This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Reviewed by Zoe Lea
Set in 1845, Hannah Gardner Price is a frustrated yet talented astronomer. Living her life according to the principles of the Nantucket Quaker community, Hannah is trapped in a society and time where her life’s ambition is expected to be nothing more than marriage and motherhood. But Hannah has very different ideas about what she wants to achieve with her life, she wants to discover a comet and win a gold medal from the King of Denmark – something unheard of for a woman.
She then meets Isaac Martin, a young whaler from Azores, who, like Hannah, envisages a different life for himself. Impressed by his ambitious nature, Hannah begins to teach Isaac astronomy and their relationship starts to evolve into something more than just teacher and student. Sharing their love of the night sky, Hannah begins to see Isaac in a new light and as their relationship grows deeper, so too does her confusion about her feelings and her overall conduct. Hannah begins to challenge everything she has been brought up to believe; she follows her passion and faces the consequences of her actions throughout the small community.
I liked this book; the writing is very captivating and almost spell-binding. The descriptive prose about this time and place is enchanting and I found myself really routing for Hannah and her goals. She is a strong female character, which I always enjoy reading and for me, the love story between her and Isaac was a wonderful pull on the plot as to how Hannah evolves as a woman. This is a story about following your passion in the face of adversity and I really felt for the characters and what they were going through in this period of history. At times I did feel it was a little slow in the pace, as I was eager for Hannah to reach her goals, but overall a great read.
6/10
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