Really good thought provoking read. This is a compelling read the whole way through. The story builds bit by bit and the shocks keep coming. There is a lot to this story and the ending along with the rest of the book will stay with me for a while. This is a really hard and harrowing read in places. People can be so cruel.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

This is must read i if you want to learn about life in the 1820's or just love a good read and a eye opening to the history and the way people use to think. Frannie has White Dad a Black Mum which was not the same as it is now in the eyes of the world whatever your race is today. The writing is as it would of been in this time period so the N word as it is referred to today is used in its various ways as well as other equally normal expressions for the time.
The story is based around the build up and trial of Frannie for the murder of 2 well to do whites both husband and wife. Fannie is thought to have a privilege life for her race in the eyes of society at the time and was involved in helping Lannie a slave owner in trying to work out of black's and whites were the same race and if a black could be educated. It seems impossible to believe how this was a issue but then having seen uTube there are some crazy fools out there in the words of Mr T. This is a work of fiction but the research done give us an eye opener to what people actually thought and did in this era. It was still another 80 years before women got the vote in the UK send line another world.
The story is well written and researched as I just mentioned, the characters are very believable in this setting the master and his wife Linux their housekeeper and other staff. This book may well have been banned if written in the 1800s but touches upon storylines that it will awaken society of how far we have come.
However back to the story which will hold your attention if you're like me and it was a true page turner that most of the time you have had no idea where you were going but will want to know. I love this book and hope you enjoy it too and and highly recommend it I don't think you'll be disappointed.

The Confessions of Frannie Langton, Sara Collins

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction.

A very disquieting novel. Written so well its easy to forget this is fiction, because sadly stories like it were real life for too many people – still are in certain parts of the world.

Its starts with the trial, and then reverts to Frannie's early life, how it differed from the other slaves once she reached a certain age. It left her in a kind of no-mans land, neither accepted by the slaves because of her differences, and of course never accepted by whites, her skin colour, heritage and position in life precluded that.
What it didn't preclude though was them using her, and poor Fannie has a pretty horrific life, culminating in the murder trial.
She's adamant she didn't do it, but the time is a blank to her, and the “evidence” is very strongly against her. When you read the story you'll understand why she says she simply could not have killed her mistress.

Its a mixture of Frannie's story, and the way people of any colour were regarded in those times, the way the ruling classes regarded anyone below them, whatever colour they were, as disposable, lesser, of having no feelings and they way they were used is shocking and yet horribly true.
There were things she had to do, no choice if she wanted to stay alive, that had me feeling really sick. Its easy from our safe world to say we'd never take part in such atrocities but if we were living her life, well, its a lot harder to decide. Those parts I skimmed over, just taking in the bare bones as I'm horribly squeamish and get nightmares, but always conscious that for many this WAS real life. Man ( men and women) really is one of the cruelest animals, there seems no end to the depravity they can conduct, and back then they had free rein citing their activities as “science” and therefore important.

Stars:Four, a perfectly written story, fascinating in parts but was just that bit too much for me to give a five to. One I'm glad I read, albeit skimming the more uncomfortable parts, but not for my re-readers files.

ARC supplied by Netgalley and publishers

A beautifully written book with vivid descriptions of places, people and thoughts. This book would make an excellent film as the writing is so visual and dramatic. Collins makes Frannie so convincing and her descriptions of the life and ordeals endured on the Jamaican plantations compelling reading. As we are taken back and forward from Jamaica to London in Frannie’s recollections we can see, hear and smell everything through Frannie. The writing is moving and Collins’s research and empathy is evident throughout.
The journey through Frannie’s life was compelling and sad. She had humour, intelligence and a lot of sorrow. An excellent read.

The pace is slow, the characters complex and well-rounded, the story thought-provoking and the prose is enthralling. All in all, an excellent novel, one that will stay with the reader long after s/he turns the last page.

This is the life story of the mulatto Frances Langton, growing up in Jamaica with her cruel “owner” and his wife, and put to paper by herself whilst she is awaiting hanging for an alleged double murder in England.
It is one of those books that wraps you up and reels you in and won’t allow you to put it down. A very confident and brutally honest style, you follow Frances through a desolate childhood full of wide-eyed fear. A world where a person can be sold or given as a gift, a terrifying, unspeakable world masquerading as scientific exploration. Only detraction for me was the overuse of similes.

I am pretty sure “The confessions of Frannie Langton” will become a book club favorite and a word by mouth recommendation once published. Sara Collins worked as a lawyer before turning her true passion, writing, into a career. Her lawyerly skills definitely flow into “The confession of Frannie Langton” which reminded me at times of “Washington Black” by Esi Edigyan . Here too a slave’s life is shaped by their master’s decision to be allowed an education and involved in scientific experiments. Although "The Confession of Frannie Langton" is written in a very different style, historical fiction mixed with a gripping murder mystery, the plight of people of color in the 19th century, male or female, is acutely portrayed. Written as a confession at the end of her trial at the Old Bailey after being accused of having murdered her Mistress and Master, Frannie peels away layer by layer of her life story until she arrives at the truth.

This is a powerful tale of a Jamaican slave, Frannie Langton, who arrives in London with her owner Langton after he had been expelled by his wife who is the owner of the sugar cane plantation “Paradise”. It is here where Frannie was brought up, allowed to read and write and help Langton with cruel and crazy experiments. She believes to be his confidant but he trades her in at the Belham estate where she learns that her whole life to this point has been an experiment these two men had dreamed up. Her life receives another twist when Madame, Marguerite Belham, an eccentric with a graving for laudanum and feminist ideas, falls for Frannie’s exotic looks and her free spirit seducing her into a lesbian relationship, the only love Frannie will ever experience.

I personally found the middle section of the novel too long and less captivating but the first third and the last third are brilliantly written, totally engrossing with a heartbreaking ending making it a fascinating read.

Excellent book with a great storyline. Characters that are so well written. I would highly recommend this book to anyone!

I usually love Gothic novels but this one just doesn't live up to its promise. The main character is interesting but a bit flat. I've just read a The Corset which is amazing and I loved Affinity. This just isn't quite good enough. The twists are really obvious and not very clever. Readable but not memorable.

I enjoyed the style of this book and how Frannie changed depending on the situation she was in. Parts were predictable but overall I enjoyed it!

A historical who-dunnit with a bit of slavery and whoring thrown in - so a bit of something for everyone!

Frannie is a maid, a slave, a whore, a ladies' companion, an addict - her role depends on her current master or mistress. Her confession is written as she awaits her trial for murder. But what is she confessing to? The stories from her past makes one's stomach turn much more than the crimes for which she has been accused.

A great tale although I did feel it could have benefited from a bit of judicious editing. It did seem to go on and on, and even I, not the most observant of readers, worked out Frannie's parentage in the early stages of the book so I could not share Frannie's shock at the late reveal.

The Confessions of Frannie Langton is a well written and engaging book. It tells a tough story of slave life in Jamaica, and then in London. Some parts could be a bit much for more squeamish or sensitive readers. But such things happened and are well documented (I studied them during my History degree) and are not overly described by Sara Collins, just there. I won't mention any spoilers but I shall probably buy the book when it is published as I would like to see the author's comments and reading list if she's included it. I didn't really like or warm to any of the characters in the book but that did not stop me enjoying the journey. I would imagine this appealing to readers who enjoyed The Kitchen House and similar black slave stories.