Not by Sight

by Kate Breslin

Gripping Sophomore Novel from a Rising Historical Romance Talent
With Britain caught up in WWI, Jack Benningham, heir to the Earl of Stonebrooke, has declared himself a conscientious objector. Instead, he secretly works for the Crown by tracking down German spies on British soil, his wild reputation and society status serving as a foolproof cover.
Blinded by patriotism and concern for her brother on the front lines, wealthy suffragette Grace Mabry will do whatever it takes to assist her country's cause. When she sneaks into a posh London masquerade ball to hand out white feathers of cowardice, she never imagines the chain of events she'll set off when she hands a feather to Jack.
And neither of them could anticipate the extent of the danger and betrayal that follows them--or the faith they'll need to maintain hope.

• ISBN10: 141048453X
• ISBN13: 9781410484536
• Publish Date: 6 January 2016 (first published 28 July 2015)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Thorndike Press
• Edition: Large type / large print edition
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 593
• Language: English

Reviews

[readingwithwrin]

My Rating: 4.5 stars

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"Women who, despite their own difficulties, came to trust one another with their secrets, their dreams, and their friendship while helping their countrymen ."



I’ve been wanting to read this book by Breslin for a while now, but due to other deadlines this one just kept getting pushed back. Thanks to ARC April though, I had the perfect excuse for putting this one first for a change.
This story is told from two perspectives. Grace Mabry, A young woman who is into suffrage work, and helping the war effort which in turn she hopes get her twin brother home sooner.
Then we have Jack Benningham, to the world he is a playboy, gambler and conscientious objector to the war. But he isn’t what he seems and we learn exactly what he has been up to while the rest of his countrymen went off to war.
After Grace finally convinces her father to let her and her maid Agnes work for the WFC (precursor to Land Army Girls) where they will be away from the bombings and helping the war effort as well. While there Grace makes friends with the other girls Becky, Lucy Clare and Mrs. Vance. This is where I really started to love this story. While Grace isn’t very good at most of the farm work she tries, sadly though trying isn’t always enough and she almost gets kicked out, but Lord Roxwood steps in and makes her his driver.
This is when things start to getting interesting. Lord Roxwood is Blind and wears a Hat/Face covering to hide it. While this doesn’t seem to scare Grace at all it does all of the other townspeople making him become very lonely. As they both get to know each other and see each other for who they truly are. The romance starts to slowly build, and while you can tell earlier on that they should be together you don’t know if the will be able to make it due to secrets and lies they both have told.

I did figure out who the real spy was it didn’t end up ruining the story, because you don’t know if the person who is being held prisoner will ever get out or not.


Overall I really loved this story and I can’t wait to read Breslin’s other historical fiction story soon.



"Be the duchess we all know you were meant to be."

I received an advance reader copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.