Rebecca’s Choice – Review

‘Rebecca’s Choice’, a historical fiction novel set in the late 19th century is written effortlessly and that’s one of the strongest points of the book. The words flow fluidly, so they keep the reader hooked to the pages, even if some of the events unfolding might not be very exciting.

Rebecca is married to Geoffrey, a wealthy businessman who is more passionate about his weather station than his young beautiful wife. The first half of the novel is spent in the domestic life of the leading lady that is disrupted by a few tragedies involving her friends. I really enjoyed reading the brief sub-plot of a doctor suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder due to his handling of the Cholera epidemic. I wish that sub-plot would have been explored a little more by the author.

The heroine is confronted with the ‘choice’ referred to in the title only in the second half of the book. I had hoped for more conflict in the earlier parts, but there wasn’t much going on, at least not in the protagonist’s own personal life. The second-half is more fun and things pick up steam. Debut author Heidi Gallacher does a great job with bringing the scenes to life with her words, be it a charity ball on the grounds of Tredelerch, the fascinating rail rides or the little picnics by the countryside.

I wouldn’t want to give any spoilers, but towards the climax, Rebecca has to make some tough decisions to secure her future. My only grouse with the climax is that it was too rushed. While my usual complain with novels is that they could have been better off without a few dozen pages, with ‘Rebecca’s Choice’, I feel Gallacher could have added at-least a few more pages to smoothen the ending.

Since historical fiction is a genre I really love, this book was a breezy fun read for me. You can get the book on Amazon.

My rating – ⭐⭐⭐⭐ on 5 stars.

P.S – I published my second book ‘Love, Loss, Lockdown’. It’s a collection of short stories set against the Covid19 pandemic in India, get a copy if it piques your interest. It’s also available for Kindle Unlimited subscribers.