This is #1 in the Tilly trilogy. I really enjoyed the series. Cookson does a great job of describing the characters - I felt as if I actually knew these characters, and I wanted to know what became of them. I laughed, I cheered, and at times I cried.
A coming of age story of a girl in rural England around 1840. Wrongly accused of using witchcraft by superstitious villagers, Tilly was forced to enter a wide world alone. Through the burning of her home, the shattering loss of the man she loved, and the loss of her family, she willed herself to survive, taking moments of happiness where she could find them. And always there were many men who wanted her, who would take her, but never on her own terms. Very good story.
