The Cotton Mill Trilogy by Ann-Christin Antell continues to steal hearts: this wildly popular series has now sold 200.000 copies in Finland.
The Cotton Mill Trilogy is the perfect mix of history, entertainment, social justice, and romance. The trilogy starts in the late 1800s in Turku with The Shadow of the Cotton Mill, following young widow Jenny Malmström. Jenny is kind, strong-headed, and determined to do whatever she can to improve the workers’ conditions at the local cotton mill. Until one day she meets Fredrik, the cotton mill owner’s son, and things become infinitely more complicated as the two are drawn to each other: should Jenny follow her head, or her heart?
In Heir to the Cotton Mill, Martta, Jenny’s foster daughter, returns to Turku after studying in Stockholm for years. She finds the city profoundly changed, and so is she: born to a working class family who lived in poverty, Martta has now become part of a wealthy and powerful family, and she struggles to find her place in the world and her social identity. To make matters even more complicated, she meets her childhood friend Juho after many years, and is drawn to him. At the same time she is also introduced to the dandy Robert, who welcomes her into the Turku social circles, and is attracted to him, too. Troubles lie ahead but thankfully a happy ending is in the cards.
The trilogy peaks in Rival to the Cotton Mill, in which readers follow Paula, Martta’s daughter. It is the Roaring Twenties, and Paula is a modern woman: she drives a car, attends parties, and has an important role in the family business. One day news come that a rival business owner is planning on buying the cotton mill, effectively acquiring everything Paula’s family has built in generations. Paula is furious, but when she meets the young Rikhard Falke she finds herself irresistibly drawn to him, and it seems history is repeating itself.
The rights to the The Cotton Mill Trilogy, published in Finland by Gummerus, have already been sold for Danish, Dutch, French, Icelandic, and Swedish.
Ann-Christin Antell (b. 1973) studied history and archaeology and worked as a librarian before embarking on her career as an author. Her debut novel The Shadow of the Cotton Mill (2021) climbed to the top of the Finnish bestseller lists, as did its sequel, Heir to the Cotton Mill (2022). The final installment in the Cotton Mill series, A Rival for the Cotton Mill, is scheduled for 2023.
Congratulations to the author and the publisher!