Keep My Candle Bright: A Gilded Age Romance

4.5 stars

This was a lengthy story, so finishing with a couple of breaks took me a while. This is a story of a life of hardship and desperation told with some graphic details, but the author brings care and compassion to their writing. It is a historical fiction novel with a small romantic subplot that ties the narrative together.

Rafe and Helen meet relatively young and come from two different classes. Rafe has spent several years living in squalor and is a sought-after prostitute. He encounters Helen, the daughter of a wealthy business owner who has snuck off to Five Points to explore. They build a friendship that develops into more right before Helen is forced to marry another wealthy business owner. Shortly after Helen's wedding, Rafe finds himself unable to continue his work as a prostitute, and he escapes to the local healer's house. He apprentices for her until she encourages him to take a new identity and become a doctor.

Through his practice as a gynecologist, he meets Helen again after about 6-7 years after he is brought in to treat her after the birth of her sixth child. By this time, Helen has developed a deep depression, and she is listless, moving through her life in the gilded cage of being a high-society wife.

Meeting Rafe (aka Victor Clark) again causes her to divorce her husband, strike out independently, and go after her dream of being a journalist. After the divorce, the newspapers gossip about Dr. Clark's role in the divorce, and that causes old demons to arise for Rafe because he is recognized by his old landlady, who has become a power player in Five Points. I'll stop the recap here to avoid spoilers.

I enjoyed the book despite some historical inaccuracies. I liked that it weaved through the challenges that both Rafe and Helen faced before getting their HEA.