Historical fiction author
G.E. Bartlett
G.E. Bartlett's writing blends the intimate characterisation of Jane Austen and Janice Hadlow with the intrigue of Patrick O'Brian and Bernard Cornwell. Her stories feature compelling characters and evocative historical backgrounds, exploring themes of brokenness, reconciliation, and hope.
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The Shade of Oakes
Released soon by Cranthorpe Millner
The Shade of Oakes
- After the death of her father, sixteen-year-old Gwyn Moore moves to Holcombe House to live with her new warden Sir Roger Oakes and his fragmented family. She quickly forms a bond with Roger's vivacious elder son Jack, but her time at Holcombe is brought to an abrupt end after she intervenes to prevent the suicide of Sir Roger's crippled younger son James.
After years adrift from the family, Gwyn meets the Oakes brothers again in London. James has become a senior naval official involved with intelligence, battling his chronic depression with overwork; Jack has become a society gentleman with secrets of his own. When her relationships with both brothers renew, Gwyn begins to realise the extent to which the Oakeses have shaped her life from afar.
As James is drawn into a plot that spans oceans and strikes at the heart of his family, he also finds himself falling unwillingly, but desperately, in love with Gwyn—the one person who knows the depth of his own brokenness. While James fights to protect those he loves, Gwyn must wrestle with the past and decide the direction of her own future.