In an attic full of disposable treasures and lost memories, a young woman uncovers a locked wooden box. Letters wait to tell their treasured tales, inside a cocoon of yellowed cloth, bound by a fancy green ribbon and a small golden ring. Thus, the reader is drawn along into this beautifully contained story.

Paddy is not your average Irish male servant. In fact, Paddy is really Mina, a young woman who narrowly escaped the deadly horrors of the Irish famine with her elder brother, only to be left behind when their first passage sinks.

Wrongfully indentured to a woman who would use her in a brothel, she finds herself in the kitchen of Master Coates. Mina learns to cook as a much stronger bond forms between her and the quietly efficient Mr. Serle, head chef of the Coates' estate. Learning to trust someone with her most dangerous secrets, Mina must mature both physically and mentally, putting her misconceptions and misdirections behind her. Only then can she escape her past, embrace her dreams and inspire her new companion as well.

A beautifully wrought tale, MINA is inspiring, engaging and enlightening. Ms. Ceely's first novel evokes the lushness of the land, while showcasing the abject poverty within its borders and the fight to rise above it all. This is a book to treasure, as much as one treasures the human spirit. Readers will remember Mina long after the last page is turned.