Books for Christian Girls: "The Lady of Bolton Hill" by Elizabeth Camden

About this book:

“When Clara Endicott and Daniel Tremain's worlds collide after twelve years apart, the spark that was once between them immediately reignites into a romance neither of them thought possible.
But time has changed them both.
Daniel is an industrial titan with powerful enemies. Clara is an idealistic journalist determined to defend underprivileged workers.
Can they withstand the cost of their convictions while their hearts--and lives--hang in the balance?”

Series: Connected to the author’s other book, “Against the Tide”.

Spiritual Content- Scriptures and Biblical events are mentioned, quoted, remembered, & talked about; Prayers; Witnessing; Talks about God, Jesus, Heaven, forgiveness, faiths, salvation, & revenge; ‘H’s are capital when referring to God; Clara’s father is an influential religious leader; Daniel does not consider himself a Christian *Spoiler* Near the end he starts trying to pray and go to church to do better *End of Spoiler*; Mentions of God; Mentions of prayers & praying; Mentions of churches, church going, services, sermons, ministers, & missionaries; Mentions of Heaven; Mentions of a Christian newspaper; Mentions of Christians, faiths, salvation, & believing; Mentions of a Christian committing suicide and theology beliefs; Mentions of blessings, being blessed, & blessed things; Mentions of sins & sinners; A few mentions of thanking God; A couple mentions of Bible reading; A mention of someone being a gift from God; A mention of Easter;

*Note: Mentions of believing there’s a devil & doing evil; A few mentions of a woman looking like a Greek goddess; A mention of evil-minded intentions; A mention of ghosts in a building; A mention of an ungodly amount of something; A mention of a godforsaken place; A mention of something hurting like the devil; A mention of a person’s demons; A mention of someone burning in hell.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘dumb’, a ‘shut up’, two ‘sissy’s, five forms of ‘stupid’, and six ‘idiot’s; A mention of a curse (said by Daniel, not written); Some sass & eye rolling; Daniel wants major vengeance and is spiteful to a man because of the past; Being held hostage and at gunpoint & being threatened of being harmed or killed (up to semi-detailed); Fires & Explosions (up to semi-detailed); Pain, Gunfire, Seeing someone shot, Blood/Bleeding, & Injuries (up to semi-detailed); Being drugged & passing out (up to semi-detailed); Being in jail (barely-above-not-detailed); Many mentions of a death (murder, in a way), an explosion, accidents, burns and the smell of flesh, injuries, & wanting vengeance (up to semi-detailed); Many mentions of crimes, criminals, drugs, drug users, drug smugglers, & drug trades; Mentions of Daniel’s mother who committed suicide & finding her (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of young child working in unsafe conditions & paying the price with their health (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of explosions, gunfire, & wounds (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of riots, strikes, public disturbances, violence, vandalism, & fires (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of kidnappings & children and adults being drugged (opium); Mentions of blood & injuries; Mentions of jails/prisons, arrests, & cases; Mentions of threats & threats against families (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of hatred; Mentions of manipulation; Mentions of starvation; Mentions of alcohol, drinking, & a tavern; Mentions of gossip; A few mentions of another’s suicide; A few mentions of the possibility of being killed/executed; A few mentions of dismembering someone/something (doesn’t actually happen, used as a cover); A few mentions of wanting to remove someone’s limbs; A few mentions of wars & deaths; A few mentions of stealing; A few mentions of blackmail & bribes; A few mentions of bets & betting; A few mentions of lies & lying; A few mentions of throwing up; A few mentions of gutting fishes; A couple mentions of thugs; A couple mentions of throwing someone overboard a ship; A couple mentions of poison; A couple mentions of jealousy; A couple mentions of tobacco; A couple mentions of nightmares;

*Note: A few mentions of books & fictional characters.

Sexual Content- three (barely-above-not-detailed) hand/finger kisses, three (up to barely-above-not-detailed) cheek kisses, three forehead/head kisses, three barely-above-not-detailed kisses, two semi-detailed kisses (one of those including an ear being nipped), and a border-line semi-detailed // detailed kiss; Clara sits in Daniel’s lap (not-detailed); Touches, Nearness, & Smelling (up to semi-detailed); Wanting to touch (barely-above-not-detailed); Blushes; Noticing (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of prostitutes & a mother selling her young daughter to a brothel; A few mentions of kisses & kissing; A few mentions of reputations & chaperones; A few mentions of blushes; A few mentions of crushes; A couple mentions of men being called delicious; A couple mentions of a boyfriend; A mention of a man having a mistress; A mention of a man having the worst of intentions with a girl; Love, falling in love, & the emotions;

*Note: A mention of a woman dress (not) being ripped off; A mention of kissing up to someone.

-Clara Endicott, age 28

-Daniel Tremain, age 31
P.O.V. switches between them & Bane (5x)

Set in 1879 (Prologue in 1867, Epilogue eight+ years later)
334 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

{Add ½ star for those okay with content mentioned above.}

While I first read this book in 2015, when I picked it up to re-read over three years later, it felt like a new book as I truly didn’t remember much if anything but tiny details.

This was Elizabeth Camden’s debut book and I definitely believe that she’s improved her writing skills and historical details since this release.

This re-read though? I have some different thoughts from my original thoughts.

However, some opinions stayed the same.

For one, I personally thought it was strange hearing Clara and her brother refer to their father by his first name.

On the note of Clara, she had a bit of a missionary-dating approach to Daniel in the sense that she wants to help fix the hole in his heart. I personally found myself annoyed with Daniel at this point; he says he loves Clara yet will not try to share something that’s very important to her—her faith. She continues to pray for him, but I won’t lie and say I wasn’t questing his ‘love’ for her at points. Especially when she’s afraid he’s going to hit her with a rolled-up newspaper; he instead throws it at her body (p. 168). Daniel drove me a bit mad at times in both of my readings of this novel.

One last note: To keep of being spoiler-y, I’ll be vague, but I’m still not quite sure why Clara did the action that made Daniel to be upset at her and that she did not pray for it to be received well. Clara seemed like her heart was in the right place at times, but I personally don’t necessarily agree with some Spiritual theology discussed.

The main difference between my first time reading this book and this re-read would be—to be completely honest—the first half of this book struck me as slightly depressing, but when Bane came more into the picture, the plot moved more away from the gloomy parts. While I probably shouldn’t have liked Bane so much, he really was quite cunning and brilliant, so I had hope for his character development.

Overall? It was not the best due to content, a certain male character, and some slight theology problems, but there were a handful of parts I enjoyed and I’m glad this review is now up on this site.

See y’all on Wednesday with a new review!