The Miller's Daughter: Will she be forever destined to the workhouse?

by Elizabeth Gill

When Mary's father, the miller, leaves his family and runs away with another woman, Mary and her siblings are left to weather the storm. But when their mother dies soon after, the children, alone and unwanted, are sent to the Foundling School for Girls to start a new life.

When the miller learns of his wife's death and what has happened to his children, he tracks them down and brings them to be a part of his new family, safe at last. But the miller is desperate for a son, and when Mary's newest sibling turns out to be a girl, he begins to court a vulnerable and lonely young woman called Isabel.

After Isabel gives birth to a boy, the miller believes that the son he has been waiting for is finally here. But when rumours abound that the miller may not be the father of Isabel's child, he begins to lose control. The miller will stop at nothing to keep his son.

Will Isabel escape with her child, or will the miller's wrath destroy everyone in his life, including his daughter...?

336 pages, Paperback

Published August 19, 2021

About the author

https://www.facebook.com/Elizabeth-Gi...

http://elizabethgill.blogspot.com/

Elizabeth, formerly a journalist and house journal editor, has a daughter Katy and lives in Durham City. She began writing at four and had a poem published at twelve and a short story accepted at age twenty. Her first book was published when she was thirty and subsequently has had a total of 40 novels published.

Reviews

[Carol Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

An unusual Writer..

3.5.
Not sure if I liked the style of writing but certainly not sickly sweet like most of these light and lovelies. What I am sure of is.. I’m sick of Authors who fill their books with the repetitious thoughts and actions of various characters simply to bulk out a thin story. This shouldn’t have been a thin story.. the ideas were quite clever but simply not built upon.
Nuns acting as Doctors with little or no training but mostly succeeding against all odds..
“Well blow me down and call me Shorty”

[Ann Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Matthew is a miller. His wife had several children but had not managed to produce a much wanted son. Matthew leaves his wife, who then becomes desperate, almost penniless with several children, she runs away and only comes back home to die. The children, including lead character, Mary, are moved into an orphanage. Very soon their father comes to collect them, along with his new wife. Matthew is outraged when his second wife also fails to produce a son and he then befriends Isabel, a young female who is left orphaned and alone in the world. Matthew thinks Isabel has produced him that son he has always wanted, but is it Matthew`s child? Sounds like a rather sad read but it definitely isn`t always sad. There is a strong community spirit.

[underwaterreads · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book features many different perspectives (third person with character thoughts) that make it confusing at first, but worth it because of how well you get to know the charming, complex cast. It is unafraid to dig into thought processes that would have been controversial at the setting, and more so now. Many twists and turns throughout, that seem logical within the story.

The descriptions and dialogue can awaken an imagination. A book that feels like a soap opera, and a good one at that.

There is also a character who may be read as on the aromantic-spectrum (though she doesn't use the term.) Perhaps the most relatable I've ever seen.

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started this but couldn’t get into the story the story started slow with the orphanage and the nuns who run the place being a group together with the help
Of the main nun / matron type leadership who was gentle on certain other nuns ‘ didn’t get any further. As it tended to repeatedly stay on this story line for a few to many pages .