Nettie's Secret by Dilly Court
Genre: Historical fiction, Sagas, Victorian era
Read: 21st March 2022
Published: 16th May, 2019
★★ 2.5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
Taking one last look around her attic room in Covent Garden Nettie knows there is no turning back, they must run for their lives…
London, 1875. Thanks to her hapless father, Nettie Carroll has had to grow up quickly. While Nettie is sewing night and day to keep food on the table, her gullible father has trusted the wrong man again. Left with virtually nothing but the clothes they stand up in, he’s convinced that their only hope lies across the English Channel in France.
Nettie has little but her dreams left to lose. Even far from home trouble follows them, with their enemies quietly drawing closer. But Nettie has a secret, and it’s one with the power to save them.
Can she find the courage to trust in herself and pave the way for a brighter future?
MY REVIEW:
There hasn't been a Dilly Court book that hasn't enthralled me from beginning to end...until now. In fact, I sadly couldn't wait for the whole drama to end, sadly. It's not that I didn't like it, but I didn't love it. And Dilly is capable of such wonderful Victorian sagas but I can't say that this was one of them. She always pens a strong female lead and we had that in Nettie but she was forever overshadowed by all the silly characters around her and their collective dramas to really shine. Even her romance came in at the last moment in the final leg that it seemed out of kilter with the rest of the story.
Beginning in London in 1875, Nettie Carroll is more like the parent to her feckless artist father Robert who is easily lead and even easier duped. It appears he has been conned into producing copies of the artistic greats by a less than reliable art dealer, Marmaduke Dexter, who palms them off as originals, whilst Robert is given a measly sum for his trouble which he spends lavishly giving no thought to rent or food or coal - things they actually need. Nettie tries her best to have him tow the financial line but it is a battle she often loses.
One day she returns home afternoon to find her father packing hurriedly and instructing her to gather her things but to pack lightly. When she questions him he tells her than the police are seeking both him and Duke Dexter for the forgeries that he supplied Dexter with in good faith. Really? Is he that naive?
And so they go on the run, along with Byron who lived in the same boarding house, and use the last of their funds for a train fare to Dover and a passage to Calais. There they try to make their own way but before long find themselves reliant on the nefarious Dexter once again. However, their travels take them through France to Paris, along the Seine on a river barge before fleeing once again, this time to Spain. Why Spain? Because Byron had a purpose that would take him there and so naturally the others followed. They garner yet more dependents along the way before they must once again flee back to Paris and onto England once again. In the end they pretty much ended up where they started and in the same boat yet again! Did they not learn from the first time round? However, this time they had in tow a spoilt young woman and a Contessa who both believed work of any form was below them and left anything more arduous than taking tea and enjoying comfort of any kind to others. Basically, Nettie was left to wait on everyone and do everything because Constance and Lisette found anything like that beneath them and Robert wastes any money that came into his hands.
Aside from everyone else's flair for dramatics, Nettie has a secret of her own. She aspires to be published author but after having her first novella rejected she began work on yet another which she took with her from pillar to post from London to France to Spain and back again. If she could only get her work published then she would be able to take care of herself and her father. However, she has little time for her dream when everyone else has dramas of their own playing out before her that she must often play referee to. And so her secret dream takes a backseat.
The tale is honestly just a tad too drawn out with Nettie and her growing entourage going back and forth, back and forth from London to France and Spain then back again...only to return to France again...and again! One could get whiplash for all the to-ing and fro-ing they did, particularly as travel to the continent and back wasn't undertaken by people of their class nor to such an extent.
And then there are the cast of characters which includes an artist with no business sense, a young man who speaks fluent French despite having seen his French mother since he was about 4, a spoilt young French woman, a Spanish contessa who isn't actually a contessa, her son who went to Cambridge but never worked a day in his life, an heir to a brewery in Kent with questionable intentions towards our heroine, a bargee who likes to greet the morning in all his glory, not to mention our nefarious art dealer who is as slippery as an eel, various other questionable characters and of course our heroine Nettie who can cook soup but not stew...
Dilly's books are known for their length and usually this is never a problem as once you begin, you're soon immersed within the Victorian era living alongside our heroines and their cohorts. But not so with NETTIE'S SECRET. I found it drawn out and I just wanted it to be over because no one was going anywhere, except back and forth constantly and all to no real avail. And then there is Nettie's romance which pretty much came out of nowhere...and then the story ended.
I had high hopes for NETTIE'S SECRET as I have so enjoyed Dilly's books in the past but this one was disappointing. None of the characters were particularly endearing except Byron. In fact I found Constance to be a spoiled child, Lisette equally spoiled if not entitled, Robert was selfish and thoughtless thinking of no one but himself half the time and Dexter was meant to be disliked as that is how his character was written. Everyone else was somewhat bearable with the except of Rufus Norwood's horrible mother.
Unfortunately, NETTIE'S SECRET was a disappointing read when I know Dilly can offer so much better. I do look forward to other reads from her which I know will be of her usual outstanding quality. Sadly, this was not one of them.
I would like to thank #DillyCourt, #Netgalley, #HarperCollinsUK for an ARC of #NettiesSecret in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
Dilly Court grew up in North-east London and began her career in television, writing scripts for commercials. She is married with two grown-up children and four grandchildren, and now lives in Dorset on the beautiful Jurassic Coast with her husband. She is the author of eighteen novels and also writes under the name of Lily Baxter.
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