Hen Fever: A Sapphic Victorian Romance

Hen Fever: A Sapphic Victorian Romance (2022) Olivia Waite

Set in England in 1856

The Bickerton Christmas Poultry Show is the event of the year, but one that has driven apart the citizens of the town.

They’d been fast friends once, until they’d caught the fancy. Now rumor was Miss Inch had trained her Pinwheel Bantams to attack Miss Rushcliff’s Scots Dumpies on sight.

(I)t’s only been ten years—Mrs. Outerbridge alone has grudges that are twice and three times as old as that.

Harriet Boyne and her friends moved to Thornycroft Hall after inheriting it from a woman who they became close to during the Crimean war.

Lydia Wraxhall has never left home, and doesn’t think she ever will.

She’d believed she’d only find love again if she left Bickerton, but she had been too cowardly to leave. It was daunting, to uproot an entire life—especially for a love you could never name outside of stolen whispers. Especially when her parents had already lost one child: her clear duty was to comfort them in her brother’s place.

When Lydia and Harriet meet over a flock of lost chickens, they commiserate over grief and loss, and then caring for the chickens.

This is a very cozy story, with a HEA not only for Lydia and Harriet, but also for the community of Bickerton.

Characters: Lydia Wraxhall, Harriet Boyne, Miss Inch , Miss Rushcliff, Peter Wraxhall, Lady Eccleston, Mrs. Goodfellow, Lizzie Crangle, Arun Dixit

Rating: 7/10

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