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Victoria Crescent Sagas #1
Step by Step
Set in Chester at the beginning of the 1900s. As Alice tries to escape from her father's clutches, Hannah is struggling with the consequences of her mother's accident. Torn apart through circumstance, can the two girls ever be free of the weight of the past?
- GenresFiction
472 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2004
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94 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 26, 2017
To be completely honest, I had really low hopes for this book. The person who bought it for me isn't a reader, and non-readers are really bad at picking for books for readers. Sorry, but it's true! The other book she got me was pretty terrible, so I expected this one to be the same. So really, we should be pretty excited this got a three star rating!
I read a fair bit of historical fiction, and the history part of this was written really well. Hannah (or Hanny) knew a girl fighting for women to get the vote, Alice was desperate to get married, and had an alcoholic/abusive father, etc. It was those little touches that made this book seem really real to me, and I love a book that gets me into their world. Most of the historical touches were pretty small though, it definitely wasn't a major part of the book.
According to the blurb, the most major part of the book was the friendship between Alice and Hanny. But for a lot of the book, they weren't actually speaking to each other... Always for good reasons, but still! Then it was always a big deal that they'd fallen out. If you're going to write a book centered around friendship like that, you need to develop the friendship quite a bit first. I felt pretty let down by this book knowing that the friendship had so much potential. The friendship between their mothers was a lot more prominent, and one of them died, and the other was severely injured...
The other thing that let me down was the lack of emotions. This book talked about some really serious topics - rape, incest, abuse, alcoholism, death, physical trauma, etc. And physically, they really affected the characters. Kenny was mute because of his abusive parents, Hanny thought she was pregnant because her brother raped her, and that caused her to run away. Hanny's mother had physical trauma so bad she nearly died, and that took up a lot of a focus from the book. But not for one moment did I actually care about the characters affected. I was interested in the events going on, because they're interesting topics to read about! Except in most books, I would have cried. I should have cried! I should have been worried about these characters, terrified for their sanity and well being. In reality, though, I was bored. I had to force myself to pick this book up and keep going, for the sake of knowing how the events would all pan out. If you choose to write about emotional topics, you need to write emotionally.
I'm disappointed, because the writing wasn't bad at all. It was just the characters that were one dimensional. Maybe Francis should stick to the history side of writing?
I read a fair bit of historical fiction, and the history part of this was written really well. Hannah (or Hanny) knew a girl fighting for women to get the vote, Alice was desperate to get married, and had an alcoholic/abusive father, etc. It was those little touches that made this book seem really real to me, and I love a book that gets me into their world. Most of the historical touches were pretty small though, it definitely wasn't a major part of the book.
According to the blurb, the most major part of the book was the friendship between Alice and Hanny. But for a lot of the book, they weren't actually speaking to each other... Always for good reasons, but still! Then it was always a big deal that they'd fallen out. If you're going to write a book centered around friendship like that, you need to develop the friendship quite a bit first. I felt pretty let down by this book knowing that the friendship had so much potential. The friendship between their mothers was a lot more prominent, and one of them died, and the other was severely injured...
The other thing that let me down was the lack of emotions. This book talked about some really serious topics - rape, incest, abuse, alcoholism, death, physical trauma, etc. And physically, they really affected the characters. Kenny was mute because of his abusive parents, Hanny thought she was pregnant because her brother raped her, and that caused her to run away. Hanny's mother had physical trauma so bad she nearly died, and that took up a lot of a focus from the book. But not for one moment did I actually care about the characters affected. I was interested in the events going on, because they're interesting topics to read about! Except in most books, I would have cried. I should have cried! I should have been worried about these characters, terrified for their sanity and well being. In reality, though, I was bored. I had to force myself to pick this book up and keep going, for the sake of knowing how the events would all pan out. If you choose to write about emotional topics, you need to write emotionally.
I'm disappointed, because the writing wasn't bad at all. It was just the characters that were one dimensional. Maybe Francis should stick to the history side of writing?
October 11, 2013
Absolute page turner. Can't wait to get the others in this series; a dream to share. Tillys story, it had to be you.
June 30, 2013
I have thoroughly enjoyed this book because the writing style suits this genre perfectly bringing the story forward at a right momentum while keeping the emotional engagements with characters just right. I look forward to reading more of June Francis' books.
November 5, 2017
excellent, i love to read a series of novels
March 3, 2023
Barely 3*
I can only assume the authors research for the book consisted of Googling "Bad things that could happen to a person"
The results must have come back with a list similar to below
murder, suicide, pregnancy outside marriage, child beating, memory loss, wife beating, disowning, hen pecking, eviction, sexual advances by workplace superiors, incest, rape, adultery, betrayal, psychological trauma, drowning, and probably others that I have forgotten about.
She then had to get all of them into the book so some of the unfortunate characters had to suffer multiple items from this list.
It was totally ridiculous, how can people be that unlucky. It was a quick read as she was shooting though that list so fast there was always some new horror about to happen.
Why in the world would Hanna not tell her best friend about the horrors the man she was falling in love with was capable of?
I can only assume the authors research for the book consisted of Googling "Bad things that could happen to a person"
The results must have come back with a list similar to below
murder, suicide, pregnancy outside marriage, child beating, memory loss, wife beating, disowning, hen pecking, eviction, sexual advances by workplace superiors, incest, rape, adultery, betrayal, psychological trauma, drowning, and probably others that I have forgotten about.
She then had to get all of them into the book so some of the unfortunate characters had to suffer multiple items from this list.
It was totally ridiculous, how can people be that unlucky. It was a quick read as she was shooting though that list so fast there was always some new horror about to happen.
Why in the world would Hanna not tell her best friend about the horrors the man she was falling in love with was capable of?
June 18, 2018
Fantastic Read
This book is a really good book to read. It had me wanting to read all day long instead of doing my jobs about the house. Totally recommend this book.
This book is a really good book to read. It had me wanting to read all day long instead of doing my jobs about the house. Totally recommend this book.
August 17, 2020
Twists And Turns
This book was fantastic and hard to out down. It kept me in suspense with all the plot twists. Can't wait to read the next book of the series.
This book was fantastic and hard to out down. It kept me in suspense with all the plot twists. Can't wait to read the next book of the series.
June 9, 2025
excellent
April 16, 2021
This book had a lot of unexpected twists and turns. Not your typical historical fiction.
September 13, 2024
Book review is for all 5 Saga books.
I loved all the characters. Alice had me a little crazy on the last 2 books but the story had me wanting to know what happened to the next character introduced which kept me intrigued until the fifth book.
I personally would of liked more of the hocus-pocus but that's just my 5c.
Definitely reading more of June Francis
I loved all the characters. Alice had me a little crazy on the last 2 books but the story had me wanting to know what happened to the next character introduced which kept me intrigued until the fifth book.
I personally would of liked more of the hocus-pocus but that's just my 5c.
Definitely reading more of June Francis
April 11, 2016
Loved this book couldn't put it down ...I was always wanting to know what happened next lol
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews