A little-known literary scandal gets a new perspective in Finola Austin's Bronte's Mistress. Lydia Robinson, a wealthy woman whose passionate heart is viewed with disdain by her husband, children, and mother-in-law, hires a pair of siblings to teach her children: formal, reserved Anne Brontë, and her free-spirited brother Branwell. Sparks fly between Lydia and the young tutor Branwell, but this kind of fire ends up burning them all.
Out Aug. 4