Review: Tidelands

Tidelands by Philippa Gregory
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am a fan of Philippa Gregory's books and enjoyed this first of a new series. This is the completely fictional tale of Alinor Reekie, a young mother of two older children who has been abandoned by her husband in seventeenth-century England. Living in the small community of Sealsea Island, Alinor longs for the day that she can afford a fishing boat to be able to better provide for her family and build a dowery for her daughter. Her income as a midwife and healer barely makes a living and offers fodder for the townspeople who often gossip about the possibility that Alinor is a witch.

One evening while out for a walk, Alinor encounters the mysterious James Summer, a priest and spy for the crown of Charles I who has been jailed for treason during the English Civil War. Alinor helps James to get to a local lord, who secretly sides with the captive king. This begins a tawdry relationship between Alinor and James and leads to a major plot complication in the story of their lives. Besides being abandoned by her husband, whom she is still married to until he either shows up or is found dead, Alinor is about to become an empty nester as her son prepares to leave for an apprenticeship and her daughter has designs on marrying a local millworker. Despite all that Alinor has to endure, her character is portrayed as a strong and independent woman in a time when women are bound to husband and home.

This series will be a bit of a departure from most of the books Gregory has written. It's definitely a fictional tale less rooted in specific historical events with the exception of Charles I. What she does explore is the history of the "average, unremarkable woman" in mid-seventeenth century Europe. Her inspiration behind this new series stems from the many stories that are evolving from the average person's search into family history. Consider the many women who are unknown in records, diaries, family histories because there is no documentation on them. Gregory has researched local histories to extrapolate the stories of these everyday women and to give them a voice. She plans to build stories for a line of women through the centuries that will likely take the reader to many places throughout the world. I'm certainly looking forward to what is in store for the Reekie women and their descendants.

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