Welcome to my blog where I share my book reviews
and life along the winding road

Friday, March 23, 2018

Carnegie's Maid by Marie Benedict

Carnegie's Maid by Marie Benedict is an interesting look into the life of Andrew Carnegie and his family from the view of a fictional lady's maid.

There are mixed reviews of Carnegie's Maid on Goodreads and while I liked the idea and the historical setting for the story, I found a lot of the story about Clara (the maid) to be unbelievable. Her vocabulary and knowledge of how to take care of a lady seemed improbable for a poor Irish farmer's daughter and taking the place of a woman with the same name also seemed highly unlikely. Still, it was an interesting look at the Carnegie family and their rise to fame.

From the cover:
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 Clara Kelley 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 she doesn't have, answering to an icy mistress who rules her sons and her domain with an iron fist.