The Lady's Maid: A Novel Kindle Edition

This book did not work for me personally though there were many good things in it and I'm obviously in the minority so if you're thinking about reading it, don't let me dissuade you.Likes: It was a compelling enough plot and examination of illegitimate children. That being said there was a lot of times that I thought the plot was needlessly convoluted and plot lines that were completely unnecessary. I really did have to finish it although the rest of the book didn't really work for me. Harry was a good character, or at least the best of the book, and was still inconsistent.Dislikes: Well, I think the main thing, for me, what I hated Josie. She was a repulsive character. Manipulative, hateful, vindictive, passive aggressive, and just wholly inconsistent. In the same conversation if not the same sentence she would dismiss societal norms by insisting Kate was her equal or friend no matter the consequences and then say hateful things to Sam because he wasn't the same class as she was. Both relationships would have had the same consequences, but the book completely ignored a lot of historical facts in favor of plot. And soo many inconsistencies, like a Squire pursuing a nobody, and then rejecting her for fear of her parentage... um what? He already knew she was not well born!! Nothing that was revealed changed that. And Kate was just annoyingly self-righteous and stubborn, but stupid enough to go along with Josie's TERRIBLE ideas. Didn't like the explicit-ish stuff either.Overall, this wasn't my cup of tea, but you know it might be fine for someone else.

Loved this book. It was a long book, but, since it was so good that just added to the experience. Josie was a pain in the butt, but, that made the book more interesting too. It also made me laugh when I realized that the author must like Harry Potter. One of the main male characters was named Harry and a female character was named Hermione. The term Dumbledore was mentioned. Other than being Dumbledore's name in the Harry Potter books, I am not sure what the term meant in this book, as it wasn't used as a name, but I laughed when I figured this out. There may be even more Potter book names in this book, but these are the ones I noticed. I highly recommend this one.

The story is about 2 women, whose lives are interwoven through life and fate.Josie is a spoiled, self-centered and willful young woman from British gentry of the 1800's. Katherine, her maid and childhood friend is treated to the education of Josephine as well, so Josephine can copy her work, but oh well.I liked the story and its intrigue was good, but there was many times that I wanted Katherine to turn around and say it is enough. Really, Katherine was a bit of doormat than a person, but I am sure that it was the author's idea to space them apart as much as possible.A good read even so.

This is exactly what I was craving. A phenomenal read with juicy twists and turns around each and every corner!!Incredibly beautiful and written perfectly this book is absolutely amazing!However I would like the ending to be a little different. I didn't like how it just cut off. I would like to see the final two lovers reunite instead of just leaving it at the point where the girl was on their way to convince her lover to come back. I was expecting for a tearful reunion but it wasn't there. Other than that, this is my new favorite book!

I loved this book. This was the first time I have read one of this author's books. I could not put it down. The story reminded me of Dicken's stories of the downtrodden in England. It had a happy ending. I wanted to slap Josie for all the evil things she did and wondered how Kate accepted it in the long run. It seemed that there were so many plots to the story, but I was able to keep up with them. I stayed up to 1:30 in the morning and I had to go to work the next day.

Story covers Dorset England, 1854 -1875 , life of 2 secret adopted girls who share a birth day. I enjoyed this book and I usually don't read English history stories. Great detail as to the living conditions of serpents, farm labor's. Time of arranged marriages, poverty, mental illness, secret adoptions, castles, and gypsies. In the Lord and ladies houses are drama and secrets. Estates were handed down to next living male. That person decided your fate for rest of life.

I could rate this a 3.5 if that scoring was available because it kept my interest throughout, was exceptionally good writing and full of detail. I found the characters a bit hard to understand and the relationships between them slow to take shape.

I enjoyed the plot. however... These characters annoyed me after a while. There should only be so much forgiveness given to spoiled, rich young ladies before you leave them to their folly. It got old as time and again the main characters were abused and then forgave. It could have ended a lot sooner than it did.

Again I was not disappointed with The Lady's Maid. A beautiful tale of two babies brought up by adoptive parents unbeknown to themselves. Until that is, the course of certain events begins to unravel the truth. A beautiful tale of betrayal, love and friendships. It is well written as you would expect from Dilly Court. I read this in 3 days and couldn't wait to get home from work to finish it. A good story is always hard to leave behind and I did not want this to end. I would have loved to have witness Sam and Josie reuniting.

I'm giving this book 3 stars because I was disappointed at the abrupt ending. I also feel these books should have a glossary to show the meaning of some words as I always have to refer to a dictionary for a number of words. The book itself was an enjoyable read otherwise.

I chose this rating because Dillys books are always been a good read,I love all her books my dislikes were the horrid woman that Kate's father married she was horrid and Josies uncle they were so wicked.I felt so sad for Kate and Molly when they were trown out of the cottage by her father,and although Josie was a bit of a pain at times she came right at the end.

The story is different from others I have read of this era, with the gypsies involved. Good characters and I can see them now! I just felt the end of the story was a little rushed, and things came to a head quickly. But still a fantastic author... Very talented!

This fictional storyline gave a good glimpse of lives of a group of people living in the old class system although the title of the book is not quite fitting. The characters drew me in and I got quite involved wishing their next move.