In this reworking of the Oliver Twist story, Oliver is a girl, disguised as a boy when the nurse who took her in on her mother's death, realized that she would never survive in life at the bottom of society if raised as a girl. When a caper with the Artful Dodger goes badly wrong, leading to her discovery by her mother's uncle. From this point on, she is raised as a young lady of gentile birth--but as she reaches eighteen, her uncle's circumstances mean that she will have to marry someone who can not only provide for her, but keep her ailing uncle safe and comfortable in what may be only his last few months.
In the midst of this worry, she meets a young man, Jack McCarron, who seems strangely familiar. Jack is in fact her old fellow gang member, the Artful Dodger.
Jack got "adopted" by a society lady who taught him to be a gentleman, so that Jack can help her burglarize the homes of her society friends to maintain her lifestyle and leave her grandson a healthy inheritance.
And then Jack and Olivia each discover the other is supporting and protecting their own crew of street orphans.
That's not the half of what they learn, including that Olivia has a half-brother who thinks their father, who died apparently broke in an insane asylum, left a large inheritance to her rather than him. He's determined to claim it.
There are capers, social tension, romantic tension, and great characters.
Recommended.
I borrowed this audiobook from my local library.
No comments:
Post a Comment