Tag: historical romance

#BookReview Dublin’s Girl by Eimear Lawlor @Aria_Fiction

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Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Dublin’s Girl by Eimear Lawlor. My thanks to Vicky at Aria for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my digital review copy via NetGalley. Dublin’s Girl was published as an ebook on 28th January and will be available in hardcover in April.

Dublin's GirlAbout the Book

1917. A farm girl from Cavan, Veronica McDermott is desperate to find more to life than peeling potatoes. Persuading her family to let her stay with her aunt and uncle in Dublin so she can attend secretarial college, she has no idea what she is getting into. Recruited by Father Michael O’Flanagan to type for Éamon de Valera, Veronica is soon caught up in the danger and intrigue of those fighting for Ireland’s independence from Britain.

The attentions of a handsome British soldier, Major Harry Fairfax, do not go unnoticed by Veronica’s superiors. But when Veronica is tasked with earning his affections to gather intelligence for Sinn Féin, it isn’t long before her loyalty to her countrymen and her feelings for Harry are in conflict. To choose one is to betray the other…

Format: ebook (278 pages)                    Publisher: Aria
Publication date: 28th January 2021 Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance

Find Dublin’s Girl on Goodreads

Purchase links
Amazon UK
Links provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

Published to coincide with the centenary of the end of the Irish War of Independence in 1921 and inspired by real life events, the book transports the reader to the city of Dublin in the wake of the Easter Rising in 1916, a troubled period of Ireland’s history.

I enjoyed witnessing Dublin through Veronica’s eyes. With its grand hotels, tearooms and picture houses it’s a far cry from the countryside where she grew up. If you’re familiar with the city, I’m sure you’ll be able to follow Veronica’s travels in your mind’s eye. As vividly conveyed by the author, it’s a city where wealth resides side by side with extreme poverty, poor housing and children scrabbling for scraps in alleyways. Furthermore, hanging over much of the population is the threat of arrest – or worse – by British forces.

Thanks to her shorthand and typing skills, Veronica gets to rub shoulders with some of the key figures in the fight for Irish independence, in particular Michael Collins. It’s a role not without danger because of the frequent raids on the Sinn Féin offices, although Veronica has already demonstrated her courage and commitment to the cause earlier in the book. Like Veronica, the reader gets to witness key events such as Sinn Féin’s victory in the 1918 election, the establishment of an independent parliament (the Dail Eireann) and, eventually, the birth of the Irish Free State.

The historical aspects of the story I found especially interesting, filling in many gaps in my knowledge of Irish history during this period.  The relationship between Veronica and Harry, while touching and heartfelt did seem to rely a fair bit on coincidence – or perhaps it was fate? And I had my doubts about how useful the few bits of information Veronica gleaned from Harry over tea and scones would have been. However, Harry’s more enlightened view of the Irish people’s situation made an interesting counterpoint to the attitude of other British soldiers. It was certainly easy to understand Veronica’s conflicted feelings. “She wanted to be repulsed by him, she wanted to hate him, but she felt herself becoming comfortable in his company.” No doubt the handsome Harry’s broad shoulders and ‘chiselled chin’ helped a bit!

As they find themselves on opposing sides of a conflict, can there be a place in Veronica’s life for Harry, her ‘guardian angel’? You’ll have to read the book – and its touching epilogue – to find out.

In three words: Dramatic, emotional, engaging

Try something similar: The Girl From Vichy by Andie Newton

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Eimear LawlorAbout the Author

Dublin’s Girl is Eimear Lawlor’s first novel and is inspired by the true story of her aunt who typed for Éamon De Valera. She lives with her family in Kilkenny. (Photo credit: author Facebook profile)

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#BookReview The House in the Hollow by Allie Cresswell @alliescribbler

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Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for The House in the Hollow by Allie Cresswell. My thanks to Allie for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my digital review copy of the book.

The House in the Hollow by Allie CresswellAbout the Book

The Talbots are wealthy. But their wealth is from ‘trade’. With neither ancient lineage nor title, they struggle for entrance into elite Regency society. Finally, aided by an impecunious viscount, they gain access to the drawing rooms of England’s most illustrious houses.

Once established in le bon ton, Mrs Talbot intends her daughter Jocelyn to marry well, to eliminate the stain of the family’s ignoble beginnings. But the young men Jocelyn meets are vacuous, seeing Jocelyn as merely a brood mare with a great deal of money. Only Lieutenant Barnaby Willow sees the real Jocelyn, but he must go to Europe to fight the French. The hypocrisy of fashionable society repulses Jocelyn – beneath the courtly manners and studied elegance she finds tittle-tattle, deceit, dissipation and vice.

Jocelyn stumbles upon and then is embroiled in a sordid scandal which will mean utter disgrace for the Talbot family. Humiliated and dishonoured, she is sent to a remote house hidden in a hollow of the Yorkshire moors. There, separated from family, friends and any hope of hearing about the lieutenant’s fate, she must build her own life – and her own social order – anew.

Format: ebook (300 pages)                        Publisher: N/A
Publication date: 10th November 2020 Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance

Find The House in the Hollow on Goodreads

Purchase links*
Amazon UK (99p for a limited time)
*Link provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

The House in the Hollow (a prequel to the author’s award-winning Tall Chimneys ) opens with Jocelyn Talbot’s journey to the house of the title, with its eerie atmosphere of gloom and melancholy.   For Jocelyn it is the beginning of a period of exile the full reason for which will only gradually be revealed.  As she gets used to the isolation of her new surroundings she recalls earlier, happier days when, as the daughter of a wealthy family, her expectations of life were very different.

As an aficionado of Jane Austen, the author does a great job of replicating the satirical edge that Austen brought to her observations of contemporary society. For example, the disdain with which an offer to take tea is greeted rather than the sign of more favoured status, an invitation to dine. I particularly enjoyed the description of a dinner party at Binsley House, home of the eccentric Sir Diggory, at which casual snobbery, social pretensions, “fashion and empty affectation” are laid bare. Fans of Pride & Prejudice will also enjoy the efforts of various ladies to procure advantageous marriages for their daughters.

By introducing the point of view of Annie Orphan (so named because she was taken from the workhouse into service in the Talbot household along with another orphan, Sally), the reader gets a fascinating insight into the daily routine of servants in a large house. It also provides another perspective on the events that have led to Jocelyn’s exile. There are moments of melodrama too, many of which involve the magnificently named Lord Petrel.

I liked that the author took the opportunity to add diversity to the story by introducing a couple of characters who would definitely not have found a place in a Jane Austen novel. Moreover, that these characters are given responsible and useful positions in society. Continuing this egalitarian theme is Jocelyn’s gradual unpicking of the barriers that society imposes between her and the household servants, what she describes as a ‘very ridiculous, utterly artificial separation’.

I really enjoyed The House in the Hollow which, for me, had just the right combination of period detail, social history, romance and skillfully constructed storyline.  No surprise then that Tall Chimneys has been added to my wishlist.  To find out more about the inspiration for the book and how it became a lockdown project, check out Allie’s guest post hosted by Nicola at Short Book and Scribes.

In three words: Dramatic, engrossing, assured

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Allie CresswellAbout the Author

Allie Cresswell was born in Stockport, UK and began writing fiction as soon as she could hold a pencil. She did a BA in English Literature at Birmingham University and an MA at Queen Mary College, London. She has been a print-buyer, a pub landlady, a book-keeper, run a B&B and a group of boutique holiday cottages. Nowadays Allie writes full time having retired from teaching literature to lifelong learners. She has two grown-up children, two granddaughters, two grandsons and two cockapoos but just one husband – Tim. They live in Cumbria, NW England.

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