Discover the inspiration behind The Ladies of Carson Street Trilogy by Rachel Brimble #Victorian #HistoricalRomance @RachelBrimble

 

A Widow's Vow

(The Ladies of Carson Street Book 1) 

By Rachel Brimble

Publication Date: 10th September 2020

Publisher: Aria Fiction

Page Length: 352 Pages

Genre: Historical Romance

From grieving widow...

1851. After her merchant husband saved her from a life of prostitution, Louisa Hill was briefly happy as a housewife in Bristol. But then a constable arrives at her door. Her husband has been found hanged in a Bath hotel room, a note and a key to a property in Bath the only things she has left of him. And now the debt collectors will come calling.

To a new life as a madam.

Forced to leave everything she knows behind, Louisa finds more painful betrayals waiting for her in the house in Bath. Left with no means of income, Louisa knows she has nothing to turn to but her old way of life. But this time, she'll do it on her own terms – by turning her home into a brothel for upper class gentleman. And she's determined to spare the girls she saves from the street the horrors she endured in the past.

Enlisting the help of Jacob Jackson, a quiet but feared boxer, to watch over the house, Louisa is about to embark on a life she never envisaged. Can she find the courage to forge this new path? 

The Ladies of Carson Street Trilogy

By Rachel Brimble

I was inspired to write my latest Victorian trilogy after reading the brilliant The Five by Hallie Rubenhold, an account and discussion about the five women killed by Jack the Ripper in 1888. As I write historical romance, my series was not in any way inspired by the violence of the killings, but rather the questions and sympathy The Five evoked in me for the poor women accosted by this unidentified murderer. 

Although my series revolves around three prostitutes, Hallie presents sound evidence that not all of the Ripper’s victims were prostitutes. Yet, the seed of my imagination and curiosity was roused by how very different these women were, how different their backgrounds and how different the circumstances they found themselves living in Whitechapel.

And so, it these differences that inspired my three heroines, Louisa, Nancy and Octavia. Three women who come together to live and work in a house on Carson Street, Bath in 1851. Each book is given over to one of the women as its star, but all three features through the stories.

Book 1, A Widow’s Vow, is Louisa’s story and this book introduces the women, the house and how the three of them meet and come to work together. Ultimately, the trilogy is about female empowerment and survival. Louisa is a strong and resilient, but when her husband is found dead in a Bath hotel, she is forced to leave the city of Bristol for Bath. Once there, she realises she has little choice but to resurrect her life as a prostitute. However, this time it will be on her own terms…

Book 2, Trouble For The Leading Lady, is Nancy’s
story.

In many ways, Nancy is the antithesis of Louisa. She is impulsive, fun-loving and somewhat more willing to trust others. Yet, if you consider Nancy’s life experience, her tenacity and tendency to look to the future, these two best friends are not as different as they like to think. Nancy has dreams of being onstage but, having been duped before, she cannot afford to believe in the interest shown to her by theatre manager Francis Carlyle. But all too soon, Nancy is drawn into a deeper, more important issue than treading the boards of Bath’s Theatre Royal…

And finally, the concluding book. A Very Modern Marriage (out Feb 2022) belongs to Octavia, the most serious and pessimistic of the three women. I don’t want to give away the reason why, but circumstances in the first two books mean that Octavia is ready to leave Bath (I promise all books can be read stand-alone!), but she is worrying how and when she will be able to do this without feeling she is betraying Louisa and Nancy.

Then she strikes up a mutual deal with a cull who comes to Carson Street – could it be that William Rose, a Manchester cotton mill owner is her ticket to freedom from a life she is so very desperate to flee?

I loved writing about the darker side of Victorian Britain and the streets that were so much more unforgiving that the Assembly Rooms and dining rooms so often featured in historical romantic fiction. More than that, I loved giving Louisa, Nancy and Octavia the happy ever after they deserve. Especially when all three of them have gone through life helping others, doing the best they can, and still believing there are good, trustworthy people in the world.

A Widow’s Vow and Trouble For The Leading Lady are out now and A Very Modern Marriage is available for preorder. 

Here are the Amazon links:

A Widow’s Vow -  Amazon 

Trouble For The Leading Lady - Amazon 

A Very Modern Marriage - Amazon 

Rachel Brimble lives in a small town near Bath, England. She is the author of over 25 published novels including the Ladies of Carson Street trilogy, the Shop Girl series (Aria Fiction) and the Templeton Cove Stories (Harlequin).

Rachel is a member of the Romantic Novelists Association as well as the Historical Novel Society and has thousands of social media followers all over the world. 

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