KIRKUS REVIEWS’ BEST BOOKS OF 2018

In 1815, a 5-year-old girl searches for Utopia in a post-Napoleonic Europe.

The girl, an abandoned love child, finds and then loses her beloved father. Will they ever find each other again? A touching tale of heartache told through a child’s eyes with truth, love and a bit of magic.

Sofia-Elisabete, the illegitimate child of Colonel Fitzwilliam, is a five-year-old firecracker with a true heart, an irrepressible spirit and a passion to be the best drummer girl. An inquisitive child, she senses the dark secrets surrounding her mysterious beginnings as a foundling in Portugal and the strange goings on in the tangled-up world of her troubled father, who adores her while harboring a great affection for someone called Mr. O.P. Umm.

Who is the enchanting Dona Marisa, who lures Sofia-Elisabete away in a search of the perfect world in the moon? Heartsick at being separated from her father, Sofia-Elisabete embarks on an odyssey in a post-Napoleonic continent in the company of Dona Marisa and her ragtag retinue, determined to find the utopia on the moon-a magical place where no one is ever sick or sad-and which she fervently believes will cure her father’s bouts with melancholy. Will Sofia-Elisabete’s childish innocence survive this emotional journey to find the perfect moon world?

I, Sofia-Elisabete, in part, reimagines the life and destiny of Colonel Fitzwilliam, the curiously evasive and opaque character in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

Sofia-Elisabete Stories

I, Sofia-Elisabete, Love Child of Colonel Fitzwilliam - Searching for Utopia in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars. A Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of 2018. Twelfth-Night Cake & the Rosings Ghost - Clashing with Lady Catherine of Rosings Park. Finalist, 2018 Wishing Shelf Book Awards. Only Sofia-Elisabete - Trusting love and her healing power. A Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of 2021, and B.R.A.G. Medallion honoree.