Honestly, I did enjoy this book, despite also having many criticisms about it, of things that annoyed and grated me to no end. I found it kept me really absorbed and I could simply not put it down, much like with the previous Rosie Goodwin novel I read, The Lost Girl. Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
It was quite an emotional rollercoaster to be honest, and quite eventful too which I quite liked. The suspense was not quite as great as in the two other flower girls books (Our Dear Daisy and Our Sweet Violet) along with all the other Rosie Goodwin books I have read, with the stakes not being as high and thus was not quite as dark, but still kept me pretty hooked nevertheless.
However, as much as I enjoy my fairy tales, in this particular context of a historical fiction novel, I will admit that I did find it kind of annoying just how fairy tale-esque and unrealistic it got to the point it was pretty cliched and overly sentimental in parts, especially with the cliched ending. I mean it was always obvious that Lily was going to end up with Louis, but I feel like the ending of them ending up together was a bit too cliched and sugary. It probably wouldn't have been so bad if Louis hadn't have said "I love you-I think I have from the minute I set eyes on you" (come on you don't love someone the second you see them before knowing them, attracted maybe but not love). I'm aware that these are meant to be romance novels but I still find the ending a bit too cliched and sugary for my liking, though that is probably just me and is purely subjective of course. Also, while it is great Lily achieved her dreams of becoming a famous artist and very much went from rags to riches, it was still a bit unrealistic the way it happened, with her just coming across this artist in an art gallery in France who loved all her work. It might have made more sense if she had found connections through networking through Louis, who could have easily had loads of connections.
I also found Lily suddenly adopting this little waif girl, Merry, who she met off the streets to be a bit contrived as well, and didn't actually add a lot to the story, like it was just added on as another sweet and heartwarming part to the story, and yet another way of showing just how much of a kind person and good samaritan Lily was. It happened so close towards the end as well that it was kind of hard to get to know Merry and with everything that had happened it just wasn't really the time to get that invested in yet another character at this stage so late in the book. It was very tacked on I found, and just didn't have much point, especially as we had already seen Lily take in two other girls prior to this earlier in the story, first Annie then the fourteen year old kitchen maid who ran away from the manor after being abused by the cook whose name I actually forget now which goes to show you just how memorable she was, especially given I usually always remember names, which is really saying something! Oh wait I remember it now-Ginny! I just felt like this whole taking in strays storyline kept getting rehashed to the point it got really repetitive which was just kind of annoying, with her also having taken in a dog into the cottage then another dog into her new apartment. These strays who Lily kept taking in seemed to serve no purpose other than to show what a kind person and Good Samaritan Lily was.
That's another thing-Lily was an ultimate Mary Sue which I found really annoying! I found that she seemed to literally have no flaws (at least no significant ones that were addressed, with the odd flaw she did have being played for sympathy and as "not her fault"!), with everyone viewing her as this perfect angel/goddess, with the only people who didn't like her being those who were jealous of her. She didn't feel like a real character to me, but rather this embodiment of a saint who everyone adored, with Merry having made that more annoyingly clear than anyone with her annoying hero-worship of her! I understand she appreciated Lily saving her but the level of hero worship she showed was really annoying still, and again, did her admiration and love for Lily really need to be spelled out for us like this?! The only reason anyone could ever dislike her is if they were jealous of her rather than because of a certain flaw she may have. Honestly, it really annoyed me just how bloody perfect and flawless she seemed to be, to the point she may be the least relatable characters I have come across in fiction! I feel as well that the way other girls were compared to her in such a negative light, such as her sister Bridget and Samantha, was just yet another way of holding her in a shining light and just not right pitting other girls against each other like this. Samantha came across as a bit forced to be honest, with her horrible, belligerent, snobby attitude (especially towards Lily) being too forced and spelled out to us to the point she was very one-dimensional. She is of course like this because she is supposed to be a love rival to Lily and be one of the barriers that stands in the way of her and Louis getting together (not that she's an actual threat personally speaking given Louis makes his preference towards Lily very clear!) along with their class differences of course. It might have been more interesting had Louis's suitor been nicer and that he was still fond of her but only as a friend, much like with Lily and her own false love interest, Jean-Pierre (or Jean-Paul?) who by the way was another shoehorned character purely meant as another hurdle in the Lily/Louis love story only to then utilise the Pair the Spares trope with him and Arabella! Honestly, it was all so cliched and contrived that I felt like I was watching a cliched romance film. But doing that more complex characterisation with Samantha would have made things a bit more complex too, as it would have created more conflicting feelings for Louis I'm sure, and Lily if the girl had been nice to her, as it was all too obvious that Louis clearly had no interest in Samantha at all and only had eyes for Lily, but it would have been more interesting if his feelings for Lily weren't as obvious throughout the book and it had actually appeared that he might like this Samantha girl. The way it is even explicitly pointed out that Louis thinks Lily is so much nicer when it was already obvious, like it's not something we needed to be spelled out for us. Both Lily and Bridget also could have had more potential in regards to being more complex, three-dimensional characterisations, as opposed to the one-dimensional saint and narcissist they were respectively. Daisy and Violet in the other, succeeding Flower Girls books are a vast improvement as characters, being far from Mary Sues, with actual flawed, three-dimensional characterisations, which almost makes me wonder if Rosie Goodwin made these improvements in acknowledgement of this preceding book.
