Today I am pleased to be part of the start of the blog tour for Dublin’s Girl a great historical fiction novel set during the Irish War of Independence. This book is very interesting and you can find out more about it and my review below. Dublin’s Girl has just been released as a digital book today and a hardback copy will be available later in the year. I hope you enjoy my review below and don’t forget to check out the other stops on the blog tour! 🙂
Title: Dublin’s Girl
Author: Eimear Lawlor
Publisher: Aria
Genre: Historical fiction
Book format: Pre-publication digital copy
Sweet Strawberries: 
Description: Falling in love with the enemy is the ultimate act of betrayal…
1917. A farm girl from Cavan, Veronica McDermott is desperate to find more to life than peeling potatoes. Persuading her family to let her stay with her aunt and uncle in Dublin so she can attend secretarial college, she has no idea what she is getting into. Recruited by Fr Michael O’Flanagan to type for Eamon De Valera, Veronica is soon caught up in the danger and intrigue of those fighing for Ireland’s independence from Britain.
The attentions of a handsome British soldier, Major Harry Fairfax, do not go unnoticed by Veronica’s superiors. But when Veronica is tasked with earning his affections to gather intelligence for Sinn Féin, it isn’t long before her loyalty to her countrymen and her feelings for Harry are in conflict. To choose one is to betray the other…
Inspired by real life events and marking the centenary of the end of the War of Independence, Dublin’s Girl is a thrilling historical debut from an exciting new Irish voice.
*Free copy provided by publisher for review…
Review: This is an interesting and exciting story set in Ireland during the Irish War of Independence. It’s 1917 and Veronica is bored of the country life that her family leads, looking after the farm, peeling potatoes and watching all the wealthy English land owners from afar. Veronica dreams of being a working woman and manages to persuade her father to let her go to Dublin to secretarial school. While there she begins to see the true poverty and difficulties that the Dubliners and Irish face, being under English rule, and soon she finds herself getting involved by working for Sinn Féin. But when they task her with getting to know an English officer, can Veronica do what she’s asked or will her feelings get in the way?
I was keen to read this book after finding out that it was inspired by real events, and I’m surprised with how much I have come to enjoy this story despite a bit of a slow start. Veronica’s life in Cavan is a sheltered one, she doesn’t know much about the politics of Ireland and doesn’t know how much the people suffer from poverty and harassment especially when she visits Dublin for the first time. This was an interesting start for me as I really didn’t know much about this history of Ireland or what people had been through. When Veronica moves to Dublin to live with her Aunt and Uncle there she sees how difficult the poverty and hunger is for so many under English rule but soon she is involved with learning shorthand and typing, and making new friends at her secretarial school before managing to get her first job as a working woman.
I like the way this story unfolded although I have to admit to finding it a little difficult to get into at first. The story has a good pace with a decent amount of description to make you understand what is happening and get a feel for the atmosphere, but I have to say that I think the copy I was given to read was not quite fully edited so the pacing of the story was, at times, a little off and often too quick for me. But the story is easy to read and although it took me some time to really get into this, I was completely gripped by the second half and just couldn’t put this down! As Veronica meets the English officer, something that doesn’t happen for a while, we start to see some of this relationship develop. I love the idea of this kind of forbidden love between enemies and I love how it developed although some of the earlier scenes felt rushed and I would have prefered a slower development of the relationship as I just love a good slow burning romance story.
The book takes place across a few years, from the last year of the First World War through to the Irish War of independence where the violence in Ireland, against the Irish, sadly, increased. Some real life events were well depicted and I like how I was able to see what really happened in Ireland in that time and how it was seen from the Irish point of view, things like the elections and the constant difficulties in hiding things from the English were fascinating and I love how tense a lot of moments were. I especially felt this tension increase when Sinn Féin won more seats in parliament. The fear felt on the streets as well as what happened to some of the characters including Veronica was exciting to read and a little shocking too as I really didn’t know how bad things were in Ireland at that time.
I loved how the relationship between Veronica and the English Officer, Harry, developed in the second half of the novel especially. There were romantic moments that I truly loved and towards the end especially, there was a brilliant climax with some surprises and a brilliant twist that I just wasn’t expecting. In fact the story was so compelling and I was so desperate to see what was happening, that I have to admit to spending most of one day just sat there glued to this book, desperate to finish reading it! The ending was just brilliant, it was so perfect but also so dramatic too. And that very last chapter was good as it gave Veronica’s story a good ending and just made me smile. 🙂
The book has a few uses of derogatory language towards the Irish at that time as well as a few uses of the b swear words and one use of the f word. There is some violence that isn’t really graphic although there are a few disturbing moments described of the general violence that some military had towards the Irish, and one moment right near the end of the book that was a bit shocking to read. The end notes explain how this book was inspired but the author’s Aunt who worked with some of the real life people of Sinn Féin that are mentioned in this story. I love how these real life events are weaved into the ficticious story that the author has created.
Overall this is a great story. I had some problems with the original pre-publication copy I got as I felt it still needed an edit or two to fix some issues with pacing, etc. But the second half of the novel felt much better and well written and had no real issues. In fact I really fell in love with the story in the second half and felt so compelled to keep reading it right through to the end. It’s a story I have really enjoyed reading and it’s still on my mind several days after reading it. Having been educated in Britain (mostly about British history) I just never knew about the true history of Ireland or why some people hated the British so much. It felt good to read this book not only for Veronica’s own story but to find out more about the real history of Ireland. And although it was a bit of a slow start for me, assuming that the few issues I had are going to be edited out I’d give this book four strawberries.
Buy the Book
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About the Author
Dublin’s Girl is Eimear Lawlor’s first novel and is inspired by the true story of her great aunt who typed for Eamon DeValera. She lives with her family in Kilkenny.
Click here to visit the author on Twitter
What do you think of this book? Do you like stories inspired by true events? Let me know what you think in the comments below 🙂
The Strawberry Post 