Overview

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. Buy Serabelle to test the limits of freedom today!

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9781685134068

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Reviews

"""Serabelle is a sweeping, vivid, and insightful novel that explores the upstairs-downstairs dynamic of estate life through the eyes of one of its servants. This highly atmospheric, gothic novel contains many of my favorite elements in a book: use of setting as a character, a courageous heroine, and an unflinching exploration of social issues. I was swept away by Serabelle from its engrossing opening to its haunting ending. Tavi Taylor Black's latest is a compelling story wrapped in stunning, lyrical prose that is perfect for fans of Kate Morton's, The House at Riverton."" -Shanessa Gluhm, author of Enemies of Doves and A River of Crows ""Tavi Black designed her second novel, Serabelle, around such complex emotions as lust and patriarchal entitlement, pitted against female accession. We witness a girl grow into womanhood during the Suffrage Movement, a time fraught with matriarchal power and persistence. Underneath the story's surface, Black also keeps the rise of the automobile and prohibition simmering as she forges a distinctively American story with deft attention to character, place and language."" -Anita Gail Jones, author of The Peach Seed ""Tavi Taylor Black's Serabelle transports readers to a summer cottage in Maine circa 1913 to a world ruled by the rich, but fueled by the labor of women like Mabel, a servant whose dreams of freedom and dignity are dashed when she becomes entangled with her rich employer. Evocative and finely drawn, Serabelle is a must read for lovers of historical fiction."" -Ellen Birkett Morris, Author of Beware the Tall Grass and Lost Girls: Short Stories."

""Serabelle is a sweeping, vivid, and insightful novel that explores the upstairs-downstairs dynamic of estate life through the eyes of one of its servants. This highly atmospheric, gothic novel contains many of my favorite elements in a book: use of setting as a character, a courageous heroine, and an unflinching exploration of social issues. I was swept away by Serabelle from its engrossing opening to its haunting ending. Tavi Taylor Black's latest is a compelling story wrapped in stunning, lyrical prose that is perfect for fans of Kate Morton's, The House at Riverton."" -Shanessa Gluhm, author of Enemies of Doves and A River of Crows ""Tavi Black designed her second novel, Serabelle, around such complex emotions as lust and patriarchal entitlement, pitted against female accession. We witness a girl grow into womanhood during the Suffrage Movement, a time fraught with matriarchal power and persistence. Underneath the story's surface, Black also keeps the rise of the automobile and prohibition simmering as she forges a distinctively American story with deft attention to character, place and language."" -Anita Gail Jones, author of The Peach Seed ""Tavi Taylor Black's Serabelle transports readers to a summer cottage in Maine circa 1913 to a world ruled by the rich, but fueled by the labor of women like Mabel, a servant whose dreams of freedom and dignity are dashed when she becomes entangled with her rich employer. Evocative and finely drawn, Serabelle is a must read for lovers of historical fiction."" -Ellen Birkett Morris, Author of Beware the Tall Grass and Lost Girls: Short Stories.

Author Information

Tavi Taylor Black lives on an island near Seattle where she designs sets for the Vashon Dance Academy 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.She has a writing podcast, The Personal Element, with co-host Christine Junge. Her debut novel, Where Are We Tomorrow?, was the winner of the 2022 Nancy Pearl Award and was a finalist in the NYC Big Book Award and the National Indie Excellence Awards.

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