Sandra Gulland

Hortense is young woman about to cross the line from being a girl in the classroom to a woman and being viewed as marriage prospect. She's intelligent but feels she should downplay it to appear more attractive to men, she wants to be mature but finds it hard not to be swayed completely by her emotions.

From this book I learnt a lot about the period of history straight after the French Revolution and I didn't mind that is was being told from the perspective of more of a side character. However I found the ending disappointing, especially how it relates to the title word of 'hope'. I looked up the history of the real person Hortense and there really wasn't a lot of things to be hopeful or happy about in her future. I wish the book had included an epilogue explaining how the characters lives continued. In the end if felt like this book covered the first hill of Hortense's life while the mountain ranges of moral complexities in her future were just ignored.… (more)