Folly by Marthe Jocelyn

Folly by Marthe Jocelyn tells the story Mary Finn and James Nelligan, about ten years apart in the late nineteenth century.

Mary is the oldest of 5 children who, when her father remarries, is sent away to an inn to work to be out of her stepmother’s hair. She doesn’t like working at the inn and when a well-bred woman with no idea how to take care of her child come into the inn, Mary takes care of the baby and is then invited to join the staff of the young woman’s home. So Mary comes to London and meets Caden Tucker, a soldier in London.

James is an orphan, who was raised in the country for the first 6 years of his life before being returned to the home for orphans in London. Having been raised in a home and calling his foster mother Mama, James has a difficult time adjusting to life in the home (with all the rules that come with it).

There are two other narrators thrown in, Eliza, who works with Mary at the home in London and Oliver, a history teacher at the Foundling Hospital where James lives, who provide a different take--and also cause problems--on the story.

It's a tale of a fallen woman and the chances she takes, the heartbreaking decisions she makes, The chapters are brief, end on cliffhangers, and want you to keep reading. It’s not a very long book, but a very rewarding quick read. It’s a little dark, but has a surprisingly touching ending.