About the Book

Book: Miss Blaire in Blackwell’s Island (Heiresses of Adventure Book One)

Author: Grace Hitchcock

Genre: Historical Romance True Crime

Release date: July 31, 2024

Will Edyth prove her sanity before it is too late?

On Blackwell’s Island, New York, a hospital was built to keep its patients from ever leaving.

With her late parents’ fortune under her uncle’s care until her twenty-fifth birthday in the year 1887, Edyth Blaire does not feel pressured to marry or to bow to society’s demands. She freely indulges in eccentric hobbies like fencing and riding her velocipede in her cycling costume about the city for all to see. Finding a loophole in the will, though, her uncle whisks Edyth off to the women’s lunatic asylum just weeks before her birthday. And Edyth fears she will never be found.

At the asylum she meets another inmate, who upon discovering Edyth’s plight, confesses that she is Nellie Bly, an undercover journalist for The World. Will either woman find a way to leave the terrifying island and reclaim her true self?

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My Thoughts:

This was a completely chilling and engrossing read of one woman's plight and descent into a mad house. Edyth Blaire is a young wealthy woman who has lost her parents. She is put into the care of her uncle, whom she believed loved her. Edyth was a bit of a tomboy and did not really fit into the norms of her generation. Her father encouraged her, but the rest of society looked down upon her.

So, what does Edyth do? Well, she continues to live her life as she wanted, and she shuns most of society. Sound like something we might all do, until it comes back to haunt her in a big way. Unfortunately, her uncle really just loves her fortune and finds a way to have Edyth sent to the asylum on Blackwell's Island.

The author really lets us into the historical details of what living at that asylum was like, the abuses, the tortures, and the gray chamber. It was a chilling read as the law was on her uncle's side and poor Edyth could not really help herself on the inside. It was also a really interesting compare and contrast of who to believe and who was really insane and who was not.

The author does give us a wonderful hero by the name of Bane who will stop at nothing to save his beloved. Edyth and Bane have been friends for a long time and their love naturally grew out of that friendship. Even though their romance is not the main story, their love grows in a lovely way and we as the reader, and Edyth need that before the horrors begin.

This book was previously published under the name the Gray Chamber that I read before. I had not realized that with the new name and even better cover, but it is still a chilling read full of historical details of a young woman’s fight to save herself.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher. I was not required to post a positive review, and all views and opinions are my own.

About the Author

Grace Hitchcock is the award-winning author of multiple historical novels and novellas, including the American Royalty, Best Laid Plans, and Aprons & Veils series. She holds a Master’s in Creative Writing and a Bachelor of Arts in English with a minor in History. Grace lives on the Northshore of New Orleans, with her husband, Dakota, sons, and daughter in a cottage that is always filled with the sounds of sweet little footsteps running at full speed. When not writing, or chasing babies, she’s baking something delightful and can usually be found with a book clutched in her fist.

More from Grace

I am thrilled to share with you my FIRST novel in the HEIRESSES OF ADVENTURE series, MISS BLAIRE IN BLACKWELL’S ISLAND, which is set in New York City in 1887. I loved writing about Edyth Blaire, our cat-rescuing, spunky heroine who spends her days painting, fencing with her dreamy instructor, and avoiding society at all costs, which as you can imagine, comes back to haunt her before the end. I’ve never written about a character who despised reading, so that was a new one for me. Edyth just doesn’t like to sit still long enough to finish a book, but you’ll find out why later.

While writing this book, I am pretty certain the librarians at my local branch were wondering what in the world my hobbies are, judging from the stacks of fencing books for beginners, histories of New York crime in the 19^th century, and Nellie Bly’s Ten Days in a Mad-House, and more.

The inspiration for this book came from Nellie Bly’s scandalous exposé for Joseph Pulitzer’s newspaper, The World. In reading Nellie’s articles, I was shocked at the grounds by which the asylum would commit women and that’s when I discovered a tiny mention about an heiress with family members who had her tucked away so they could have her fortune. . . and Edyth Blaire was born.

I hope you will enjoy reading about our eccentric leading lady and her fencing master hero, Raoul “Bane” Banebridge in this friends-to-lovers romance. If you are interested in seeing pictures of the asylum and to see what I pictured the characters looking like, check out my Pinterest board here.

Are you part of a book club? I have discussion questions here!