I believe this to be the third novel I’ve read in 2026 set in the Gilded Age. Along with An American Beauty by Shana Abé and The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin, Peregrine Hill offers the sort of drama unique to such novels, and to a time period when certain wealthy families tried clinging to the lives they knew, even as the world around them was rapidly evolving.

The novel begins with the viewpoint of Isabelle Bishop. After a tragedy claimed the lives of her husband and three of her children (they perished in a shipwreck), Isabelle has been working to provide for herself, her elderly mother, and her one surviving daughter, nineteen-year-old Mariah. Mariah has already proved to be difficult: after a confused affair with a wealthy man, she became pregnant out of wedlock. Isabelle has managed to find a new home for the baby but has not fully forgiven her daughter.

Neither has society. Isabelle has been trying to win over the elderly Mr. Whitten, one of New York’s wealthiest men. But when at last he agrees to a marriage, it is not to Isabelle but to Mariah. Somehow, he has found out about the baby; if Mariah should turn him down, he will release her secret to the public and shame her. Isabelle sees no better option than to force Mariah into this marriage; in doing so, she loses the love and trust of her only surviving child.

At Whitten’s home, Peregrine Hill, Mariah’s only form of escape is story. She begins filling pages with stories and then casting them into the fire before anyone else can read them. When Hetty, an ambitious young ladies’ maid, realizes what is going on, she encourages Mariah not to destroy her work but to publish it. Hetty helps Mariah publish two stories in Harper’s magazine. It is a risk, though, as the stories are based on the life of Mr. Whitten; it’s only a matter of time before someone figures it out.

While Mariah struggles to adjust to this new life, her mother grapples with a different sort of restlessness. She has been so bent on survival since the wreck that she was not at peace to grieve. After turning Mariah over to Mr. Whitten, Isabelle begins making risky decisions spurred on by a midlife crisis and an agonized longing for her lost family. She enters a romantic affair with a man no one could ever have expected. She becomes obsessed with reclaiming what is hers, even if in doing so she hurts more people. She is proof that profound grief cannot be ignored forever.

My favorite character in Peregrine Hill was Lavinia Van Wye. She is a widow, a woman closer to Whitten’s age who actually cares for him and hoped to marry him, but he passed her over for Mariah because he wanted heirs that Lavinia could not provide. Though there is resentment toward Mariah, Lavinia is not without compassion for her youth. She might be wealthy, but in the end, she is another woman struggling to find security in a man’s world.

Even as old customs begin to change, Mariah, Lavinia, Isabelle, and Hetty are challenged to stand up for themselves and their own dignity. Their struggles might have looked different, but they were rooted in the same systems of oppression and inequality. They must survive; they must make do. Marriage does not solve their problems; no, only wit and nerves of steel will get them to happy endings.

The Gilded Age was unique—outwardly it was caught in the past, but under all of the lace and silk was the light of change, preparing to break through. Peregrine Hill illustrates this era beautifully and with superb skill.