Bar Harbor, Maine 1913
WHAT IT’S ABOUT
An island sheltered from modern progress. Strict lines between servants and masters. Will crossing them leave her fatally exposed?
Bar Harbor, Maine. 1913. Mabel Rae is smart, reckless, and naïve. So when the ambitious seventeen-year-old joins the staff at a rocky cliffside cottage, she willingly lets the boisterous estate owner’s improper advances sweep her off her feet. And the slender young woman dismisses the vulnerability of her position when she discovers she’s pregnant with his unacknowledged child.
Brought harshly down to earth after she’s caught up in the machinations of a family feud, Mabel decides it’s time to take matters into her own hands. But with no money and few rights, she fears a forced marriage to the brutish gardener is her only socially acceptable option.
Is her future forever stunted, or can she become a beacon of change?
In a classic upstairs-downstairs tale, award-winning author Tavi Taylor Black spins an intricate web of idealism’s battle against harsh reality. Set at a time when suffrage was at its height, temperance was gaining momentum, and war loomed in Europe, this spellbinding novel shines a light on inequities we still face today.
Serabelle is a darkly humorous work of historical fiction. If you like intricate relationships, lyrical prose, and stories that tackle serious issues, then you’ll love Tavi Taylor Black’s vivid portrait of the Gilded Age.
- Publisher : Black Rose Writing
- Publication Date : April 24, 2024
- Paperback : 281 pages
My Thoughts
The writing style and characters in 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞 didn’t take long to win me over and keep the pages flipping. The setting, Maine’s rocky coastline in 1913, and the surroundings of a large estate near Bar Harbor were easy to visualize, yet the descriptions didn’t overpower the story. I was hooked.
While some of this story didn’t necessarily stand out from previous historical novels, Black brought a deeper dive into personalities, social classes, and the interaction of the characters.
Mabel becomes a member of Serabelle’s household at the young age of 17. She had grown up working with her mother, a servant at another location, and was ready to strike out on her own. But there was much, emotionally, that she wasn’t prepared to deal with.
Not only was I introduced to interesting characters, but as I mentioned, Black does a wonderful job presenting these people in the social classes they were born into. I met the owners of the estate as well as those who were at their beck and call. I also liked that woven throughout the story were newsworthy political happenings at that time.
If you love historical novels, you won’t want to overlook Black’s new book. It’s touching and introduces characters you will miss when you turn the last page.
My thanks to TLC book tours and the author for a gifted book.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tavi Taylor Black lives on an island near Seattle where she designs sets for the Vashon Dance Academy, works as a freelance tour manager, and was the founding director of the Dove Project, an anti-domestic violence non-profit organization. Before earning an MFA from Lesley University, Tavi spent 14 years touring with rock bands.
Pre-publication, Where Are We Tomorrow? was the 1st place winner of the 2016 PNWA Mainstream Fiction Contest and was also a finalist in the Nicholas Schaffner Award for Music in Literature.
Post-publication the book was the winner of the Nancy Pearl Award for Literary fiction, finalist in the 2021 Next Generation Indie Awards, National Indie Excellence Award, and the NYC Big Book Award. Several of Tavi’s short stories have been shortlisted for prizes, including Aesthetica Magazine’s Competition, and the Donald Barthelme Prize for Short Prose.
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