The Button Maker's Daughter- Merryn Allingham

In the warmth of May 1914, Elizabeth Summer is taking stock of her options.  After the season in London and two proposals of marriage declined, she is happy to return to the family mansion.  Here she can paint and wander in the gardens with her brother and his young friend from school.

With rumblings of war, a disgruntled uncle and parents who are determined to marry her off Elizabeth senses that change is coming  then she meets Aiden a young architects assistant, who has dreams of heading to Canada.

With echoes if Downton Abbey, I still quite enjoyed the book as the character Elizabeth is likable and seems to want more for herself, a future as an artist and to be free to vote and to marry whoever she wants.  It is hard to imagine how our own lives may have been so different living a century ago and how much for dom we take for granted. 4/5