The Lost Brontë by Catherine Friend

Description Yorkshire, 1898. When twenty-one-year-old Lilianne Loxley is sent to Lord Bexton’s isolated estate to work off her uncle’s debts, she expects drudgery—not danger. With her gift for mimicry, she becomes Bexton’s secretary—and his reluctant forger. Soon she’s trapped in a scheme to create a “lost” novel by Emily Brontë, a deception that could make—or destroy—fortunes. The house is full of secrets: footsteps echo in empty corridors, lemon-scented ghosts haunt her sleepless nights, and a portrait seems to watch her every move. Yet it’s the living who unsettle her most—especially Wren McAllister, the sharp-tongued maid whose defiance hides a tender heart. Drawn together by loss and longing, Lily and Wren risk everything for a freedom neither has ever known. As the line between truth and invention blurs, Lily uncovers a shocking connection to the Brontë family—and to Bexton himself—that will force her to choose between love, loyalty, and the dangerous power of her own pen. Catherine Friend’s The Lost Brontë is an atmospheric gothic romantic mystery steeped in secrets, desire, and literary intrigue. Catherine Friend left her degrees in Economics and Spanish behind to pursue what she loves most: writing. She is the award-winning author of sapphic adventure romances, memoirs, nonfiction, and children’s books, with honors including a Minnesota Book Award, six Goldies from the GCLS, an Independent Book Publishers Association Award, and the Alice B Readers’ Appreciation Award for her body of work. Her memoir Hit by a Farm was a Lambda Literary finalist, and she has narrated two of her books for Dog Ear Audio. Friend has written six romantic adventure novels featuring time travel, ghosts, pirates, and sapphic heroines who reclaim a place in history. For 25 years, she and her wife farmed in Minnesota, raising sheep, cattle, poultry, and the occasional peacock. Now living in a small river town with their two dogs, she continues to write, teach, and—when the opportunity arises—read tarot cards.