marys books. As i am always left wanting more. It was lovely to follow Ruth and Amy’s journey. You feel you know them and keep hoping for the best for them! Life back then must of been awful in real life. This makes the story so real xxx
May 30, 2018
A very heart wrenching story of true love between upper and lower classes.
When Ruth meets a toff in bad circumstances they fall for each other it takes ten very fraught years of the suffering before they are finally happy. Ruth suffered terribly ridicule all because she was born with a club foot.
A lovely story and a book you cannot put down. Recommended.
When Ruth meets a toff in bad circumstances they fall for each other it takes ten very fraught years of the suffering before they are finally happy. Ruth suffered terribly ridicule all because she was born with a club foot.
A lovely story and a book you cannot put down. Recommended.
May 17, 2018
This is only my second Mary Wood book but she's fast becoming one of those authors whose books I would pick up without question. I read and reviewed Brighter Days Ahead at the end of last year and I loved it but I have to say that The Street Orphans is even better. And that's something coming from somebody who generally sticks to books set in the 20th and 21st century, not the 19th like this one.
Ruth Dovecote was born with a club foot, something that in the mid 1800s marked her out as not only a cripple but somebody to be viewed with suspicion, maybe even considered a witch. We meet Ruth and her family as they are travelling over the Bowland Hills after being turned out of their home after the death of her father. This tragic event is only the start of what turns into a nightmare and there follows another tragic event which leads her into the path of the Earl of Harrogate.
Ruth is a wonderful character. I winced sometimes at her fate but throughout it all she's strong and inspirational, especially to her younger brothers and sisters. What she goes through in the course of the book is more than most people could endure, but endure it with little complaint is what she does.
The Earl of Harrogate is a prominent character too and his life provides a complete contrast to that of Ruth. He has money and luxury, the kind of which Ruth can only dream of. I liked him a lot though - to find a 'toff' with integrity in the midst of those who swan around doing as they pleased was extremely refreshing.
This truly is a book with endless twists and turns. Just when I thought I knew what was going to happen, something changed and I had to re-think. The author talks about her research at the end of the book and the detail really came through in the writing, in the landscape, the settings, the treatment of the poor and the misbehaviour of the rich.
Mary Wood has such warmth in her writing. Her characterisations are just wonderful and her storytelling is sublime. In the world of sagas I think she is top of her game. In The Street Orphans she has weaved a story that drew me in completely, had me thinking about it when I wasn't reading it and made me want to pick it up in every spare moment. I cared so much about what was happening to all the characters, they were so well-formed, so real. It really is an absolutely superb read!
Ruth Dovecote was born with a club foot, something that in the mid 1800s marked her out as not only a cripple but somebody to be viewed with suspicion, maybe even considered a witch. We meet Ruth and her family as they are travelling over the Bowland Hills after being turned out of their home after the death of her father. This tragic event is only the start of what turns into a nightmare and there follows another tragic event which leads her into the path of the Earl of Harrogate.
Ruth is a wonderful character. I winced sometimes at her fate but throughout it all she's strong and inspirational, especially to her younger brothers and sisters. What she goes through in the course of the book is more than most people could endure, but endure it with little complaint is what she does.
The Earl of Harrogate is a prominent character too and his life provides a complete contrast to that of Ruth. He has money and luxury, the kind of which Ruth can only dream of. I liked him a lot though - to find a 'toff' with integrity in the midst of those who swan around doing as they pleased was extremely refreshing.
This truly is a book with endless twists and turns. Just when I thought I knew what was going to happen, something changed and I had to re-think. The author talks about her research at the end of the book and the detail really came through in the writing, in the landscape, the settings, the treatment of the poor and the misbehaviour of the rich.
Mary Wood has such warmth in her writing. Her characterisations are just wonderful and her storytelling is sublime. In the world of sagas I think she is top of her game. In The Street Orphans she has weaved a story that drew me in completely, had me thinking about it when I wasn't reading it and made me want to pick it up in every spare moment. I cared so much about what was happening to all the characters, they were so well-formed, so real. It really is an absolutely superb read!
November 12, 2018
Despite frequently seeing Mary's books on Facebook I hadn't read any so I was delighted to be given the opportunity to read this one and I couldn't wait to get stuck in.
Ruth Dovecote is the oldest of five siblings. Born with a club foot, she is widely feared and ridiculed within the small village community, so when her father is killed and her family is evicted, she is hopeful of a better life in a new area. Fate, however, has other ideas and on their way to the Blackburn cotton mills, the family is dealt another blow when they have a chance encounter with the Earl of Harrogate and it's one that could tear the family apart.
It's not just the poor that has their troubles though, the rich and aristocratic have problems of their own. They have their reputations to consider and when it comes to marriage it can be a potential minefield. Do they marry for love, position in society or wealth? These struggles are all too apparent for Katrina and her younger sister, Marica, who is jealous beyond belief of her older sibling.
I absolutely loved this book and I was sucked into the story right from the start. Following Ruth on her journey was at times heart-wrenching, whilst at others full of joy and hope and I'm not ashamed to admit that I did shed a few tears for her along the way. As much as I loved Ruth's character the manipulative Marcia, Katrina's sister had me seething. Only ever thinking of herself, she would go to any lengths to get what she wanted, regardless of the pain and suffering she caused others and I loathed her with a passion, desperate for her to get her comeuppance.
