Impossible Saints

DEBUT This first novel is an engrossing historical romance set in 1907 England. Young and beautiful Lilia Brooke, a former village schoolmistress, goes to London, where her passion as a suffragette is at cross-purposes with her growing attraction to Anglican priest Paul Harris. Lilia is a New Woman: fiercely independent, intellectual, sexually open, and ardent about women's rights. She rises quickly in the leadership of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). Paul is far more reserved and conservative; he wants to become a dean in the church but his ambitions are increasingly at odds with his attraction to Lilia. The narrative alternates between Lilia and Paul's viewpoints as their evolving love forces them to dig deeper into the compromises they are willing to make. Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of the British suffragette movement, makes an appearance, and the demonstrations, hunger strikes, and forced feedings are vividly described. By 1928, all British women over 21 could vote; readers will root for Lilia and Paul's romance to have a similarly happy ending.