The slums of Poor House Lane are no place to bring up a child, and Kate O'Connor struggles to make ends meet when her beloved husband is killed, leaving her a single mother with a baby to support on the meagre hand-outs she gleans from charity. So when the childless Tysons , owners of Kendal's shoe factory, offer to adopt her son, Callum , and employ Kate as his nanny, she seizes the chance to ensure he has a better life. To be so close to her son, yet no longer be his mother, is bittersweet. But Kate is not prepared for the jealousy the new arrangement provokes in Eliot Tyson's brother, Charles , who sees Callum as a direct threat to his inheritance… The first heart-rending instalment of The Poor House Lane Sagas are perfect for fans of Rosie Goodwin and Dilly Court
Born in Lancashire, I've been a teacher, bookseller and in a mad moment, a smallholder on the freezing fells of the Lake District where I tried my hand at the ‘good life’, kept sheep and hens, various orphaned cats and dogs, built drystone walls, planted a small wood and even learned how to make jam. I now spend the winter in Spain and summer in the UK. I have now published 48 books including many bestselling family sagas and historical novels. For more information, visit my website www.fredalightfoot.co.uk.
If you are a fan of Downton Abby, you'll find a lot to love about this book. Lots of period drama with a dash of romance. The characters are well written, the story flows beautifully, lovely writing style... I just really enjoyed this book. Nothing life altering, but gosh, a lot of fun
Not my normal kind of book and I found it very "by numbers" and predictable. I did want to find out what happened though but there wasn't a conclusion in this book. I'm afraid I don't care enough to get the sequel.
I found this a difficult book to enjoy and found myself skipping past many paragraphs, hoping to find something a bit more believable. I looked at the reviews of the next two books in the series and decided to give them a miss even though I wanted out of curiosity to see out the story of Kate and her children turned out. No Freda's best work!
One of my favourite authors has always been Catherine Cookson. Freda's writing is very similar. I have collected all of Catherine's books and I liked The Girl from Poor House Lane so much that I intend to read all of Freda's as well. Beautifully written with a touch of suspense. Loved it.
This is a hard one to rate as although I enjoyed the story the abrupt ending and unanswered questions has brought down the rating from 4 to 3. To get answers you have to carry on with the series.