Many years after the death of Mrs. Blake’s son and only child, she has become quite lonely and depressed. She realizes her mistake in removing from her household staff of servants, the mother of her future grandchild. She felt she needed to find her lost grandchild and offer it an opportunity for a better life than it probably was living at the moment. She also hoped to recapture a part of the son she had lost.

In her pursuit of this goal she spends a large amount of money and emotional energy. She has lived with the guilt and pain of this for almost 14 years and it hasn’t gotten any easier for her. She also feels she could have been a better mother to her son if she would have had the strength to discipline him instead of spoiling him in almost every area of his life.

Sarah, at the age of 14, is living an orphanage on Drury Lane when Mrs. Blake’s solicitor is convinced he has finally located lost grandchild. The first few days after Sarah’s arrival to the Blake household were very difficult for Mrs. Blake because she was unable to recapture some of her feeling and memory of her son through Sarah’s presence. Sarah is encouraged to take her meals and spend time with the servants. This turned out to be an excellent opportunity for Sarah as she missed her friends at the orphanage. The servants accepted her with "open arms." Their support, love and affirmation gave her strength and courage and helped her to grow into a beautiful, loving adult.

Sarah struggles with her feelings of having a father somewhere that doesn’t care about her. She also struggles daily with an affliction that not only makes her an outcast in certain levels of society but makes simple daily tasks difficult and challenging. She learns to handle her challenges with the help of the friends in the household as well as her faith which grows through the regular attendance to church. Sarah’s qualities of beauty, intelligence and sensitivity combined with her wealth as heir to the Blake estate make her very attractive to their parish curator for the wrong motives.

The relationship of the servants, relatives of the servants and other characters give this book a warmth and feeling of family. Blackwell has given us not only a flavor of the life as a wealthy resident of London at the 1800s but also a story of intrigue and mystery. I very much enjoyed the trip Sarah took from the orphanage to Mayfair. Throughout the book Blackwell took us across London Bridge, Hyde Park, the Tower of London and into the slums of Drury Lane.

"The Maiden of Mayfair" is the first in Blackwell’s series entitled "Tales of London." The second book in the series, "Catherine’s Heart," revisits several of the characters from the first book and adds numerous new ones. "The Maiden of Mayfair" set the scene for the future books and gives us background on the families which are now evolving and growing in the second book.

The heroine of "Catherine’s Heart," is Sarah’s first cousin, Catherine Rayborn. The beginning of the book has Catherine leaving London to attend Girton, an all girl’s college situated near Cambridge. Once again Blackwell gives us an example of a painful lesson through Catherine’s experiencing a relationship she believed to be based on love. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at the changes in Sarah’s family and the part she plays in Catherine’s life.

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Lawana Blackwell took a few moments to address a few questions regarding her work.

Do you plan to build on the character of Curator – Ethan Sharp and possibly do a second book with him as the hero?

Blackwell stated that she is not planning on building on the Curator’s character but that he is mentioned in the second book, "Catherine’s Heart," as being administrator of a leper’s colony in India and has married an Indian woman. William Doyle sends him shipments of medication which indicates that the bitterness suffered in "The Maiden of Mayfair" is behind them.

Blackwell’s answer to this question is no, and that her target audience is women of all ages. However, she delights most in the letters from young girls who state that they have learned a lesson from reading one or more of her books.

Blackwell’s reason for this deletion is sensitivity to her readers. She feels that she likes to include numerous characters and at times makes a decision to "trim the list" which was the reason for not having a footman or butler in the Blake household. Her thought is that too many characters and personalities make it difficult for the reader to keep up with all of them.

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