Summary: Clara Kelley is not who they think she is. She’s not the experienced Irish maid who was hired to work in one of Pittsburgh’s grandest households. She’s a poor farmer’s daughter with nowhere to go and nothing in her pockets. But the other woman with the same name has vanished, and pretending to be her just might get Clara some money to send back home.
If she can keep up the ruse, that is. Serving as a lady’s maid in the household of Andrew Carnegie requires skills he doesn’t have, answering to an icy mistress who rules her sons and her domain with an iron fist. What Clara does have is a resolve as strong as the steel Pittsburgh is becoming famous for, coupled with an uncanny understanding of business, and Andrew begins to rely on her. But Clara can’t let her guard down, not even when Andrew becomes something more than an employer. Revealing her past might ruin her future — and her family’s.
With captivating insight and heart, Carnegie’s Maid tells the story of one brilliant woman who may have spurred Andrew Carnegie’s transformation from ruthless industrialist into the world’s first true philanthropist. (Summary and pic from goodreads.com)
My Review: Right off the bat I have to tell you that in order to buy into this book at all you have to suspend your disbelief for just a minute at the beginning. I’m going to reveal something here that is revealed in the first few pages of the book, so it is not a surprise for long, but consider yourself warned if you don’t want to be spoiled about anything ever. Also, it’s on the back of the book so…
Anyway. I had a hard time buying that there were two women named Clara Kelley on the ship from Ireland, and that the other one had happened to die, and that the person looking for that Clara Kelley found this Clara Kelley and then…the rest of the book. It’s fine, though. Although I found it kind of a lame schtick right off the bat, it became more okay as time went on. It still appeared like a thorn in the side every now and again, and also at some points things got very dicey because of it, but I guess we do a lot of suspended disbelief in reading so I’m just going to let it go this time. I mean, I can’t be reading a book about fairies at the same time I’m making this criticism and not call myself on it. So here we are. Just buy into the schtick, and we’ll go from there.
One of the things I enjoy most about historical fiction books like this is that although there is a novel and story element to it that may not be true, I always enjoy learning the facts that are true. For instance, I didn’t know much about Andrew Carnegie, but I feel like I know quite a bit after this. One of my favorite things about historical fiction books is also when history is put into perspective with other history going on at the same time. It’s just so interesting to find out what different things were happening at the same time in history. I think it gives a lot of context, and also paints a clearer picture of what was going on during that time and how it relates to other events going on at the time as well.
This story was interesting. There is a love story that I didn’t find completely plausible, and even after the author’s notes I think I can see why she took those very wide liberties, I just don’t necessarily buy them. I think there were some very big jumps made with very little evidence, circumstantial or otherwise.
I feel like there are eleventy million books with titles similar to this who also explore a historical time and place. I’ve really enjoyed a lot of them. If you enjoy historical fiction, especially American historical fiction, I think you’ll really like this book.
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
For the sensitive reader: There is some light language and some really sad scenes of poverty.
