Publication Date: February 21, 2023
Brianna Kelly was abandoned at Ballymacool House and Boarding School as an infant. She has worked there since she was a wee girl and will likely die there. Despite a sense that she was made for something more, Brianna feels powerless to change her situation, so she consoles herself by exploring the Ballymacool grounds, looking for hidden treasures to add to the secret trove beneath the floorboards of her room.
When Michael Wray, the son of local gentry, is sent to Ballymacool to deal with his unruly cousin, he finds himself drawn to Brianna, immediately and inescapably. There is something about her that feels so . . . familiar. When Brianna finds a piece of silver in the woods, she commits to learning its origins, with the help of Michael. What they discover may change everything.
Fan favorite Jennifer Deibel invites you back to the Emerald Isle in the 1930s for this fresh take on the Cinderella story, complete with a tantalizing mystery, a budding romance, and a chance at redemption.
Vivid, intriguing, and a heroine you want to cheer for, The Maid of Ballymacool by Jennifer Deibel is engrossing from start to finish. An unusual setting with an extraordinarily intriguing plot, this well-spun tale fully immerses the reader equally in its charm and suspense.
Brianne Kelly is an orphan and never knew her parents. Left in the care of Maureen Magee, schoolmistress of Ballymacool House, a boarding school for girls. Brianne lives the life of a servant at Ballymacool, treated with ruthless contempt by Mistress Magee. But why? That “why” is the crux of the story, with hints and clues dropped artfully throughout but whose full revelation doesn’t come until the end.
Brianne has never known another life than one of servitude until Michael Wray, member of a wealthy ascendant family near Ballymacool, comes for a stay in hopes of containing the wild antics of his young cousin, Adeline, a student at the school. As Michael and Brianne’s paths continue to cross, an attraction begins to develop, much to Mistress Magee’s displeasure.
Could the dark secret Mistress Magee is keeping shed light on Brianne’s past and create a more hopeful future than she ever dared dream?
When shards of Brianne’s past finally start to fall into place, she must decide—is there anyone left she can ever really trust.
The Maid at Ballymacool by Jennifer Deibel is a fresh and captivating story with vibrant characters whose lives and plight prove, surprisingly, to be intricately entwined. The mystery woven throughout the story is perfectly measured, pulling the reader into its web with artful clues and perfectly placed conjectures, leaving, until the end, a revealing that is both shocking yet satisfying. Wonderfully written and a most enjoyable read.
Jennifer Deibel is the author of A Dance in Donegal (winner of the Kipp Award for Historical Romance) and The Lady of Galway Manor (a Parable Group bestseller). Her work has appeared on (in)courage, on The Better Mom, in Missions Mosaic magazine, and in other publications. With firsthand immersive experience abroad, Jennifer writes stories that help redefine home through the lens of culture, history, and family. After nearly a decade of living in Ireland and Austria, she now lives in Arizona with her husband and their three children.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Lindy. It is intriguing to me that this story is set in Ireland and inspired by the Cinderella fairy tale.