Published By: Bonnier Books
Pages: 400
Released On: 11/04/2024
London, 1847. In a quiet house in the countryside outside London, the finishing touches are being made to welcome a group of young women. The house and its location are top secret, its residents unknown to one another, but the girls have one thing in common: they are fallen. Offering refuge for prostitutes, petty thieves and the destitute, Urania Cottage is a second chance at life – but how badly do they want it?
Meanwhile, a few miles away in a Piccadilly mansion, millionairess Angela Burdett-Coutts, one of the benefactors of Urania Cottage, makes a discovery that leaves her cold. Her stalker of ten years has been released from prison, and she knows it’s only a matter of time before their nightmarish game resumes once more.
As the women’s worlds collide in ways they could never have expected, they will discover that freedom always comes at a price . . .
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Bonnier Books for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
The last Stacey Halls book I read was Mrs England, and I really enjoyed that and so was keen to read this new one. But unfortunately, it didn’t hit the mark for me.
First, the positives.
Stacey is really good at capturing recent historical elements (yes I consider 1847 to be relatively recent in terms of historical inspiration). I mean, I wasn’t around then, obviously, but Stacey puts so much passion and honesty into her books that she really captures the time perfectly, and it feels like you could just step into the pages.
I did also really like the references to Charles Dickens though. That’s a sure fire gold star from me.
But now for the not so positive bits.
This will feel like I’m contradicting myself because I just said it was a positive, but all that detail can have its drawbacks too. It is soooooo full of description that it can be hard to find the action within it, and you start to glance over another description of another house, or another woman, or another meal. Whilst very well researched and written, it does become a bit too heavy for me at times and I feel I don’t want to read any more.
It took me a long while to get into. There are a lot of names introduced very quickly and I struggled to remember who was who and how they related to each other and to the story itself.
It didn’t sit right with me. It felt disjointed. Scenes that didn’t match up, not a lot of flow. It didn’t even feel there was much of a plot to be honest, nor much character development, just large passages of description which gets tedious after a while.
I mean, I didn’t enjoy the first two books Stacey wrote – liked the third – and didn’t like this one. Perhaps she’s just not the author for me. Which is perfectly okay. As I know she is the author for a lot of other people.
Books By Your Bedside 