Peregrine Hill

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Christie Affair comes a sweeping novel set in Gilded Age New York where a forced marriage, family secrets, and the fight for freedom collide in an unforgettable story about a desperate mother and headstrong daughter navigating a world built on men's appetites and women's silence.

"A luminous, entrancing novel...The Gilded Age springs to vivid life in these pages, but beware, for not all that glitters is gold." -Nita Prose, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid series

At the dawn of the 20th century, widow Isabelle Bishop still believes in love-but she knows only money can save her. After losing her husband and three of her children in a shipwreck, she has one chance to rescue what remains of her family: her daughter Mariah and her elderly mother. When Isabelle captures the attention of John Whitten, one of New York's wealthiest men, she dares to hope that fortune might finally favor her.

But Whitten's interest is not in Isabelle-it's in eighteen-year-old Mariah, still reeling from a romantic but disastrous scandal. When Whitten discovers the secret mother and daughter have tried to keep buried, he uses it to his advantage, threatening to expose them unless Mariah accepts his proposal. For the sake of their survival, Isabelle makes a devil's bargain: She will urge her daughter into a marriage she knows could destroy her.

Mariah quickly realizes her husband's home is a gilded cage. Yet even under his watchful eye, she begins to carve out passions of her own, finding an unexpected ally in her ambitious maid, Hetty, and daring to imagine a life beyond her constricted world. Together, she and Hetty risk everything to claim a measure of power and self-determination in a world that attempts to deny them both.

From the glittering parlors of Gilded Age New York to the windswept cliffs of Rhode Island, Peregrine Hill is a novel in the tradition of Edith Wharton and the Bronte sisters, about unlikely love affairs and the impossible choices women have always been forced to make.

1. Isabelle forces Mariah to marry the much older John Whitten to keep the family out of poverty. Did you empathize with her desperation after losing her husband and three children or find it unforgivable?

2. How does Mariah rebel against Whitten's strict control, and what did you think of her method of writng stories only to burn them?

3. When Hetty finds Mariah's secret writing, she encourages her to publish using a pseudonym. How does storytelling help Mariah change from a victim of her situation into someone who controls her own future?

4. How do Mariah and Hetty's differences influence their views on freedom and ambition? Who do you think risks more?

5. How did your view of Lavina shift throughout the novel? In what ways does her character highlight the brutal commodification of women during the Gilded Age?

6. How does the book navigate the hypocrisy of Gilded Age high society, where a man's reputation remains untouched while a woman's can be permanently ruined by a single "indiscretion"?

7. How does the novel show Mariah's fight for independence compared to Isabelle's struggle with deep grief, especially when Isabelle makes reckless choices like having a romantic affair?

8. The estate itself, Peregrine Hill, operates almost like a character in the novel. How does the house's physical setting reflect the emotional atmosphere of the people living inside?

9. Mariah believes that only Whitten's death will truly free her. Did youfind the novel's conclusion satisfying? Do you think Mariah, Hetty, and Isabelle truly achieved the freedom tehy fought for?

"Peregrine Hill is my favorite kind of novel: stirring, beautifully told and utterly captivating with characters I'm still thinking about days later. I loved it." -Clare Leslie Hall, New York Times bestselling author of Broken Country

"A luminous, entrancing novel about the extraordinary relationship between two women--one a young, wealthy matron imprisoned in her marriage; the other, a low-born maid. What unites this unlikely pair is a literary ambition that will either save them from the golden cage they exist in or doom them to servitude forever. The Gilded Age springs to vivid life in these pages, but beware, for not all that glitters is gold." -Nita Prose, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid series

"Fans of The Gilded Age will devour de Gramont's latest with gusto."-Library Journal (starred review)

"A delicious historical melodrama." -Kirkus

"In Peregrine Hill, the velvet curtain of the Gilded Age lifts on a society governed by wealth, reputation, and quiet coercion-a world where power belongs to men and survival demands ingenuity. Bold, atmospheric, and impossible to put down, the novel is historical fiction with real teeth. At its heart lies a deeply felt story of mothers and daughters navigating love, ambition, and survival in a world that offers them precious few good choices." -Adrienne Brodeur, bestselling author of Little Monsters and Wild Game

"Sentence by sentence, Peregrine Hill is one of the most beautiful books ever written. . . This brilliant book is precise and maternal and militant. It loves human behavior- good and bad-and sees right through to our big, broken and duplicitous hearts. A genuine triumph of a novel." -Rebecca Lee, author of Bobcat and The City Is a Rising Tide

"Historical-fiction lovers will relish the upstairs-downstairs love affairs and sneaky machinations that keep the pages turning until the surprising ending." -Booklist

"Three women struggle against Gilded Age gender constraints in this elegant tale ... De Gramont evokes the impossible choices women of the era faced-"Who could say what desperation might convince a person to do?"-and she builds suspense from her characters' clashing needs. It's a stirring story of resilience." -Publishers Weekly