A Matter of Class, #1 and #2!

A Class Apart

It’s 1828, and Ireland is in turmoil as Irish tenants protest against their upper-class English landlords.

Nineteen-year-old Bridget Muldowney is thrilled to return to the estate in Carlow she’ll inherit when she comes of age. But since she left for Dublin seven years earlier, the tomboy has become a refined young lady, engaged to be married to a dashing English gentleman.

Cormac McGovern, now a stable hand on the estate, has missed his childhood friend. He and Bridget had once been thick as thieves, running wild around the countryside together.

When Bridget and Cormac meet again their friendship begins to rekindle, but it’s different now that they are adults. Bridget’s overbearing mother, determined to enforce the employer-servant boundaries, conspires with Bridget’s fiancé to keep the pair apart.

With the odds stacked against them, can Bridget and Cormac’s childhood attachment blossom into something more?

A Class Entwined

Trapped in a loveless marriage far from home, Bridget does what she can to fill her lonely days. She throws herself into charitable work, but her cherished daughter, Emily, is her only true source of happiness.

Meanwhile, Cormac’s own life unravels and he finds himself doing unspeakable things just to survive.

Neither of them dream they will ever meet again, but fate brings them back together in the most unexpected of ways.

Can Bridget rediscover her love for the man Cormac has become? And how will Cormac react when he learns Bridget’s secret?

My Review: Y’all. I received these books about a month ago. I finished them in record time and since then have been dying to tell you about them. Now, if you have been following my blog for any amount of time, you know that I am not a fan of feelings. Like, literally allergic to the darn things. If a novel is going to make me like, feel things, then I tend to scan through the book to get the main plot points and to see that things come to a tidy resolution, then I declare the book done. #justbeinghonest

Now, when I got about a quarter of the way into A Class Apart, I recognized that my emotions were getting involved. After an encounter between Bridget and Cormac, I set the book down and walked away.

Which lasted for about 2.3 minutes.

I realized that I was already hopelessly invested into the lives of these two characters…as well as the lives of Cormac’s family…and that scanning this novel was not an option. So I picked it up, settled in and devoured every. last. page.

Then grabbed up A Class Entwined and completely devoured it.

Bridget is amazing. She has a privileged upbringing and an absolutely awful mother. I expected her to be a bit of a diva, but on the contrary, she pushed back a bit against societal norms. She didn’t openly rebel; but her dreams, her future plans and her unending strength were her very own. Cormac? I fell in love with Cormac before I got halfway through A Class Apart. (Sorry, Husband.)

Y’all. To see what Bridget and Cormac go through, both together and apart, is heart-wrenching and wonderful. The obstacles they go through as individuals; the hardship that is life, the raw wonder that is being human, the power that is being in love…it is all present in these two novels. From the fast pace of the plot, to the incredible way the author sets a scene, to the inevitable investing into the lives of the characters, you will be hard-pressed to find a better read or a more gifted author. I need more! (And so will you.)

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