Folly by Marthe Jocelyn

Mary Finn is an honest and hardworking country who loves her family, particularly all her little siblings. She cares for them when her mother dies and would have until each grew up had it not been for her stepmother who insists Mary be sent away to work. Always the obedient girl, Mary goes to work. When she changes jobs to be a maid in London, the entire course of her life is changed because it’s in London that Mary meets Caden Tucker and meeting Caden Tucker is the start of her problems. Suddenly Mary becomes a foolish girl, always dreaming of the man she believes is her sweetheart. How was Mary to know she might be making the biggest mistake of her life?

Folly is an unusually told tale about the reverberating effects of the smallest actions. Set in the Victorian era, this novel certainly has historical appeal. And there is definitely something interesting about London in the late 1800s, even if Jocelyn does pick some of the Victorian period’s more negative characteristics to portray, such as all children born out of wedlock being held up as the epitome of sin. Folly is told from many alternating perspectives following two separate by connected main storylines. Since I was more interested in Mary’s story than James Nelligan’s, all the switching between narrators was distracting. Although the ending, when the nature of Mary and James’s connection is revealed, may be surprising for some readers, it was not for me. I figured out basically what was going to happen midway through the book merely by looking at the timeframes of Mary’s and James’s stories. Because of this, Folly wasn’t as enjoyable a read as it could’ve been, although I still appreciate the sweet ending.

Folly may be enjoyed by fans of Ivy by Julie Hearn, A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly, Ten Cents a Dance by Christine Fletcher, and What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell.

Rating: 3.75

Review copy from publisher Random House