Christina

London, 1933. A young woman named Christina has lost her parents and finds herself utterly alone in a city that offers no safety net for women without means. Desperate for work as a governess, she scours the newspapers with mounting despair, until a matrimonial advertisement catches her eye, promising a way out of her loneliness. What she doesn't know is that this same ad was planted as a prank by a group of wealthy young men in a country manor, a joke aimed at the bachelor Rupert Mernside. When Christina responds, her genuine desperation collides with their careless amusement, and the results are as touching as they are comic. Moberly writes with sharp observation about the precarious position of unmarried women in Depression-era England, where marriage was less about romance than about survival. Yet the novel refuses to become mere social criticism, its wit sparkles, its romantic complications delight, and Christina emerges as a character whose quiet dignity and humor make her impossible not to root for. A forgotten gem that captures a specific moment in women's history while delivering the satisfactions of a well-crafted romantic comedy.