This is a book that is written with such passion I could imagine myself travelling across the Bowland Hills and the description of them was so vivid in my head. The research that Mary has done for this book is clearly evident and it adds to the realism of the book.
For me, The Street Orphans, is a master-class in the art of writing historical saga fiction and I can't wait to lose myself in many more of Mary's books in the future.
Ruth Dovecote is the oldest of five siblings. Born with a club foot, she is widely feared and ridiculed within the small village community, so when her father is killed and her family is evicted, she is hopeful of a better life in a new area. Fate, however, has other ideas and on their way to the Blackburn cotton mills, the family is dealt another blow when they have a chance encounter with the Earl of Harrogate and it's one that could tear the family apart.
It's not just the poor that has their troubles though, the rich and aristocratic have problems of their own. They have their reputations to consider and when it comes to marriage it can be a potential minefield. Do they marry for love, position in society or wealth? These struggles are all too apparent for Katrina and her younger sister, Marica, who is jealous beyond belief of her older sibling.
I absolutely loved this book and I was sucked into the story right from the start. Following Ruth on her journey was at times heart-wrenching, whilst at others full of joy and hope and I'm not ashamed to admit that I did shed a few tears for her along the way. As much as I loved Ruth's character the manipulative Marcia, Katrina's sister had me seething. Only ever thinking of herself, she would go to any lengths to get what she wanted, regardless of the pain and suffering she caused others and I loathed her with a passion, desperate for her to get her comeuppance.
This is a book that is written with such passion I could imagine myself travelling across the Bowland Hills and the description of them was so vivid in my head. The research that Mary has done for this book is clearly evident and it adds to the realism of the book.
For me, The Street Orphans, is a master-class in the art of writing historical saga fiction and I can't wait to lose myself in many more of Mary's books in the future.
June 4, 2018
The Street Orphans is the first book that I have read by Mary Wood. It is not my usual genre, but one I dip into when I need something different to read to crime fiction. I chose to read this because it takes place near to where I live and the storylines concerning the cotton mills and particularly witchcraft is what I grew up with.
It takes place in the 1850s, roughly 230 years after the Pendle Witch trials but superstition and fear will always be present in some parts of the world. I sometimes think that in the area surrounding Pendle there will still be areas now that have the same fears that the people who tormented Ruth had.
It was the storyline that concerned Ruth and her family that I liked the most. The fear of poverty and the workhouse, the stigma of having a club foot and family loss was never far away. There was similar in the storyline concerning Katrina and Frederick but it was much harder to have any sympathy for them. I did quite like both of them but their families and friends were very unpleasant.
Some in the novel were starting to help the poor and this was done convincingly. Blackburn and the surrounding areas would have been a hard place to live and work in the 1850s and it was nice to see some that were willing to help rather than let the poor suffer in the workhouse unnoticed.
It takes place in the 1850s, roughly 230 years after the Pendle Witch trials but superstition and fear will always be present in some parts of the world. I sometimes think that in the area surrounding Pendle there will still be areas now that have the same fears that the people who tormented Ruth had.
It was the storyline that concerned Ruth and her family that I liked the most. The fear of poverty and the workhouse, the stigma of having a club foot and family loss was never far away. There was similar in the storyline concerning Katrina and Frederick but it was much harder to have any sympathy for them. I did quite like both of them but their families and friends were very unpleasant.
Some in the novel were starting to help the poor and this was done convincingly. Blackburn and the surrounding areas would have been a hard place to live and work in the 1850s and it was nice to see some that were willing to help rather than let the poor suffer in the workhouse unnoticed.
May 25, 2018
Mary Wood has the ability to suck the reader in to a different time and place from the first page. She manages to show the gritty harshness of 1850s life in Lancashire; a place where for a young orphan with a club foot life is a constant battle for survival. There are many hardships in Mary's novels which make for uncomfortable reading at times, yet it is these shocking scenarios that keep you reading on in the hope that there will be happier times ahead. I really didn't want to put this book down even though I kept telling myself that nobody's life should be that difficult - sadly the grimly realistic picture painted by the author would have been all too true at the time. If you love sagas and history then you'll love this book.
November 30, 2018
Bad and boring got confused at the whole plot ! Didn’t get it
August 29, 2018
Enjoyable read
I enjoyed reading this book by this author and have read several others and as yet have never been disappointed , would recommend this book as a nice easy read .
I enjoyed reading this book by this author and have read several others and as yet have never been disappointed , would recommend this book as a nice easy read .
August 31, 2018
wow what a rollercoaster journey for poor Ruth and her family! As always a fantastic story from Mary Wood!
June 1, 2019
Fantastic,gritty.
Gave this novel 5stars,as always Mary's books are so thrilling and can't put them down for long,can't wait for the next one.
Gave this novel 5stars,as always Mary's books are so thrilling and can't put them down for long,can't wait for the next one.
June 23, 2020
Not a bad wartime read. Pretty accurate and very immersive. Not my cup of tea but a good read nonetheless.
February 20, 2021
very good story
February 26, 2023
Excellent book, enjoyed the story and the characters were so alive
June 19, 2023
Enchanting
From cover to cover I was looking forward to the next page and dissapointed when the book ended looking forward to the next set of books
From cover to cover I was looking forward to the next page and dissapointed when the book ended looking forward to the next set of books
Currently reading
January 11, 2024Listened on audible but have the book too
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews