Nina de Gramont has a way of bringing history to life, as readers learned with her 2022 Reese’s Book Club pick The Christie Affair, an imagining of what happened to mystery writer Agatha Christie during her infamous 11 day disappearance. This fall de Gramont is back with more sharply written historical fiction. Set in Gilded Age New York, Peregrine Hill examines the struggles women have always faced to forge a life of their own in a male-dominated society.
The Bishop family enjoyed a moderately successful life in New York City … until a tragic accident upended their comfortable existence. Daniel Bishop planned to celebrate the turn of the century at the family’s lake home in Maine, but when his wife Isabelle spiked a fever, she and their eldest daughter stayed behind. In a cruel twist of fate, this illness saved the pair, as the ship Daniel and his other three children took to Maine sank during an unexpected storm.
Left with just her mother and 18-year-old Mariah, Isabelle sees only one way to secure her remaining family’s future: she must remarry—and marry well. Enter John Whitten, an extremely wealthy widower who is looking to marry again and produce an heir. Isabelle sets her sights on John, but he has a different plan in mind: It’s not Isabelle that he wants. No, John is determined to marry young Mariah. And with that much money and power, John Whitten gets what he wants.
Peregrine Hill is a beautifully executed novel that captures the grandiosity of this bygone era, while detailing the struggles that women of every station have long faced living under the thumbs of men. Desperate choices are made by each female character in order to not just survive, but to try and break free from their expected roles. Which leaves the reader pondering a central question: What are you willing to sacrifice—and what may be taken from you—in the pursuit of the life you want to live?
de Gramont’s writing is so smooth, while still feeling natural and authentic to the time period. She tells a dramatic story, yes, with no shortage of twists and turns to keep the plot interesting—but it is also full of heart and truth.
So much truth, in fact, readers may be surprised to learn that Peregrine Hill was inspired by the author’s own family history. While this novel fully stands on its own, I’d be lying if I said this fact doesn’t make for an even more interesting read. Protagonist Mariah Bishop is inspired by Nina de Gramont’s own great-grandmother, Dona Maria. As a teenager, Dona Maria was married off to a 57-year-old man who originally came to court her mother. Like Mariah, Dona Maria was trapped in a marriage forced by her family—but also like Mariah, she found ways to rebel against these restraints.
As she spends day after day feeling like a bird trapped in a gilded cage, Mariah leans into her love of writing as an escape. Mariah’s journey is also bolstered by a handful of intriguing secondary characters with adventures of their own. Mariah’s maid, Hetty—who also serves as an editor for her writing—is sure to be a particular favorite of readers with her sharp intellect and brazen nature. And jaws will drop as readers follow the unexpected storyline of Mariah’s mother, Isabelle.
In all truth, I don’t read a lot of historical fiction because so many of these stories tackle the same subjects and events without bringing fresh energy to the page. Nina de Gramont is an exception, though. She filters the past through a compelling new lens that keeps the pages turning, so count me in for whatever she is writing!
Peregrine Hill is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of November 10th 2026.
Will you be picking up Peregrine Hill? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Christie Affair comes a sweeping novel set in Gilded Age New York where a forced marriage, family secrets, and the fight for freedom collide in an unforgettable story about a desperate mother and headstrong daughter navigating a world built on men’s appetites and women’s silence.
“A luminous, entrancing novel…The Gilded Age springs to vivid life in these pages, but beware, for not all that glitters is gold.” —Nita Prose, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid series
At the dawn of the 20th century, widow Isabelle Bishop still believes in love—but she knows only money can save her. After losing her husband and three of her children in a shipwreck, she has one chance to rescue what remains of her family: her daughter Mariah and her elderly mother. When Isabelle captures the attention of John Whitten, one of New York’s wealthiest men, she dares to hope that fortune might finally favor her.
But Whitten’s interest is not in Isabelle—it’s in eighteen-year-old Mariah, still reeling from a romantic but disastrous scandal. When Whitten discovers the secret mother and daughter have tried to keep buried, he uses it to his advantage, threatening to expose them unless Mariah accepts his proposal. For the sake of their survival, Isabelle makes a devil’s bargain: She will urge her daughter into a marriage she knows could destroy her.
Mariah quickly realizes her husband’s home is a gilded cage. Yet even under his watchful eye, she begins to carve out passions of her own, finding an unexpected ally in her ambitious maid, Hetty, and daring to imagine a life beyond her constricted world. Together, she and Hetty risk everything to claim a measure of power and self-determination in a world that attempts to deny them both.
From the glittering parlors of Gilded Age New York to the windswept cliffs of Rhode Island, Peregrine Hill is a novel in the tradition of Edith Wharton and the Brontë sisters, about unlikely love affairs and the impossible choices women have always been forced to make.
