A Mad, Wicked Folly by Sharon Biggs Waller
I loved this book! If you’re looking for a good YA novel (this one is historical fiction) you need to look no further. Set in London in the Edwardian era (1909), this book centers around the class system in England at that time. Victoria Darling has just come of age (all of 17 years) and is keen to become the artist she was meant to be. Off she goes to France to study art but when she poses nude her uptight family brings her home straightaway and demands that she give up this nonsense. Unwilling to give up her dreams, Vickie surreptitiously slips out of the house to pursue her craft. It’s there she comes face to face with women struggling for the vote and this coddled protagonist begins to realize the strict parameters of her life. Everything depends upon the men in her life who control everything she does. She meets and falls in love with Will, a policeman and therefore lower class, but decides that she has to accept an arranged marriage instead because this man has assured her that she can attend the Royal College of Art if she gets in. Without telling anyone, Vickie applies and gets in which is saying something given she is a woman. So what happens? Will she follow her heart or be somewhat heartless and marry for money? You’ll have to read to find out but you’ll enjoy every minute of the reading, I promise you.
This book is brilliantly done in audio, by the way. You just can’t stop listening even though you have to get out of the car! The story is great and the narrator is superb. Check this book and/or audio out and enjoy the read!
saggingbookshelves 