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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 earl—one burdened with a clubfoot and a reputation nearly as scandalous as the proposal she ran from. His captivating sister, Mariana, is not only Augusta’s employer’s best client but harbors a secret ambition of her own: to marry the one man society deems wholly unsuitable. Drawn into Mariana’s reckless schemes of masquerades, cross-dressing, and Whig intrigue, Augusta soon finds herself entangled in more than just scandal—she’s lo...
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The Family Holiday by Elizabeth Noble #Review


Elizabeth Noble's The Family Holiday was published by Penguin on June 25th and I was delighted to be invited to be part of the celebrations for its publication. 
 
Set in a country house in the Cotswolds, the Chamberlain family unite for 10 days together in a large house to celebrate Charlie’s 80th birthday. But since the loss of Charlie’s wife, the family have been left disconnected and fragmented. Charlie’s daughter, Laura is divorced and dealing with a teenage son accused of a crime by his girlfriend’s parents, his son Scott has recently married and has two new stepdaughters and his youngest Nick is still in a state of shock from losing his wife in a tragic accident and coping with their three young children alone.

The Family Holiday is a multi-generational story of loss, love and hope and is both heart-warming and witty in equal measure. Elizabeth Noble is the author of bestselling The Reading Group and Things I Want My Daughter to Know and Richard & Judy book club choice Love, Iris and she has sold over 1 million books to date.

My Thoughts

There are certain books which I read and a little voice at the back of my head keeps whispering, 'I wish I'd written it!' This is just one of those. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting all the members of Charlie's family and finding out what their lives had been like and what they were hoping to do next. You are spoilt for choice with the characters. It is an intergenerational story which shows you the power of family links. Some have been broken by circumstances but they come together for the holiday and reconnect.

    Two of the most interesting people in the book, who you never actually meet, are Daphne, Charlie's wife and Carrie, Nick's wife, who have both died. Through their husbands, you get to hear their thoughts and reactions  and you get a real sense of their personalities. There is also the outsider, Heather, an American divorcee who has married into the family. You come to realise that with her, what you see is certainly not what you get and she has hidden depths and demons which she has had to come to terms with. Like the siblings, you also realise that you may have misjudged her.  

     All the different threads of the story are woven together with skill. This is not a book to skim through. You have to take it slowly to see all the details in this glorious family tapestry. 

In short: Family links are reforged
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About the Author

 
Elizabeth Noble is the author of several previous Sunday Times bestsellers: The Reading Group, which reached Number One, The Friendship Test (formerly published as The Tenko Club), Alphabet Weekends, Things I Want My Daughters to Know, The Girl Next Door, The Way We Were, Between a Mother and her Child and Love, Iris. Her last two books were also Richard & Judy Book Club selections. The Family Holiday is her ninth novel. She lives in Surrey.

You can follow Elizabeth here: Facebook  |  Instagram 

Thanks to Elizabeth Noble and Michael Joseph Books for a copy of the book and a place on the tour!

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