But when Hazel is the stumbling block for their vengeance, Gloria turns her considerable wrath upon the unwitting Hazel. When Gloria arrives for Hazel's birthday party, she is accompanied by the uninvited Valentine, who is aiding and abetting Gloria with her retribution plan. Gloria, it seems, is in the mood for revenge against the butterfly net-wielding teacher, Miss Amelia Gumm. The situation causing this scene will disrupt Hazel's life but not nearly as much as actions set in motion by her new friend, Gloria. Although Hazel is riveted by this spectacle, it doesn't distract her from a distressing glimpse as they pass by Hazel's home in which she spies the family housekeeper, clearly terrified, running from the house. Gloria is escorted back to school with her head under the teacher's butterfly net. Gloria causes a stir and a scandal when, on a school-sketching expedition at a nearby pond, she produces an X-rated rendering. She adores her house-soiling pet dogs and spends her time working at an animal shelter (readers who enjoyed Julie Hearn's previous novel, IVY, are likely to be astonished and pleased when they realize the identity of Hazel's mother).Īt Hazel's school, the exclusive Kensington School for the Daughters of Gentlemen, Hazel is intrigued by a new student named Gloria. Hazel's mother has always been on the eccentric side. But how can she change her life? It feels like an impossibility.Īs Hazel's claustrophobic existence continues, it is lightened only by her fun-loving and affectionate father. She is bored with her many expensive toys the only one she still plays with is a rocking horse, on which she gallops while imagining a wild ride into exotic lands.

In her cosseted, luxurious, sheltered life, Hazel feels that she is at a crossroads. Hazel vaguely knows that suffragists are women who demand the right to vote. Sneaking into her father's den to read the newspaper, she discovers that the lady is a suffragist. While Hazel's father is preoccupied and refuses to discuss the wounded woman, Hazel is resourceful. He shouts about 'you and your lot,' claiming that nothing positive can come from their cause.

As if this wasn't intriguing enough, immediately after the accident a man in the crowd attacks a female spectator.

The crowd is distracted when a woman in a black coat dashes into the path of the horses and is kicked in the head, severely wounding her. Hazel Louise Mull-Dare is nearly 13 years old on a June day in 1913 when she and her father attend a horse race near their London home, an event that will change her life forever - in more ways than one.

Hazel by julie hearn