Changes

|title=The Fever Tree

|sort= Fever Tree

|borrow=Yes

|isbn=978-0670920891

|pages=352

|publisher=Viking

|date=March 2012

|summary=Everything Frances Irvine knows and has come to depend on ends abruptly when her father dies, throwing her into comparative poverty. Her only chance is to leave Victorian England and migrate to South Africa and a loveless marriage to Dr Edwin Matthews, as he fights the spread of smallpox amongst the diamond diggers. In this compulsive, panoramic novel Frances learns that exciting isn't necessarily good and good isn't necessarily unexciting.

}}

Frances Irvine enjoys a privileged lifestyle in Victorian England: a beautiful house, servants, rich gowns and all the trappings her position as the daughter of an industrialist demands. However, Frances' lifestyle proves to be a precarious house of cards balanced on her father's investment in the Northern Pacific Railroad in North America. When the Canadian terrain proves too much for the railroad construction to continue, her father's shares are rendered worthless. As this occurs just before his sudden death, Frances is forced to make a choice as her finery and home are auctioned off. Does she throw herself on the mercy of her lower class relatives or commit herself to a loveless marriage to distant cousin Dr Edwin Matthews?

This is indeed a first novel of which to be proud and, personally, I can't wait for the second.

If you've enjoyed this and would like to read more about women fighting against the odds, (albeit in a different continent) try [[The Rose Of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon]].

{{toptentext|list=Richard and Judy Book Club Spring 2013}}