A Fragile Design – Book #2 in the Bells Of Lowell series.
Bella Newberry flees from her home with the Shakers to seek out a new life in the town of Lowell. The Shakers think that marriage, sex, and pregnancy are sins, and she doesn’t feel that the Shakers’ beliefs match with God’s. With her Shaker friend Daughtie along, they arrive in Lowell to work in the mills. While Bella adjusts to her new life, she finds that Daughtie falters with living away from the Shakers. Daughtie misses her Shaker family and wonders if she’s made a mistake.
Meanwhile, Bella makes her stance known – she thinks that men and women are equal and that women should have the same opportunities as men. When she meets handsome womanizer Taylor Manning, she finds herself annoyed with him. He toys with women’s emotions and appears only to be seeking out his next conquest – Bella doesn’t want to be another conquest to Taylor. After all, she finds that she can’t trust men. Her father abandoned her as his daughter when they joined the Shakers, plus, Jesse, the man who was supposed to leave the Shaker village with her, failed to appear on their agreed-upon day and she was forced to travel alone with Daughtie.
While Bella works in the mills and tries to find better educational opportunities for the women in Lowell, a mystery shrouds the town. Women, mostly Irish women, are disappearing and nobody knows why. The police do nothing to find these women and you’re left wondering why these girls disappear. Since most are Irish, the case is not given much attention due to the prejudice against the Irish who live in the paddy camps.
This book was a feel-good, gentle, enjoyable read. I especially liked that Bella escaped from the Shaker village. I’m glad that she saw that the Shakers’ beliefs are not Christian. Also seeing her working in the mills is interesting, too. To see an entire group of women working for a company spinning fabric is a unique storyline during this time in history.
I reviewed the first book in this series here. There is still one more story to read from this series entitled These Tangled Threads. I will review that one sometime in the future.