The Girls who Dared to Love (Girls Who Dared #2) by Diney Costeloe
Genre: Historical fiction
Read: 13th May 2025
Published: 5th September 2024
★★★★★ 5 stars
DESCRIPTION:
Three girls seem to have the world at their feet in the summer of 1914. But World War I is coming and things will change forever – especially for women.
Debutante Lucinda McFarlane is engaged to be married to Major Sir David Melcome, but their society wedding has to be scaled right down when war is declared and David is recalled to his regiment.
Mabel Oakley, once a maid for the McFarlanes, has inherited Thomas Clarke's printing works, but an unexpected turn of events leaves her at the mercy of her father's old enemy, solicitor John Sheridan. What can she do?
Lady Diana Fosse-Bury is incredibly beautiful and reckless. When war is declared she immediately wants to be in the thick of it. Can her budding romance with Lucinda McFarlane's brother Iain survive the Western front?
With war coming, the destinies of these three girls will soon be entwined forever, but only if they dare to love in the face of the dangers ahead of them.
MY THOUGHTS:
The world is their oyster, but war is coming...
London 1914: Once the McFarlane's maid, Mabel Oakley now owns and runs her own printing business which she had inherited from dear friend Thomas Clarke. But the world is still very much a man's one and for the sake of propriety she has retained the business name "Thomas Clarke, Printer". Along with the business, Mabel was also bequeathed a house far bigger than that which her family lived in on Cockspur Lane. So it went without saying that the family moved to her new home where her father would have more room to move about in his wheelchair, gifted to them by the late Mr Clarke.
It also meant each had their own room - and with room to spare! So when her father Andrew's nurse Dorothy Finch told them she had a notice to vacate her home of 30 years within seven days, Mabel didn't think twice about offering he the unused rooms on the top floor. But Mabel's generosity didn't end there. Along the way, she also picked up another couple of waifs and strays and offered them a place to stay for the foreseeable. One of them being her old schoolfriend Annie after she lost her husband at the Front. Life was good for Mabel. William still came calling, with an understanding that she was not yet ready to settle down but he came biding his time and safe in the knowledge that they had an understanding.
Until Mabel meets Charlie "Chas" Sheridan, son of her father's former employer John Sheridan. And that was when Mabel really knew what love was. But the hostilities between her father and John Sheridan would thus make any relationship between them difficult, if not impossible. Would they find a way to somehow be together?
Lucinda McFarlane was preparing for her introduction to society with her first London season whilst her mother hoped for a suitable husband for her daughter, preferably a Duke. But when Lucinda met Major Sir David Melcome it was love at first sight for the couple. However, Sir David's reputation preceded him in that he flirted but never settled and her mother was against the match. But in Lucinda, Sir David had found his match and looked no further. And so with her father Sir Keir's blessing, a wedding was planned to coincide with Lucinda's 18th birthday. But when Sir David received word that he was to rejoin his regiment and head to France, the wedding was brought forward to become an intimate one at their country seat - not the lavish London society wedding that Lady McFarlane had planned. Still, the couple enjoyed a six day honeymoon at his country retreat in Buckinghamshire before he left for France. Lucy missed her husband terribly, but the couple wrote often, and hoped that the war would end soon.
The lives of both women do no cross again as they had in the first novel but they do run alongside one another, along with a growing storyline involving Iain, Lucinda's brother, who had up until now always held a torch for Mabel. Until he met Lady Diana Fosse-Bury who was a match for his own wit and recklessness. Definitely not someone his mother would approve of. Iain continued to hold Mabel in high regard and was even on hand when she asked for his advice on a matter concerning her trust left to her by the late Mr Clarke.
When I received this book I had no idea it was the second in the series so I promptly sought out the first one and read that one and then this one. Having never read Diney Costeloe before I was not disappointed. She has most certainly been added to my list of go-to historical authors. I love the era this novel is set before women came into their own but were beginning to stand up regardless. And the naivety of those concerning the war that was about to change all their lives.
This tale was one that gave you all the heartwarming emotions and the not-so-pleasant ones when faced with certain characters. You cry tears of joy and heartache along with Mabel and Lucinda, both of whom we get to know more. While it doesn't feature the servants quite as much as the first one since Mabel left the McFarlane's employ, it still has that Downton Abbey-esque vibe which makes the story all the more heartwarming.
I thoroughly enjoyed every moment spent with Mabel, Chas, Lucinda and David and those around them. There is certainly more to their story and hope that Ms Costeloe will deliver us with more from them in the near future as I eagerly await to rejoin them again soon.
A well deserved five stars!
Perfect for fans of Rosie Clarke, AnneMarie Brear, Dilly Court and Francesca Capaldi.
I would like to thank #DineyCosteloe, #Netgalley and #AriaFiction for an ARC of #TheGirlsWhoDaredToLove in exchange for an honest review.
MEET THE AUTHOR:
She says, "Encouraged by my publisher father, I have been writing all my life. When I was five, he took my first effort to his office and brought it back in a cardboard cover with the label, 'Tom's Party'written by Diney, published by Daddy. I've never looked back and always have some writing on the go."
When Diney left school she trained as a primary school teacher, and taught in the East End of London and in Somerset.
She has three children and seven grandchildren, so is always busy with the family.
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