Dr. Todson’s Home for Incorrigible Women
By Riley LaShea
A gentle Victorian tale of women’s passions and power, with a sprinkle of romance, a trifle of steampunk, and heaps and heaps of quiet revolution.
Caroline Ajax is an inconvenient woman. Unwell. Hot-tempered. Harboring a tragic secret she can’t share with another living soul. Dropped at an institution in the Surrey Hills by her husband, Thomas, her only objective is to survive, to endure, to make it back to what little there is of her life as soon as she possibly can. But it doesn’t take her long to discover there is something unusual about this house and its eclectic group of inhabitants. Not to mention its unconventional proprietor.
Eirinn Todson is an untameable woman. Brilliant. Determined. Forging her way through the world of men as brazenly as she knows how. Her dream of becoming a doctor leads her to Dr. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and her clinic for women and children in London, then onto Paris with her best friend and quasi-brother Rand. But an unexpected encounter and personal tragedy will change the course of Eirinn’s life and future forever.
In the spring of 1886, Eirinn is now Dr. Todson, proprietor of Dr. Todson’s Home for Women. When Caroline Ajax is admitted into her care, Eirinn has every reason to believe Caroline is just another resident. Caroline has every reason to believe Dr. Todson’s is just another sadistic madhouse. But Dr. Todson’s Home harbors a treasure trove of secrets, some deeper and more dangerous than others, and Caroline’s and Eirinn’s past tragedies share a common thread. Together, they may find a sliver of justice neither of them ever thought to get.
