The Hidden Palace: the most spellbinding escapist historical novel of WW2 Malta from the No. 1 Sunday Times bestseller (The Daughters of War, Book 2)

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Characters who I previously felt didn’t get enough focus now came into their own and even more of the background to the three sisters Helene, Florence and Elise was revealed and their mother Claudette finally featured and shared her heartbreak.

Everything seemed to fit into place really easily for both Florence and Rosalie and there was only a little evidence of the hardships caused by Europe being at war. I desperately wanted to know what made Claudette so cold and to not have the loving mother daughter relationship so many of us were privileged to have. The novel focusses on two women in two different times but both closely linked to wartime and its aftermath. In 1985, a family tragedy changed everything, and she now draws on the experience of loss in her writing, infusing love, loss and danger with the seductive beauty of her locations. The story tells us in great detail what a dangerous place Malta was in the 1920s, when criminals ran prostitute rings of young women brought in from other countries.

In 1985, the sudden death of Dinah Jefferies’ fourteen year old son brought her life to a standstill. Nevertheless, as with all her other books, Dinah Jefferies is an excellent storyteller and I have read and re-read every one. Her younger sister Rosalie had run away from France many years ago and the last she'd heard of her, she'd been in Malta. La giovane Rosalie è invece fuggita a Malta dalla Francia a causa di un grave scandalo familiare e ora, sotto la falsa identità di Riva Janvier, lavora come ballerina in un locale di dubbia moralità. It definitely made the narrative more unique and I felt more invested in the women’s characters as a result.

I enjoyed reading of her transition to Malta and although I could sense deep down that leaving Paris in the way and on the terms that she did was not what she truly wanted she knew that to be independent and follow her dreams she had to forge her own path without the support of her family. It is an interesting different novel to what I normally read however it is a light read but at the same time it has elements of sadness, grief and loss.

The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. The only clue Florence had was that Rosalie was a dancer and was to join one of the clubs on the small island of Malta. The Hidden Palace is the second book in the Daughters of War series by Dinah Jefferies and having only recently read book number one the plot and characters were very much fresh in my mind. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.

For all ebook purchases, you will be prompted to create an account or login with your existing HarperCollins username and password. I enjoyed her story so much, from her stifling life in Paris to the excitement and danger of her life in Malta. In the latter years of WW2 and following its end, Florence is reeling from the war and a secret about her own past she has uncovered. I found the book to be a very good read overall and I loved how it focused on a different sister whilst at the same bringing the reader back to the past to uncover another of the family’s secrets. But the war was still going, although it was at its last, and it would be a year before Florence, accompanied by Jack, as his occupation saw him able to work in the area, could go, first to Sicily then on to Malta.

With thanks to Harper Collins and Random Things book tours for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The story is told in a dual timeline as we get Florence’s life in Devon and her travels as she eventually sets out to hunt for her aunt and then we get Rosalie’s story beginning in 1925 when she arrives in Malta.

The section of the book about Rosalie felt much faster-paced and I was interested in her journey and liked her straight away. I think I cared more for Rosalie’s narrative and was keen to see how she would stand up against the shadier characters that she meets on her journey. Dinah is the queen of sumptuous settings, transporting the reader effortlessly from chocolate-box Devonshire to the cabaret clubs of 1920s Paris and war-torn Malta.If you feel you have been blocked unfairly, you may contact us via social media and plead your case.