Description
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Biographical Note: --The Christian Science Monitor "What starts as a classic marriage plot . . . evolves into a very different, more complex story. Alice [Lockey], you see, has been reading about the burgeoning women's rights movement in her 19th-century England. And maybe, just maybe, she has begun to imagine a future for herself that -- gasp! -- might not involve marriage after all." --NPR "[A] romp of a novel. . . . Waldman's writing is clever and witty, and her characters thoroughly entertaining in their quirks and foibles. . . . This is a romance turned on its head, a comedy addressing important concerns, [with] a few surprises thrown in at the end." -- Historical Novel Society "Pitch-perfect. . . . A very fun upstairs-downstairs novel." --Book Riot, "Most Anticipated Books of 2026" "A captivating historical drama, an appealing romance, and a story of political awakening, cleverly packaged as a novel of manners. This shapeshifter reads as an engaging and witty work of escapism until it turns to more serious-minded concerns, while never losing its charm. . . . With a nod to Jane Austen but a firm focus on the servant class, this versatile novel will entertain and stay with readers long past its final pages." --Shelf Awareness " A Perfect Hand is an absolute delight and a joy to read. This novel showcases Ayelet Waldman's many gifts--her humor, her storytelling prowess, her wisdom about human nature, and her passion for social justice. All wrapped up in an irresistible love story. I couldn't put it down." --J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times bestselling author of The Cliffs "I tore through this clever, big-hearted upstairs-downstairs novel about ambition, desire, and women's place in the world, charmed and delighted on every page. With a voice that feels both borrowed from the 19th century and entirely her own, Ayelet Waldman gives us a servant's story full of wit, yearning, and moral bite. Inventive, sparkling, and slyly subversive." --Christina Baker Kline, New York Times bestselling author of The Exiles "I was in want of a captivating book, and I found one in A Perfect Hand. Ayelet Waldman's clever, fast-paced historical romp turned out to be not only great fun but also surprisingly stirring. This book is a pleasure." --Meg Wolitzer, New York Times bestselling author of The Female Persuasion "An amuse bouche of a novel with an astringent feminist bite. Waldman twists the conventions of the 19th century novel for a result that is part homage, part satire, entirely fun." --Geraldine Brooks, New York Times bestselling author of Memorial Days "Somehow feeling entirely of 2026 and of two centuries past, Ayelet Waldman's A Perfect Hand is rich in detail and compelling in plot. A narrator relates the story of Alice and Charlie with a lively tone, adding wry and witty observations and notes of warning to the reader. This conceit sharpens the novel's commentary on class, gender and power. A Perfect Hand reminds readers both of how much of our current discourse is echoed in the past, and of how important it is for one to stand up for one's beliefs--and for those around one, too." --BookPage "[A] hilarious commentary on the foibles of the rich. Readers who want a look downstairs or who want a story in which a character learns that there is more to want than a good enough job will enjoy the hell out of A Perfect Hand." --A Bookish Type "If Jane Austen and Nora Ephron collaborated, they might produce something close to this new novel by Waldman. . . . Witty, frothy, and ultimately wise. . . . Sometimes a Victorian-era caper, replete with crinolines and coiffures, carries a shockingly important purpose beneath its skirts." --Kirkus (starred review) "Jane Austen-esque . . . . Rollicking. . . . Waldman speaks in a graceful, authentic voice about Victorian England's lifestyles, horrors, and frivolities. She honors women's empowerment while relishing the tropes of the romance genre. . . . She has dealt readers a truly winning hand." --Library Journal Publisher Marketing: A richly drawn, captivating, and endlessly amusing novel of love and subterfuge between a lady's maid and her clandestine lover, set in the country estates of nineteenth-century England. "Ayelet Waldman's clever, fast-paced historical romp turned out to be not only great fun but also surprisingly stirring. This book is a pleasure." --Meg Wolitzer, New York Times bestselling author of The Female Persuasion Miss Alice Lockey, daughter of a tenant farmer, has by dint of hard work, innate intelligence, and a cunning ability to predict the moods of her betters, raised herself to the lofty status of lady's maid at Alderwick Park. Though her mother has advised Alice to work only until marriage, Alice has thus far resisted the temptations of matrimony among the neighboring widowers and pig farmers, more content to enjoy the fruits of her labor--or at least the portion of it her father will share after it is paid to him. Alice spends her days arranging Lady Jemima Alderwick's blond hair into the latest French styles, chignons and plaits, laundering her lady's surprisingly malodorous petticoats and drawers, and carefully sewing all manner of fripperies, ribbons, lace, and silk flowers, to her lady's bonnets and gowns. But when a visiting servant, a valet named Charlie Wells, catches her eye, Alice begins to understand the constraints of her position. In a ploy to spend time with the object of her affection, Alice attempts to arrange a romance between Lady Jemima Alderwick and Charlie's employer, one Baronet Sir Nigel Wynstowe. If only they would fall in love--then Alice and Charlie might live together as man and wife! Challenged by Lady Jemima's love for another and Sir Wynstowe's eccentric personality, Alice must use all of her cunning to bring about this unlikely romantic union. Will this low-born servant successfully manipulate the hearts of these lords and ladies? Will Charlie and Alice ever improve their stations? Or, as the beginning of women's suffrage begins to percolate in the drawing rooms and salons of London, will Alice discover a different sort of path for herself? A deliciously funny, gorgeously detailed, utter enthralling novel, A Perfect Hand is a glorious novel of class, gender, and England on the cusp of enormous change. Review Citations:
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A Perfect Hand
$33.60