The Beloved

Victorian times provide the setting for Alison Rattle’s historical fiction book “The Beloved.” Alice Angel, the main character, runs away from her controlling mother and enters the Agapemonites’ Abode of Love. Here, the former Reverend Henry Prince serves as the Beloved of his remote colony of ladies. Alice longs for freedom, but as she delves further into Prince’s peculiar religious cult, she learns of secrets that allude to a darker side that may be hiding beneath Prince’s allure. Alice is not free rather she is more confined, vulnerable, and alone than ever.