Daddy’s Girl

by Josephine Cox

Where can a daughter turn when her father’s love is stolen away?

When heart-broken Sarah Quinn is left to care for her father and siblings when her mother dies, it’s hard to watch their loving dad, Fred, drift into drink and despair. With money tight, Sarah is determined to keep the family together.

But they receive a shock when Fred Quinn announces he is to marry Mavis Swindel, the landlady of a boarding house on the edge of the moors. Mavis seems to offer the answer to the family’s problems, and soon they are all moving into her shabby lodgings.

It quickly becomes clear that their stepmother has plans for her new family, and slowly but surely, Mavis takes over their lives. As her father becomes a stranger to his children, Sarah becomes convinced that Mavis has something to hide. But as her doubts turn into an obsession, does Sarah risk destroying everything she loves in her search for the truth?

Genres: Historical Fiction

428 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 29, 2024

About the author

Josephine Cox was born in Blackburn, one of ten children. At the age of sixteen, Josephine met and married her husband Ken, and had two sons. When the boys started school, she decided to go to college and eventually gained a place at university but was unable to take this up as it would have meant living away from home. Instead, she went into teaching – and started to write her first full-length novel. She won the ‘Superwoman of Great Britain’ Award, for which her family had secretly entered her, at the same time as her novel was accepted for publication. She is now a No.1 bestselling author with over 40 books to her name.

She wrote dark psychological thrillers under the name Jane Brindle.

Reviews

[Karren Sandercock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sarah Quinn is heartbroken when her mother Ava dies, she made Sarah promise if anything ever happened to her, that she would take care of her little sister Janette, older brother Joe and father Fred. Her dad's normally a jovial man, now he’s depressed and lost without Ava, he's started drinking, hardly ever home and Sarah’s left to do all the cooking, cleaning, has a job and she's run ragged. The only highlight is when the girls go to visit their aunty Irene, she’s a gardener in Suffolk and at Fettling House.

The siblings receive a big shock when Fred announces he’s marrying widow Mavis Swindel, she owns a house near the Great Edge and on the moors. Fred thinks Mavis is the bee’s knees, Joe, Sarah, Janette and don’t like her, something about her is odd and the boarding house is very rundown.

Mavis is the queen of manipulation, Fred’s oblivious to his wife’s faults and she extremely frugal and tight with her money. Sarah has a feeling about Mavis, not only is she lazy, she’s hiding something, with help she investigates her past, to say she’s shocked by what she discovers is an understatement, and how can she tell her father?

I received a digital copy of Daddy’s Girl by Josephine Cox and Gilly Middleton from HarperCollins UK and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The well written narrative is really interesting and it looks at life in England in the early 1930's, where everyone in the family who could was expected to work, and some people thought higher education was a waste of time and money for girls?

I really liked Sarah’s and her aunty Irene’s characters, the lodgers at the boardinghouse and George the blacksmith. Sarah was selfless, she certainly never gave up, outsmarted her cunning step-mother, a wonderful and nostalgic historical saga and five stars from me.

[Louise Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Where can a father turn when a father's love is stolen away? When heart-broken Sarah Quinn is left to care for her father and siblings after her mother dies, it's hard to watch their loving dad, Fred, drift into drink and despair. With money tight, Sarah is determined to keep the family together. But they get a shock when Fred Quinn announces he's to marry Mavis Swindel, the landlady of a boarding house on the edge of the moors. Mavis seems to offer the answer to the family's problems, and soon they are all moving into her shabby lodgings.

This is another emotional read by the late Josephine Cox.

Sarah was just eighteen when her mother passed away. She takes over her mother's duties by looking after her father, brother and sister. But it's not long before her father announces that he's getting married to Mavis Swindel, and that they will be moving into Mavis's boarding house.

The characters are well-developed, the plot is well-written, and it will mess with your emotions.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #HarperCollinsUK #HarperFiction and the author #JosephineCox for my ARC of #DaddysGirl in exchange for an honest review.

[Pauline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eighteen year old Sarah is devastated when her mother dies and tries her best to look after her father, brother and younger sister.
When her father marries another woman they move into her boarding house and their lives go from bad to worse.
This is the story of family trying to stay together and look after each other.
Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review

[Sue Sykes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another lovely from Josephine Cox and the pen of Gilly Middleton , the story’s twists and turns but centres on Sarah, Joe, Janette and their dad Fred after the passing of their mum. Life after was not easy for anyone especially when Mavis came along.
Good read and enjoyed the story

[Lyn Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the best read. I usually read one of Jo's books in a day but found this drags.
Unfortunately I know Gilly is using Jo's plots but her style of writing is quite different.

