The Mistress of Pennington's by Rachel Brimble
Published: 1st July 2018
Publisher: Aria
Available on Kindle
Blurb
1910 – A compelling tale of female empowerment in Bath's leading
department store. Perfect for the fans of the TV series Mr Selfridge and The
Paradise.Elizabeth Pennington should be the rightful heir of Bath’s premier department store through her enterprising schemes and dogged hard work. Her father, Edward Pennington believes his daughter lacks the business acumen to run his empire and is resolute a man will succeed him.
Determined to break from her father’s iron-clad hold and prove she is worthy of inheriting the store, Elizabeth’s forms an unlikely alliance with ambitious and charismatic master glove-maker Joseph Carter. United they forge forward to bring Pennington’s into a new decade, embracing woman’s equality and progression whilst trying not to mix business and pleasure.
Can this dream team thwart Edward Pennington’s plans for the store? Or will Edward prove himself an unshakeable force who will ultimately ruin both Elizabeth and Joseph?
Guest Post
Welcome To Pennington’s Department Store…
I cannot tell you how excited I am for the release of
the first book in my brand-new Edwardian series!
Set in Bath’s finest department store, The Mistress of Pennington’s introduces
Elizabeth Pennington and Joseph Carter. When I started planning this book, it
soon became clear that I wanted the book to be about female empowerment in an
age when huge change was happening for women…albeit at a very slow pace. I’ve
loved the Edwardian era for its changing times, clothes, hats, political
changes and upper-class travel for as long as I can remember but had never
considered setting a book or books in the period before.
That all changed when The Paradise burst onto our
screens in 2012, closely followed by its rival, Mr Selfridge, in 2013. I was
obsessed with both programmes, but they also frustrated me. I wanted the female
characters more deeply explored. I wanted the female issues of the day to be
given position centre-stage and I wanted to know more about the characters
personal lives than we were party to on screen.
Soon after the shows ended, I started to add Edwardian
research books and articles to my bulging bookcases and online research files.
I became fixated with women’s issues of the age and all too soon Elizabeth
Pennington came to me, fighting to be heard.
Taking a risk, I decided to set my books (I knew I
would be writing a series) in a department store, but that store would be in
Bath rather than London. The reason I chose Bath is because I know the famous
city well since I live less than a thirty-minute drive away. I was confident in
my ability to bring Bath alive on the page as I explored and revealed more
about female empowerment during this changing time.
The
Mistress of Pennington’s opens with an introduction to Bath’s
premier store, its owner Edward Pennington, his frustrated daughter, Elizabeth
and many other Pennington staff. The theme of this book is women in business.
Book 2 is about the suffrage bill and I am thrilled to announce that The Suffragette
at Pennington’s will release January 2019.
When Aria contracted me for four books in the series,
I already knew the subjects I wanted to cover for books 1-3. Respectively, I’ll
explore women in business, the suffrage bill and divorce, as well as keeping the
many secondary and ongoing story lines alive as the series continues. Right
now, I am editing book 2 and writing book 3, and ideas for book 4 are already
circulating in my imagination as a file of computer notes grows ever larger.
Women began a successful step forward in the Edwardian
era and I think the time is right to bring characters, just like the
incredible, real-life women who fought for change, to the forefront of fiction.
Not only did some women succeed in founding and extending businesses, they also
stood up for women’s rights, gained changes to our laws, travelled the world
independently, survived some terrible tragedies and lived the tell their tales.
My journey of penning Edwardian stories of love,
survival and success has only just begun. I’ve no idea if four books will be
the total of this series, but I do know it will be a long while before new
novel ideas for the period runs out. So, I give you The Mistress of Pennington’s, hope you enjoy it and join me in
looking forward to the remaining books in the Pennington’s Department Store
series and beyond.
Happy Reading!
Rachel x
Rachel
Brimble lives in Wiltshire with her husband of twenty years, two teenage
daughters and her beloved chocolate Labrador, Tyler. Multi-published in the US,
she is thrilled to have a new beginning writing for Aria in the UK.
When Rachel isn’t writing, she enjoys reading across the genres, knitting and walking the English countryside with her family…often stopping off at a country pub for lunch and a chilled glass of Sauvignon Blanc.
When Rachel isn’t writing, she enjoys reading across the genres, knitting and walking the English countryside with her family…often stopping off at a country pub for lunch and a chilled glass of Sauvignon Blanc.
Follow Rachel
Website: http://www.rachelbrimble.com/
Twitter: @RachelBrimble
Facebook:
@rachelbrimbleauthor
Buy now links:
Amazon: mybook.to/MistressofPenningtons
Kobo: https://bit.ly/2MqoAra
iBooks: https://apple.co/2JPfnKz
Google play: http://bit.ly/2LLV2Dl
Follow Aria
Website: www.ariafiction.com
Twitter: @aria_fiction
Facebook: @ariafiction
Instagram: @ariafiction
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