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The Dressmaker's Secret by Susanne Dunlap #Review

We are diving into the past to the nineteenth century with the Regency romance, The Dressmaker's Secret Earl by Susan Dunlap . It was published by Comfortable Prose Publishing on 25 Mar. 2025 .   A marriage of convenience to a scoundrel? Not if Augusta can help it. The impoverished daughter of a baronet, Augusta has no intention of being bartered away like a prize horse. Instead, she flees to London, determined to forge her own path as a modiste. But fate has other plans. On her very first day in the city, she crosses paths with a brooding earlā€”one burdened with a clubfoot and a reputation nearly as scandalous as the proposal she ran from. His captivating sister, Mariana, is not only Augustaā€™s employerā€™s best client but harbors a secret ambition of her own: to marry the one man society deems wholly unsuitable. Drawn into Marianaā€™s reckless schemes of masquerades, cross-dressing, and Whig intrigue, Augusta soon finds herself entangled in more than just scandalā€”sheā€™s lo...

The Perfect Gift by Emma Hannigan

    The Perfect Gift is ideal summer reading. It is light, romantic and heartwarming. Set in Ireland, the story has two strands. Roisin, who was adopted at birth, receives a letter on her thirtieth birthday from her birth mother. All Roisin knows is that her birth mother died soon after her birth but she has received a birthday card message from her every year. She is at a crossroads in her life with a threat to her livelihood at 'Nourriture', the foodie shop she has established. Back from France where her relationship with Jacques has ended, she has a lot to consider. Her family, though close, have their own secrets and problems to unravel.  Meanwhile, Nell, an elderly inhabitant, who lives at the local lighthouse, has kept herself apart from the village. One day, she finds a young girl hiding in her boiler house which leads her to reassess her feelings about her own daughter.

     The characters draw you in as their lives interweave.  Mother and daughter relationships come under the microscope but also they have wider family matters to address. Emma Hannigan creates a picture of a warm community where the pace of life is slower and everyone knows each other. My only quibbles would be that sometimes the detail was too much and also the turn round of Mouse from a young runaway who could not read to the well adjusted member of the community who made such rapid progress at reading and even learnt to drive all within a few months stretched credulity a little. 

In short: a heartwarming read- perfect escapism

Thanks to the publishers at Headline for a copy of the book
    

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