My sincere gratitude goes to my parents, Steve and Ginny, for walking the moor with me and shuttling me around Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Derbyshire in search of information, insights, and history-nerd adventures.
I am profoundly grateful to those dedicated souls, at the end of the nineteenth century, who loved the language of Yorkshire enough to write it down in all its beauty so future generations could fall in love with it even as it has faded over time.
Discussion Questions
1. Throughout the story, Evangeline struggles to be both “ladylike” and independent. Was it possible at this time to be both? Discuss Evangeline’s successes and failures as she struggles to reconcile these two requirements and to discover who she wants to be.
2. Today, we might diagnose Ronan as being on the autism spectrum, but in the Victorian era, such terminology was unknown. What role did Ronan’s condition play in the story and in the relationship that developed between Evangeline and Dermot?
3. Dermot tells Evangeline, “We can’t choose our family, after all.” Do you agree? Are there people in your life or social circles whom you have “chosen” to be part of your family? What qualities do you look for in a person you choose to be friends with?
4. Family relationships are an important element in the story. Compare Evangeline’s relationship with her sister Lucy to Aunt Barton’s relationship with her sister. What made one relationship stronger than the other? Do you think the relationship between Aunt Barton and Evangeline will improve with time?
5. Dermot is an Irishman living in an English town, which makes him feel like an outcast. Have you ever moved to a new place and felt unwelcome? How did you overcome those feelings?
6. Evangeline is hired to teach school despite her lack of training in the profession. Have you ever been asked to perform a task that felt impossible to achieve? How did you approach the task? Where you able to be successful in the task? How was Evangeline able to turn an impossible situation to her advantage?
7. The language of Yorkshire plays an important role in the story. Have you learned a second language? How hard was it to learn? Why was it so important to Evangeline to preserve the Yorkshire dialect for her students?
About the Author
© Annalisa Photography
Sarah M. Eden is the author of several well-received historical romances. Her previous Proper Romance novel Longing for Home won the Foreword Reviews 2013 IndieFab Book of the Year award for romance. Hope Springs won the 2014 Whitney Award for “Best Novel of the Year” and The Sheriffs of Savage Wells was a Foreword Reviews 2016 Book of the Year finalist for romance.
Combining her obsession with history and an affinity for tender love stories, Sarah loves crafting witty characters and heartfelt romances. She happily spends hours perusing the reference shelves of her local library and dreams of one day traveling to all the places she reads about. Sarah is represented by Pam Victorio at D4EO Literary Agency.
Visit Sarah at www.sarahmeden.com.
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