Finding Lady Enderly by Joanna Davidson Politano

Finding Lady Enderly by Joanna Davidson Politano ISBN-13: 9780800728724 Paperback: 400 pages Publisher: Revell Released: Aug. 20, 2019

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Raina Bretton is a rag woman in London's east end when a handsome stranger appears in a dank alley and offers her influence, pretty clothing, and a chance for adventure. Rothburne Abbey has a unique position for her, one that will give her a chance to be a lady for a few weeks while the real Lady Enderly rests from the demands of society. It sounds like a dream come true, but some dreams turn out to be nightmares.

Though Raina has traded squalor for silk and satin, something about the abbey is deeply unsettling. As she wrestles with her true identity, events tear at her confidence and threaten to reveal her for who she really is. Only one man cares about what happens her, but now he's also in danger unless Raina can continue the pretense of being another woman.


My Review:
Finding Lady Enderly "Finding Lady Enderly" is a Christian romance supposedly set in 1871 in England. Don't get this book expecting historical accuracy. There were so many errors that I stopped counting. An example: we're repeatedly told that Raina is a rag woman who collects donated clothing and resales it. Only, rag pickers actually bought rags (cloth too worn to be remade into other clothing or used as rags) to be reprocessed into paper. Raina sounds more like a second hand clothing dealer, except people were giving her their valuable clothing rather than selling it to her.

Anyway, we're introduced to Raina with her wearing fine clothing that she had impulsively just stolen. She wanted to dress up and feel pretty. She was walking along the streets where people knew her and that she was poor...did she not think that someone would turn her in?! Soon she was lying, passing herself off as a missing lady because she wanted the pretty clothes, admiration, and influence. She did a few nice things for others, but they were so she could justify all the lying. She selfishly keep her boyfriend in a position of danger so she could savor his love notes. If she loved him, she would have been thinking of a way for him (or both of them) to get away from there. She was selfish, insecure, impulsive, and foolish...until she suddenly realized how self-consumed she was at about 70% into the story. Her boyfriend was more in love with being her rescuer than with her. Realistic? Sure. Enjoyable reading? Not for me.

Finally, when Raina was offered a well-paying job if she'd travel (alone) with a man she didn't know to a remote area, she said no because she realized it would be dangerous. When she told an older woman whom she roomed with about the offer, that woman immediately advised her that this was a literally God-given opportunity that she shouldn't refuse. As modern human trafficking uses similar lures, I felt sick to my stomach that this book had someone telling a young woman to trust a stranger with a too-good-to-be-true offer because it's God's will.

The underlying theme was that your worth does not depend on how people treat you but because you reflect some aspects of God and his power is within you. This managed to come across as both Christian and New Age at the same time. There was no sex or bad language.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.