Let bestselling author Iris Gower transport you to South Wales at the turn of the century in this beguiling and bewitching saga, set during the hard times of copper smelting. Fans of Dilly Court, Rosie Goodwin and Kitty Neale will not be disappointed.
READERS ARE LOVING COPPER KINGDOM!
'Living in Swansea this book set my mind racing of the past. I couldn't put it down!' -- ***** Reader review
'I found once I started reading it, I could not put it down!' -- ***** Reader review
'Believable and so enjoyable' -- ***** Reader review
'Riveting' -- ***** Reader review
'Wonderful' -- ***** Reader review
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THE FAMILY'S FATE RESTS ON HER SHOULDERS...
Sweyn's Eye, South Wales: The Richardsons are copper barons - lords of the town's copper smelting industry - rich, powerful, and somewhat in denial that their wealth may be in jeopardy as the demand for copper wanes.
The Llewelyns are a poor family, the threat of unemployment and all its attendant miseries always present. They are too poor to afford more than a pauper's funeral when Mrs Llewelyn dies and too proud to allow the neighbours to know.
When the fiery and determined Mali Llewelyn is offered a job in the local laundry she takes it, determined to fight her way to prosperity as a businesswoman. Yet all of her struggles are not obvious, for in secret she battles with her hopeless love for Sterling Richardson, heir to the copper kingdom of Sweyn's Eye.
Can she find a way through? For on her shoulders rest the burden of the family fortunes...
Industry Reviews
The familiar, unrefined ore: a turn-of-the-century South Wales copper-mining-village romance - complete with cottage lass, handsome mine-owner, one-shot pregnancies, upper-class scandal, and the capping mine explosion. Pretty Mali Llewelyn and her mine-worker father Davie are on the outs because Da (recently widowered) has been keeping company with flossy Rosa. But meanwhile Mali herself has been uncomfortably attracted to sterling mine-owner Sterling Richardson, who plans a new mining future by switching to zinc. . . but faces some hefty problems. First of all, unbeknownst to Sterling, his real father was mine-partner James Cardigan - so brother Rickie (a rotter) is the true Richardson heir. Furthermore, Sterling (again unbeknownst) has impregnated his half-sister Bea Cardigan - who learns the truth and has a secret, near-fatal abortion. And even more disaster looms when Mali (now office-manager for a laundry) slides into Sterling's arms "like a startled faun." Her Da is critically injured with molten copper - thanks to the slimy boyfriend (errand-boy for Rickie Richardson) of Mali's chum Katie; Davie's compensation money - with which Mali had planned to buy a partnership in the laundry - is stolen by Rosa; Rickie plots against Sterling's mining ventures; lovers' misunderstandings abound. (Mali thinks Sterling was responsible for Davie's death; Sterling glowers about, believing Mali to be promiscuous.) But after a mine explosion - engineered by Rickie & Co. - the wicked (and a few of the pure) will be out of action, all secrets will be revealed. . . and Sterling and Mali meld mettles. An unseasoned serving of old chestnuts, unconvincing but serviceable. (Kirkus Reviews)
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