Category: HF Reading Challenge

#BookReview #Ad No Life for a Lady by Hannah Dolby

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No Life for a LadyAbout the Book

Violet Hamilton is a woman who knows her own mind. Which, in 1896, can make things a little complicated…

At 28, Violet’s father is beginning to worry she will never find a husband. But every suitor he presents, Violet finds a new and inventive means of rebuffing. Because Violet does not want to marry. She wants to work, and make her own way in the world.

But more than anything, she wants to find her mother Lily, who disappeared from Hastings Pier 10 years earlier. Finding the missing is no job for a lady, but when Violet hires a seaside detective to help, she sets off a chain of events that will put more than just her reputation at risk.

Can Violet solve the mystery of Lily Hamilton’s vanishing before it’s too late?

Format: eARC (328 pages)                 Publisher: Aria
Publication date: 2nd March 2023 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find No Life for a Lady on Goodreads

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Hive | Amazon UK
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My Review

Those looking for a light-hearted, cosy historical mystery will find they’ve come to the right place with No Life for a Lady. Violet is a sparky, likeable character who is determined to resist her father’s efforts to marry her off. There’s fun right from the beginning as Violet recalls the ways she’s managed to fend off potential suitors to date. This includes pushing one such unfortunate into a boating lake and inserting a hot teapot between herself and another.

It was unclear to me why Violet has waited ten years to make a serious attempt to investigate her mother’s disappearance but once she embarks upon it she has no intention of stopping. Except that her chosen detective turns out to be no ‘knight in shining armour’. (Violet, you should have trusted your instincts). Suddenly, Violet wonders if she’s really ready to find out her mother’s secrets and to have them become the talk of the ladies of Hastings, not to mention the men. She’d wanted discretion, wishing to keep the investigation from her father.

Although it makes for some slapstick humour, I wouldn’t have minded if the author had made Violet slightly less ditzy. She’s frequently tripping over things, bumping into lamp posts and even getting locked inside a price of furniture at one point.  She’s also rather naive although, to be fair, that does lead to some laugh out loud moments, such as Violet’s errand on behalf of a Mrs Monk, the same lady who corrects a few of Violet’s misapprehensions about ‘marital intimacy’.  And, for a prospective detective, Violet is a little quick to reach conclusions based on limited evidence, including about one particular person.  However, she’s up for pretty much anything – except house cleaning – leading one character to remark ‘You are the most infuriating female I’ve ever met’.

Set in 1896, there’s a nice depiction of a Victoran seaside town complete with bathing carriages, small boys dressed in sailor suits and ladies promenading in their finery, although I’m not sure the phrase ‘get his finger out’ would have been in common parlance then. If I’m wrong, I stand corrected.

Finding the solution to the mystery of her mother’s disappearance provides Violet with grounds for believing she has what it takes to become a detective. It also signals there is potentially more fun to come in the company of this particular Lady Detective.

I received a digital review copy courtesy of Aria Fiction via NetGalley.

In three words: Light-hearted, funny, entertaining

Try something similar: Duels and Deception by Cindy Anstey

Hannah DolbyAbout the Author

Hannah Dolby’s first job was in the circus and she has aimed to keep life as interesting since. She trained as a journalist in Hastings and has worked in PR for many years, promoting museums, galleries, palaces, gardens and even Dolly the sheep. She completed the Curtis Brown selective three-month novel writing course, and she won runner-up in the Comedy Women in Print Awards for this novel with the prize of a place on an MA in Comedy Writing at the University of Falmouth.  She currently lives in London. (Photo: Twitter profile)

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#BookReview #Ad The Paris Sister by Adrienne Chinn

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The Paris SisterAbout the Book

Three sisters separated by distance but bound by love

The Fry sisters enter the Roaring Twenties forever changed by their experiences during the Great War. Now, as each of their lives unfold in different corners of the globe, they come to realise that the most important bond is that of family.

Desperate to save the man she loves, Etta leaves behind the life she has made for herself in Capri and enters the decadent world of Parisian society with all its secrets and scandals.

Celie’s new life on the Canadian prairies brings mixed blessings – a daughter to adore, but a husband who isn’t the man who holds her heart.

In Egypt, Jessie’s world is forever changed by a devastating loss.

And back in London – where each of their adventures began – their mother Christina watches as the pieces of her carefully orchestrated existence begin to shatter…with implications for them all…

Format: eARC (480 pages)                Publisher: One More Chapter
Publication date: 3rd February 2023 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find The Paris Sister on Goodreads  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61958697-the-paris-sister

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Hive | Amazon UK
Links provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

The Paris Sister is the second book in the author’s series featuring the three Fry sisters – Cecilia (Celie) and non-identical twins, Jessica (Jessie) and Etta – to whom we were first introduced in Love in a Time of War which I read back in March 2022 as part of the blog tour. The Paris Sister can be read as a standalone as there are occasional references to events in the previous book but in order to get into the story as quickly as possible it probably helps to have read the first instalment.  Although quite a chunky read, the short chapters and frequent changes of point of view keep it feeling well-paced.

The events in Love in a Time of War unfolded in the years from 1913 to 1919, with occasional trips back to the 1890s. The Paris Sister takes us through the 1920s, very much ‘The Roaring Twenties’ in the case of Etta who finds herself rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous, including Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Man Ray. Very much, ‘Oh, is that Josephine Baker dancing on the table over there?’.

The sisters and their mother all find themselves faced with challenges.  In the case of Christina, a secret she hopes will never be revealed puts her in a position where she can be manipulated by others. But she wouldn’t be Christina if she didn’t find a way to fight back.

For Celie, it’s coming to terms with her new life in Alberta, trying to put behind her memories of Max, her first love, and coping with her husband Frank’s very traditional views on the role of women.  I liked the way, little by little, she manages to achieve a small degree of independence.

For Jessie, it’s the challenge of building a life in Egypt for herself and her husband Aziz at a time of political turmoil in that country, navigating the trials of a multi-racial marriage and facing up to her formidable mother-in-law who is aghast at Jessie’s ambition to become a doctor. Jessie also longs to give Aziz the child he wants.

I confess I faced my own personal challenge with feeling any sympathy for Etta.  I found her abandonment of her daughter and Carlo, her husband, imprisoned on a charge of murder, to spend time living it up in Paris difficult to empathise with. I wouldn’t have blamed Carlo if he’d told her to get lost.

By the way, those who love a chance encounter will be amply rewarded by some coincidences that I term ‘Casablanca moments’, as in ‘Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world she walks into mine’.

Just as in Love in a Time of War, the concluding chapters of The Paris Sister find the sisters at pivotal moments in their lives and, as yet, unaware how the Great Depression will affect their futures. So plenty to look forward to in the next book in the series.

My thanks to One More Chapter for my digital review copy via NetGalley.

In three words: Sweeping, emotional, absorbing

Try something similar: The Hidden Palace (Daughters of War #2) by Dinah Jefferies

Love In a Time of War - Adrienne_Chinn_24_6_21_210lo_res_OnlineAbout the Author

Adrienne Chinn was born in Grand Falls, Newfoundland, grew up in Quebec, and eventually made her way to London, England after a career as a journalist. In England she worked as a TV and film researcher before embarking on a career as an interior designer, lecturer, and writer. When not up a ladder or at the computer writing, she often can be found rummaging through flea markets or haggling in the Marrakech souk.

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