Devil Water by Anya Seton

This is an old-fashioned family saga of a historical novel by an author whose gift for creating memorable characters was matched by her painstaking research on the 1715 and 1745 Jacobite Rebellions and the families who clung to the dream of the Stuarts regaining the throne. The story begins in 1709, when Charles Radcliffe, barely 16, is getting into trouble with a girl below his station, while he waits for his brother, James, the young Earl of Derwentwater, to return from France.

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

This is an unusual novel told in letters, primarily from the perspective of Sybil Van Antwerp, a divorced grandmother in her 70s, who had a distinguished career as a lawyer. Sybil started writing letters as a child and takes pride in her correspondence but there is a dramatic contrast in her ability to communicate through writing vs her inability to maintain relationships with her immediate family.