[Liza · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Cinderella story for the 21st century, that's how I would describe Daddy's Girl by Josephine Cox. Having not read a Cox for a very long time, I was excited to get the opportunity to review her latest offering and I was not disappointed!!

After her mother dies and she is left to take care of her siblings and father who has turned to drink Sarah has a long difficult path ahead of her. When her father gets remarried Sarah finds her step mother is only interested in the free labor Sarah and the family provide, ruining Sarah's dreams of running a business of her own.

The story follows her journey, and struggles along with those of the rest of the family. When something shady is discovered will the family recover and will Sarah escape to fulfil her dreams?

This was a very believable story with most of the characters being likable, except maybe Fred and Mavis!!

You won't want to put this book down. Well paced with plenty of surprises along the way

[Kim Melbourne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have always enjoyed Josephine's books and was delighted to be able to review this one.
As always, this book did not disappoint. A very easy read which carries the reader through a range of emotions but always leaves you feeling like you have had a big warm hug.
Sarah is coping with the sad loss of her mother whilst trying to run the family home and care for her father and brother and sister. She follows in her mother's footsteps as a seamstress and is keen to continue in this line of work.

When her father suddenly remarried, the family move into the guesthouse that his new wife runs and are promised a much easier life. However these promises fail to come to fruition and Sarah fights for their independence to be restored.

Highly recommend reading this book.

[Wendy Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was so happy to see a new Josephine Cox book. I was unaware she had passed away. So glad Gilly Middleton who has worked with Jo he going to continue on with books Jo has started. This one was very good and hard to put down. It’s along the same line as previous books but had more mystery. Based on a close family whose Mom died and their father basically deserted them as he didn’t know how to handle things. He ended up being taken advantage by another woman who was a liar, lazy, criminal. She had basically just married him so he could do the repairs on a decrepit boarding house and through lies and deceit had his children slaving away. All’s well that end wells but their was a lot of wrongdoing done before this family found peace.

[Ann Peachman Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sophie is heart broken when her beloved mother dies, but that’s the tip of the iceberg of her troubles. She struggles at home to maintain her seamstress job and keep up all of the household. Then, to her horror, her father remarries. Soon she’s ensconced, with her younger sister, in her stepmother’s boarding house, working for her for no pay. She begins to discover hidden facts about her stepmother, but will it be enough to save them all?

[Matthew Hardy · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're in any way familiar with Josephine Cox's books, this story is her to a T. Not much in the way of surprises, but it contains an array of complex and interesting characters who all get what they deserve, whether that's good or bad.

My biggest criticism is the book's title- it's very misleading and has next to no bearing on the story and how it develops. But otherwise it was an enjoyable read any fan of Cox will like.

[Lyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A highly entertaining read about a family whose fortunes change when their mother dies and the father marries an evil woman. All turns out well in the end, but there are some truly horrible things that happen and the way Mavis manipulates people is really clever. There were a lot of nice characters in the story to counter balance the awful ones.

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. I'd been meaning to read a Josephine Cox book for a while so was happy to receive a DRC as my first! The writing was quite simple but this didn't take away from the story at all. The drama and character development was written really well despite this. The author really made you feel all the emotions with this one.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the DRC!

[Jean P · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book but the proof reading could have been better. Sarah’s mother was called Ava through most of the book only to suddenly change to Ada! Thankfully in the last mention of her she became Ava again. This may be a picky point but it should have been picked up on.

[Sandie McCormack · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was very emotional and very well written I really enjoyed it

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC

[donna Hehir · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book

Another great read. I have read so many books by Josephine Cox. I really enjoy getting to know the characters, good and bad. And love the storyline

[Lisa Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore this author

[Sally Wynne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don’t know I finisher it. It was like a child wrote it!

[Mrs Maureen Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed getting to know the characters and the twists and turns in solving the mystery.

[Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this book. It had a bit of everything in it. Loved the characters and the parts they played and loved the plot of the story. Well done again for a brilliant book.

[Carol G · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book which I thought was predictable but did have a few unusual twists

[Lindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really nice book, enjoyed it from start to finish