The Hangman in the Mirror by Kate Cayley

I love it. Francoise is a great character, and she tells her story in a way that all of the words flow together beautifully. As a young woman about to be hanged, her thoughts aren't jumbled and scared, they're actually kind of calculating. (Not in a cold calculating way.) In a I'm going to be hanged way. She knows what she's done is wrong, and she was going to put them back, but she got caught first. Francoise is very complex and likeable character, and, well, she was real! Isn't it awesome when authors reimagine events like that? Anyways, Loved it.

Here's the Blurb:

A strong-willed 16-year-old girl fights for survival in 18th-century North America.

Françoise Laurent has never had an easy life. The only surviving child of a destitute washerwoman and wayward soldier, she must rely only on herself to get by. When her parents die suddenly from the smallpox ravishing New France (modern-day Montreal), Françoise sees it as a chance to escape the life she thought she was trapped in.

Seizing her newfound opportunity, Françoise takes a job as an aide to the wife of a wealthy fur trader. The poverty-ridden world she knew transforms into a strange new world full of privilege and fine things - and of never having to beg for food. But Françoise's relationships with the other servants in Madame Pommereau's house are tenuous, and Madame Pommereau isn't an easy woman to work for. When Françoise is caught stealing a pair of her mistress's beautiful gloves, she faces a future even worse than she could have imagined: thrown in jail, she is sentenced to death by hanging. Once again, Françoise is left to her own devices to survive ... Is she cunning enough to convince the prisoner in the cell beside her to become the hangman and marry her, which, by law, is the only thing that could save her life?

Based on an actual story and filled with illuminating historical detail, THE HANGMAN IN THE MIRROR transports readers to the harsh landscape of a new land that is filled with even harsher class divisions and injustices.

                                   I give this Book Four Stars. I recieved it via NetGalley.