Skip to main content

Fortune's Daughter by Dilly Court published by Harper Collins

 





The Carey family call Rockwood home until their flighty mother goes off to London to seek fame and fortune as an opera singer, a successful career she gave up when she married their father, a botanist who also goes off to locate some lost plants up a remote mountain in Asia.

Abandoned by their parents and left to fight for themselves, the children comprising of headstrong Rosalind Carey, sister Patricia, brother Bertie who stands to inherit the castle, bookworm Walter and their grandfather Sir Lucien who is suffering with dementia after a long career in the Navy.

But their once much-loved home is crumbling like the family that lives within it.  Living hand to mouth and desperate to provide for the estate that depends on them, the Carey family are one debt away from ruin. Until the day comes when the dashing Piers Blanchard appears on their doorstep from Cornwall, claiming he is Rosalind’s distant cousin and that Rockwood Castle is his.


Piers says he wants to help pay off the family’s debts. But how can Rosalind be sure he isn’t out to take what is his and leave them all homeless?

This is a novel set Devon in 1839 and not my usual type of book, however I found it really enjoyable, although it did feel extremely long! At the very start of the book, Rosalind is a young girl who encounters smugglers and this story stays in the background.

To me the characters were like something out of a Jane Eyre  or Daphne Du Maurier novel, and I could often see myself imagining Judy Dench as Lady Pentelow, and Keira Knightly as Rosalind…the jury is still out in my mind as to who would play Piers!

The book was pure escapism and if you love the classics like Pride and Prejudice or Jamaica Inn then you will love this story. I am delighted to learn that this is the first of six books in this series.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

REVIEW: Confessions Of A Forty-Something F**ck Up by Alexandra Potter

  Confessions Of A Forty-Something F**k Up by Alexandra Potter published by Pan Macmillan   Nell Stevens’ life is a mess – moving back to London from LA after her business goes bust and her relationship fails she notices that many things have changed. Her friends are now all settled with children, and she is forced to rent a room in a house. Life just feels like it’s f**ked up!. When Nell gets a job writing obituaries, she first encounters Cricket, an eighty-something widow with challenges of her own, and they strike up an unlikely friendship. Together they begin to help each other heal their aching hearts, cope with the loss of the lives they had planned, and push each other into new adventures and unexpected joys. Because Nell is determined. Next year things are going to be very different. It's time to turn her life around.   Initially I didn’t think I was going to like this book, as I mistakenly thought it was transcripts of a podcast, but how wrong was I? Th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Weekend Away by Sarah Alderson

The Weekend Away by Sarah Alderson Published by Avon Books 4 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐ New Mum Orla and Party girl Kate have been best friends forever and so with Orla adapting to motherhood, and Kate facing a messy divorce, they decide to have a girl’s weekend away in Lisbon. Kate has booked the perfect apartment, complete with hot tub and they kick the weekend off in style with champagne, a fancy dinner, and drinks at a trendy bar. Returning to the apartment that evening Orla feels a bit woozy and goes to bed but the next morning, she wakes up very groggy and is convinced that her drink was spiked and she tries to piece the night back together again. When she checks on her friend, Kate is not in the apartment, and hasn’t left a note – she has simply disappeared. As Orla frantically retraces their steps she makes a series of discoveries that may change her life forever. The main character in this book is Orla who is been married to Rob, together they have baby Marlow who they conceived with IV...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: One Enchanted Evening

One Enchanted Evening by Anton du Beke My rating: 4 of 5 stars Anton Du Beke has his finger in many pies, professional dancer, singer, entertainer and now he can add novelist to the list. One Enchanted Evening is set in the ballroom of a London hotel in the 1930s and tells the story of Raymond De Guise, the principle dancer, chambermaid Nancy, and porter Billy who all work downstairs, behind the scenes of the hotel. As you would expect dancing is a big feature in this book, but also surprisingly was the politics of the time, which I found added another dimension to the story. If you like Downton Abbey or The Halcyon (the ITV drama set in a hotel) or Upstairs Downstairs, you will love this book. An enjoyable debut novel from Mr Du Beke. View all my reviews
Post a Comment
Read more