The Virgin Cure – Ami McKay

The first of (hopefully) 50 books I manage to read this year. An enjoyable novel, which reminded me of The Observations, particularly the first part recounting Moth’s experiences as a servant to a cruel woman. The book was interspersed with facts, newspaper reports, journal entries and advertisements for a variety of products, all of which added to the period atmosphere and lent an air of authenticity to the book. It was obvious that the author had done quite a lot of research and the back-story about how she came to write the novel was interesting.  Moth and Sadie were appealing characters, and I would have liked to have heard more from Sadie. The one criticism I had was that the plot seemed to lose steam in parts, particularly in the second half, and perhaps the ending was a little too neat and rushed.  Nevertheless, I gave it 4 out of 5 stars and I think I will probably be interested in reading her follow up novel.