The Hatmaker's Heart

The Hatmaker's Heart is set in fashionable New York and London, and it's obvious a huge amount of research has gone into writing the book, as I got a real feel for the time and place. I'm often a picky reader when it comes to historical fiction, as so many authors fall down with the research, but I couldn't find any faults (there may well be some, but none stood out). I was especially impressed by the richness of the language, specifically the descriptions of the hats Nell creates, and the Twenties slang used by the characters. It really gave me an insight into the culture of the time. \\r\\n \\r\\nI was equally impressed by the characterisation, especially of Nell and her boss, Oscar Fields. Nell was very timid at the beginning, but as the novel progressed, she gradually developed some backbone. Mr Fields was a controlling boss (I suspect he knows Nell is a better person than him, so the only way for him to feel like a """"man"""" was to threaten and belittle her). This gave the novel a dark undercurrent, and meant we were rooting for Nell to stand up to Mr Fields. \\r\\n \\r\\n\\r\\nThanks to Faithwords, Litfuse Publicity and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.