The Orphan of Cemetery Hill by Hester Fox

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

We are introduced to Tabby as a child in Boston Massachusetts. In the 1800s. She and her sister have escaped their aunt and uncle for fear of performing works of spiritualism.

They were using her gift to make them money.

It must have been awful for her to be taken advantage of like a slave while being made fun of. So to protect Tabby, Alice leaves her on the steps of a church to go find help and doesn't come back. I don't know what she was hoping to find. They were in danger of men like Mr. Whitby who were hunting them. Mr. Whitby knew they had the gift and it's what he wanted them for. Science. It happened that they caught the wrong girl. It was Tabby they wanted. Anyway, Tabby never tells anyone about her gift, and lives in a cemetery, with the caretaker of the graveyard Eli, and meets a young boy whose name is Caleb.

Caleb inherits his father's shipping business but he was a cruel and abusive father and Caleb didn't want any of it. He was always interested in architect and design. He dreams of having his name on a plaque for such architect masterpieces as seen in London.
He meets Tabby in the Cemetery and is pulled by a strong attraction that would carry them both through the tough times and the dark ones. It was a budding romance and I'm here for it. Caleb was to marry Rose Hammond however, but she was found dead and made to look like Caleb was the chief suspect. The real perpetrator walked Scott free and that is the injustice of it. Highly intelligent, Harvard educated and wealthy men aka the resurrection men, were the bulwarks of a mad and evil society, the likes of which Tabby dares to confront and accuse of the murder of Rose Hammond.

Tabby believed Caleb was innocent because she spoke to the spirit of Rose that told her who killed her so there's that. Since then she's been trying to save his ass but every time he runs away. He flees to London on a boat from Boston and accidentally finds a portrait in a window of someone who looks just like Tabby. It was her sister Alice!

I was elated at the news that Caleb would meet her. After seeing a portrait in a pawn shop window he was off in search of her and that leads him to Edinburgh. He gets a job after being robbed and beaten of all his pocket change. I liked Caleb for many reasons but mostly because he was not a drinker and he loved to draw. He did have a bad habit of gambling though. If it weren't that Tabby was in trouble and needed him, I am sure he would have stayed in Edinburgh in his dream job of being an architect. Just before he sailed back to Boston with Alice, his boss offered him a promotion. I like to think he goes back someday because the book didn't tie up that thread I can only imagine the HEA for Caleb and Tabby.