Status Updates From A Woman of Iron

thought this book ticked all of my boxes but it turns out it's set in bloody BIRMINGHAM ew (jk)

(fr though every Brit is proud of where they grew up - including me, from the coal pit villages with nothing to distinguish us - except the Brummies i have met, who have invariably said that Birmingham sucks)

I think I'm finally, finally in the mood for romance again, especially bodice-rippers. I have also been reliably informed there is an INSANE* scene in here that I'm very excited to get to...

*like, just absolutely unhinged levels of bodice-ripper shenanigans

''You're thinner than ever,'' Jabey said, his jaw obstinate. ''The bitch drives you hard.'' ''She believes in the Bible,'' Hannah said drily. Jabey stared. ''The sins of the fathers are to be visited on the children,'' Hannah told him with a little smile. He gave a muffled grunt of laughter. Their eyes met and her eyes glinted vividly, turning bright green, giving her face a beauty she herself had never seen.

They had known each other all their lives... A few years older, he had been her protector against occasional spite from other children. In torn shirt and ragged breeches, his body showed through the rents in his clothes, his skin grimed with dust and dirt which would in time become imprinted as it had with the older men. The skin of old ironworkers had a rusty tinge from years of working in dirt.

She had overheard the ironmaster a week ago. ''He's clever, shrewd and knows the trade backwards. I want to keep him if I can. He gets more work out of the men than old Lynn did. He's worth twice what I pay him, and he works with a will."
One day, Hannah thought grimly, Henry Shield will learn a lesson from Joss Colby that he will never forget. He is a cuckoo in the nest. He will devour everything.

He glanced up as if commanding the sky to obey and his eye met her own.
He walks as if he owned the earth, she thought angrily. How could Henry Shield be so blind?

Her eye was suddenly caught and held by a man who walked alone, his shoulders back, his black head held erect, as if he studied the slowly lightening sky. He strode out, his powerful muscled body passing slower men without effort. They ducked their heads as he passed, mumbling a greeting deferentially.

In winter, the pitch dark canopy lay everywhere upon the ironworks; the birds slept on their perches in the surrounding trees and only woke when the dawn shift arrived and broke the midnight spell with orange flares of fire and tramping feet.

In summer the dark sky would be curdling slowly with threads of milky white., and the first uncertain chorus of the birds would begin the clearing light, their voices tremulous, as though every morning began for them with the fear that the sun would never rise.

I'm really enjoying this book! A lot of details were missing from that janky scan on archive.org.

I was trying to read this book online. I think it was scanned into the archive.org site? It just wasn't working, but I was very interested in finishing. I ordered a paperback that was shipped from the UK! I restarted from the beginning and am glad I did. I plan to read more of this author's work.