Unconventional Daughters: An Engrossing Family Saga on Two Continents
by Bruce W. Bishop
Historical Fiction
Would you marry your stepfather? This situation is one of many dilemmas facing the women of a family separated by the Atlantic Ocean and a world of secrets and deception. Can Eva Carroll, a young feminist and budding journalist, have a happy marriage to her stepfather, and manage to placate the conventions of the day? ... It’s 1920. The Great War is over. Everyone is optimistic. Eva is the daughter of one of three sisters who have already been leading unorthodox lives. Although born in Boston, she now lives with her mother Elisabet, stepfather, and Swedish grandparents in the small Canadian coastal town of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Somewhat naive, Eva falls in love with her stepfather, only nine years her senior. When he seduces her, and her mother is told of the affair, Elisabet surprisingly condones the relationship. But she imposes a condition — her daughter and her second husband must marry after she divorces him. In the meantime, Eva’s two aunts living in Sweden decide to move to Canada to rejoin their sister. One aunt, obsessed with social status, has bought her title of ‘countess’, while the other has a quiet loving relationship with her female housemate. When the three sisters get together, their family background in Sweden is laid shockingly bare as they learn the truth about their parents and a brother they had never known. As it’s almost impossible to keep Eva’s marriage to her stepfather quiet in this conservative community during the Roaring ‘20s, Eva and her family
