Literary Lane

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Whew! That was a very difficult, heart-wrenching and intense read, to the point that while books are usually meant as an escape, I found myself needing an escape from this book and kind of wish I'd never read it now! It was so hard and painful to read, with just how dark and distressing it was, but nevertheless very compelling and most of all heartwarming! Seeing the way Jane and Alice had both endured similar adversities, namely abuse from their fathers, and how they were brought together and connected the way they did was very fascinating and beautifully done. It was amazing seeing both their character developments, which was largely a result of the bond they formed with each other. I really liked seeing the way Jane developed as a character and how she came to love Alice, and it was incredibly heartwarming seeing that after having suffered severe emotional abuse from her father and never having had a loving home, with her father having abandoned her, and...

  RATING: 4 out of 5 stars WARNING: REVIEW CONTAINS POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD. TRIGGER WARNING: STORY INCLUDES SCENES OF RAPE AND HARASSMENT Yet another very compelling, heartwarming and gripping read of historical fiction from Rosie Goodwin that I could simply not put down and finished within a matter of days. I think out of all the Flower Girls books , this has probably got to be my favourite out of the series. I get the feeling that the author had received feedback about her first flower girl book ( Our Fair Lily ) about the protagonist being too one-dimensional and too much of a Mary Sue and used that feedback to redeem herself with this book, as I can safely say that Violet was very far from the Mary Sue, perfect protagonist of Our Fair Lily. Instead, she was a very interesting, three-dimensional character, as while she is still lovely and kind, she still has her flaws such as making wrong and unfair judgements of people and being unfairly stand-offish with them, as well as ac...

RATING: 4.5 out of 5 stars TRIGGER WARNING: Detailed rape scene and physical abuse Wow. What an intense read, and certainly a most gripping and engrossing one, having finished this one in a matter of days. I definitely preferred it to "Our Fair Lily" with Daisy having been a far more relatable protagonist in that she wasn't a major Mary Sue, so I was really glad to see that, and was also not quite as unrealistic. You honestly feel like you are living this story with her as you feel you experience the unbearable adversity and trauma she suffers, as I felt so terrified and distressed for her when she'd gotten raped by her evil stepbrother and then shortly after gets tricked into going to an Irish mother and daughter home by said evil stepbrother where she has to endure the nuns cruel treatment while also witnessing their cruel treatment of other girls at the home. It was so dark and distressing and it was a really dark, sudden turn after seeing how happy life had been f...

  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 rollerco aster to be honest, and quite eventful too which I quite liked. The suspense was not quite as great as ...