Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Black Rose Writing, and author Tavi Taylor Black for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

Television series such as Downton Abbey and The Gilded Age tend to romanticize what life was like during their era. For the most part, it wasn’t enjoyable for many of the people who lived it. It was a time when servants were regarded more as possessions than actual human beings, no matter how these series tend to sugar-coat it.

Serabelle tells the story of a home in Bar Harbor, Maine before Acadia National Park. There are numerous wealthy summer homes on Mount Desert Island, where the park will be one day. The biggest problem these owners face is the battle over whether or not to allow automobiles on the island.

Mabel is a young maid, arriving at Serabelle for her first job. Her mother is a servant and life would seem to dictate that her daughter must do the same. When the owner of Serabelle, Mr. Hunt, takes a shine to her, Mabel believes his words and enters into an affair with him. Soon she is pregnant. Beverly, the head housekeeper, feels sorry for Mabel and arranges for her to become engaged to the gardener. Mabel isn’t so sure that’s the life she wants, though.

Serabelle is an interesting story from many angles. The Hunts believe they are good employers and good to their servants. Yet those same servants live under constant threat of being dismissed on a whim. There is no protection for them. Mabel could be fired and sent away without any recourse. Beverly’s machinations mean that she will still have a job and not be on the street. There was no help then for young mothers. If she lost her job the baby would have likely ended up in the orphanage. The man she marries, Gardener, has more of a love for Serabelle than the owners. Inside the brusque exterior is a man who knows how to cultivate a garden and manages to keep it pristine with his dedication. He’s not literate but has crafted a journal showing what has worked with the various plants.

The Hunts are not a happy family, despite being one of the wealthiest in New England. At one time the husband and wife had feelings for each other, but the years have made them jaded. Both of their children have grown and are living on their own, although Rupert does visit the summer home. Their favorite pastimes seems to be antagonizing each other. Mabel is not the first maid that Mr. Hunt has had a dalliance with. Despite the fact that he leads her on, in a sense he’s looking for something from her he doesn’t get from his wife anymore, and it’s not just sex. It’s the way Mabel looks at him with adoration and love that intrigues him, even if he’ll never end his marriage to take up with the maid. It’s just not done.

Most of the staff at Serabelle stay there in winter, maintaining the house for when the Hunts return the next spring. The season is winding down, and there’s some fretting over who will go back to Boston with them and who will remain employed at Serabelle. This is especially hard on Mabel as it’s her first season there and she’s pregnant now. The servants are seemingly counting down the days until they depart and they can go on about their lives without any interference from their employers.

There’s an intriguing subplot involving the son, Rupert, who still struggles with his identity, even though he is a lawyer who earns a good living. Something inside him still resents his father like a teenage boy. This leads to him being manipulated into a planned gem heist of the “rocks” his father has collected over the years. The gems are Mr. Hunt’s hobby, despite them being worth quite a bit of money.

Tavi Taylor Black does an excellent job here. Living so close to Maine, this book intrigued me a great deal. I never knew that the wealthy once gathered at Bar Harbor the same way they once gathered at Newport. The Maine setting is a bit more isolated, I think. Fewer people seem to congregate here than once populated Newport in the summer, but the idea is the same. All of her characters have depth and are more than what we see on the surface. For Mabel, it’s a time that forces her to grow up. This contrasts with her lover, Mr. Hunt, who really never grew up.

I found Serabelle to be an easy, enjoyable read. The characters were relatable and the setting is beautiful. The time period is familiar to many and it’s easy to pick up the dynamic that’s going on. Things are about to change for all of the people involved here. Mabel is the one who won’t accept her station in life and is the catalyst for the change the future holds here, and it’s easy to understand why. If you like Upstairs-Downstairs-type historical fiction, I think you’ll love this book.