Also, the scenes with Robbie harassing her got far too repetitive which was annoying, and just didn't add anything, and the part towards the end of him kidnapping her and holding her hostage seemed a bit out of place, especially with it being two years after she left Nuneaton, and just seemed to be added in for the sake of drama. I still think he should have been condemned for his behaviour, as yes while he did clearly need help and a mental asylum was probably what was best for him, what he did to Lily was still absolutely criminal, holding a young woman hostage like that, leaving her to die after having already harassed her multiple times previously, I mean he almost killed her and the trauma it would have left with her! While yes he needed help, that does not mean that he should be excused and even condoned. This was clearly just yet another way of depicting how much of an absolute saint Lily is, insisting he not be charged but rather sectioned, with Louis even saying "other girls would have wanted his blood". Honestly, I was so sick of Louis constantly praising and idolising Lily all the damn time, being along with Merry her biggest admirer, sorry, hero-worshipper. Oh AND she even offers to buy a house for her kidnapper and Bridget? Like are you effin kidding me?! I mean first, we get it already, Lily is an absolute saint and angel, you don't need to spell it out to us a trillion times, and secondly, letting him get away with his criminal behaviour is one thing, but offering to buy a house for him?! Seriously?! I almost felt like this was a case of stockholm syndrome. In fact I'm almost wondering if it was meant to be. I still don't think he should have gotten away with it and should have been punished, as I still believe in punishment when someone does something anti-social or criminal irregardless of them "needing help", otherwise all criminals could just use that excuse, as apologism and condoning of such behaviour just really annoys me.
This is a tricky one, as I really did enjoy reading it with just how absorbed and fascinated I felt, but all these things really did annoy me. I was pleased to see that Annie did end up staying with her actual mother after all, which was one of the less predictable parts of the story, as you keep thinking she'll end up living with Lily forever but Arabella, her actual mother, does end up actually caring for her in the end with both her and her mother coming to love and care for her. It's because of this though I'm sure that this new Merry girl is introduced, as a sort of replacement for Annie, who Lily had gotten attached to, seeing as a kind of daughter, but now Merry would take this role! This Merry seemed like too much of a Cousin Oliver trope to me, which is always annoying, as Merry was of course, being no more than what was supposed to be a cute, adorable, spirited, precocious little kid when in reality she was just annoying and literally doesn't serve any other purpose to the story. Also Lily's family building an extension onto their cottage to accommodate Ginny's family?! Come on! It would have been one thing if this had been a temporary set-up, but it seemed like it was going to be these two families living together forever, like talk about contrived and over-sentimental. They could have at least just Ginny's family find their own, new home in the end, even if that had been with the help of Lily's family. I mean I know this was just a story, but come on, life does not work like that, and how did they manage to build an extension that easily?! Everything just came together too easily and unrealistically in this particular story, making it seem too far-fetched with not enough struggle.
The rags to riches and interclass romance storyline was a bit too cliched for my liking, especially as Lily doesn't actually undergo or endure any real, significant, particular barriers during this process, or any real suffering, mainly just the complicated situation of her feelings towards Louis. Okay I guess it isn't entirely true that she doesn't suffer at all, as there is the whole thing with Robbie stalking her and then kidnapping and holding her hostage, but even that was only suddenly and briefly shoehorned in like an afterthought towards the end. Meanwhile, with the two other Flower Girls stories, with Daisy and Violet, they undergo suffering throughout the entire book, with it actually affecting the plot, and go to a lot more trouble to earn their happy ending. Because of this, Lily does not feel like a very relatable character (not that she ever did with her one-dimensional, Mary Sue characterisation), as while rags to riches isn't always the most relatable thing for a lot of people, the struggles and obstacles they go through to achieve their aspirations are at least relatable to people. Here however, Lily just keeps getting lucky thanks to the help from Louis (aka her obvious admirer/love interest) and of course coming across the owner of an art gallery who just has to single her out and asks to see her work, which upon seeing he likes so much, ultimately resulting in her becoming rich and famous! Even when she is fired from her job, she manages to get lucky landing herself a job as an artist, soon after which she becomes rich and famous!
Now I don't want to write off this book as a terrible book, as I did still find it kept me intrigued enough to keep on reading, which is why I have been generous in giving it an average 3 stars as opposed to low. It is always interesting following the adventures of people in Victorian times, and wondering what is going to happen, so I will give it that. If I had to describe this book in three words however, it would be contrived, cliched and oversentimental. It was definitely one of Rosie Goodwin's weaker novels, but to be honest the only one that I've read so far that I was not too crazy about.
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