This week, we’re giving away three copies of The Jam Maker by Mary-Lou Stephens. Harriet Brown disguises herself as a boy to work in a jam factory. When her secret is exposed, she risks everything to reinvent herself, caught in a web of deception that could cost her everything. Inspired by real history, The Jam Maker is a tale of survival, ambition, and love. Here’s the blurb:
Jam is sweet but it can also burn.
Tasmania, 1874. Growing up in the impoverished tenements along the Hobart Rivulet, Harriet Brown is used to doing whatever it takes to survive. Including, at just twelve years old, shearing off her hair and pretending to be a boy to secure a job as label-paster at the George Peacock and Sons jam factory.
Four years later, the deceit becomes too much to bear and Harriet risks everything on the chance at a future with her ambitious friend and workmate Henry Jones. But this decision forces her into a new deception: play the role of expert jam maker, or else be cast out onto the streets.
As the secrets and lies grow, Harriet is driven to more and more desperate choices. Choices that will end with a dangerous secret which, if discovered, could destroy not only her life but the lives of those she loves and protects.
Intertwined with the fascinating history of the Tasmanian jam industry and the striking historical figure Henry Jones, The Jam Maker is a tale of danger, deceit and the desperate measures one woman will take to succeed in love and life.
If you’d like to win a copy, simply enter your details in the form below. Three lucky people will win a copy!
Entries close midday (Syd/Melb time) Monday 14 April 2025. Winners will be notified within a week of the competition closing.
GOOD LUCK!