BooksChatter: ✉ Female Empowerment & The Pennington’s Department Store Series

Today returning author Rachel Brimble takes over our blog to tell us about "Female Empowerment & The Pennington’s Department Store Series".

Rachel's latest novel is A Rebel at Pennington's (5 February 2019, Aria, 436 pages), an Edwardian Historical Romance, book two in the Pennington's series.

'Captivating' ~ Kay Stephen, NetGalley

'A descriptive story of 1911 England, the suffrage movement and a love story coupled with the beginning of women's right to independence' ~ Mystica Varathapalan, NetGalley

|| Synopsis || Teaser: KCR Preview || The Series || Author Guest Post || About the Author || Giveaway & Tour Stops ||

Female Empowerment & The Pennington’s Department Store Series

by Rachel Brimble

It’s pretty clear from the Pennington’s tagline line ‘Perfect for the fans of the TV series Mr Selfridge and The Paradise’ where the inspiration for my latest series originated.

I LOVE these shows, but something was always missing for me - I wanted more from the female characters. I wanted to know more about their hopes, dreams and wishes. More about their lives away from their work. What were their families like? Their histories? Their past pains and failures? Who inspires them? What do they want to change?

All too soon, I’d identified the theme of a brand-new series that I couldn’t wait to get started on and the theme of that series was ‘female empowerment’.

I much prefer writing a series of books rather than single titles because it gives the readers (and me!) the opportunity to really get to know a big cast of characters and their conflicts. This in turn means I want to write more stories and readers (I hope!) want to read more! There is nothing I like more than using starring characters and secondary characters to move their journeys forward, to interact and bring them back and forth onstage as the stories and series unfolds.

The first book in the Pennington’s Department Store series (The Mistress of Pennington’s) is about the challenges women faced if they had ambition in the early 20th century. The second book (both can be read stand alone), A Rebel At Pennington’s, is set against the backdrop of women’s suffrage around the time the campaigning neared fever pitch.

Votes for Women and the struggles women before us faced during the fight has fascinated and enthralled me since I was a teenager and I always knew I would write a novel with suffrage as the backdrop one day.

When Esther Stanbury (the heroine) emerged in the first book, I knew I had found my suffragist character and the character to star in the second book.

I have so much passion for women’s suffrage, the strength and sacrifices the women who stood before us made, that this book was an absolute joy to write. I really hope my passion for the subject—not to mention the search for true love—comes across in the book and readers love Esther and Lawrence’s (the hero) journey as much as I do.

Happy Reading!

Rachel x

Can two strangers find tranquillity in a sea of uncertainty?