Runaway Widow (The Rockwood Chronicles #3) by Dilly Court
Genre: Historical fiction, Sagas, Victorian era, Romance
Read: 28th December 2023
Published: 17th February 2022
★★★★ 4 stars
DESCRIPTION:
After the sudden death of her husband, Patricia Greystone is left with nothing, and at twenty-four, she finds herself a penniless widow. As the youngest child of a large family, she has always been headstrong and proud – so she’s determined not to return to her family cap in hand. Instead she strikes out on her own.
The dark streets of London are the perfect place to hide from the world, and Patricia makes her living singing on the streets. But the city is a dangerous place.
Without her family around her, will Patricia lose her way?
Book Three of The Rockwood Chronicles
MY THOUGHTS:
Dilly Court reunites us once again with the Careys and Blanchards of Rockwood Castle on the windswept Devonshire moors. However, this time the focus is on the youngest Carey child, who married towards the end of the previous book to a man old enough to be her father.
Patricia Carey is now Lady Greystone and married to one of the most prominent members of society. After marrying her childhood friends' father Sir Michael Greystone after setting her cap at him to secure her wealth and position, Patricia and Sir Michael relocated to London to be closer to the House of Commons in his position as a member of parliament. Their London house is as salubrious and illustrious as Patricia could want. Sir Michael gives her a generous dress allowance at her disposal and their lives are made up of a continual round of parties, soirees and dinners for which Patricia was born.
On the eve of yet another party which had to be cancelled due to the thick peasouper fog, Sir Michael returns home with the news that he has to go abroad for secret diplomatic business to which she is not privy. Patricia is at something of a loss and decides to resurrect her career on the stage. However, first she must undertake singing lessons with one Signora Valentina Galfondi to bring her up to speed for the role ahead of her. She takes herself back to Greystone Park where she endeavours to strengthen her voice under Valentina's guiding hand.
And then a messenger arrives with an official document. Sir Michael has been involved in a fatal train accident in France. But Patricia refuses to believe it, as does Sir Michael's youngest daughter still in residence, Sylvia. Upon her return to London, Patricia discovers that not all is as it seems. Sir Michael had neglected to update his will therefore leaving everything - Greystone Park and his debts - to his daughters Christina and Sylvia. Patricia is left with nothing. Barely even the clothes on her back.
And so she returns to Rockwood with her tail between her legs. But not for long. She hatches a ridiculous plan in which young Nancy decides to play a part and the pair hightail it back to London for the bright lights, fame and fortune. Unfortunately, brains were never part of Patricia's attributes and so her decision making was dubious to say the least. The speed with which she changed her mind was dizzying, each time declaring she means what she says. Only for her to change her mind just as swiftly again.
Her choices were stupidly naive and ridiculous, seeing her off to France and Italy in search of her mother in the hope that she will share her insights and wisdom. Seriously? Has she learnt nothing in the past two decades? Felicia de Mauney, nee Carey, thinks of no one but herself. And Patricia is so very like her fickle mother and just as flighty. So I was not surprised that she came unstuck on foreign shores...for she has no one to blame but herself. But her bad choices didn't end there. She returned to Greystone Park with the promise of contesting the will and taking up her rightful place as Lady Greystone...yet what became of that? She scarpered at the first threat and nothing came of it. So why introduce that plotline if it was not going to be followed through. All it did was confirm that Patricia was a fickle flighty piece who cannot make up her mind. Her to-ing and fro-ing was enough to make one's head spin and I was dizzy trying to keep up with her constant changes of mind.
I love Dilly's books and I love this series but I do not like Patricia. I didn't like her last book and I didn't much warm to her in this one. In fact, it only served to remind me how entitled she really believed she was. And her back and forth mind changes made me dizzy. I wasn't fond of the France side of the story and preferred it firmly back in Rockwood.
While I love this series and am thoroughly enjoying it, I didn't enjoy this one quite so much and wish I could give it 5 stars but Patricia Greystone isn't worth that rating. Besides which, the story wasn't as enjoyable as other tales by the author and those in this series. But I do look forward to the next one "Sunday's Child" when Nancy takes centre stage...
I would like to thank #DillyCourt, #Netgalley and #HarperCollins for an ARC of #WinterWedding 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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