I very much enjoyed this book. It has a good story and excellent main characters. I would definately recommend this book.

Isn't it just wonderful when a book turns out to be exactly as you hoped it would be? That is how THE FERRYMAN'S DAUGHTER by Juliet Greenwood was for me. It was delightful, engaging and a completely easy read that I immersed myself into the early 20th century Cornwall alongside Hester to live and breathe all that she experienced. By the time I reached the conclusion, I didn't want the story to end. I wanted to stay there in that cafe overlooking the crashing waves, the lighthouse and the sweeping beauty of Cornwall.

1908: Eleven year old Hester Pearce and her mother collect apples, blackberries and a variety of other fruits to make jams and chutneys before winter arrives. Her father is the ferryman who rows passengers from Hayle to St Ives across the estuary while her mother, who was once a head cook in a restaurant as well as a Afalon, uses her cooking skills to make preserves and chutneys to sell. Her grandmother is head cook up at the big house Afalon, home to the Elliots. When she is not in school, Hester helps her mother keep house and look after her younger siblings, Robbie (8) and Alice (5).

Hester adores her mother and as she watches the swell of her mother's belly grow once again, she recalls the doctor's words to her father at the time of the last lost baby. Then her mother dies after yet another stillbirth and her father is badly injured in an accident, losing his arm, making him unable to continue to ferry passengers across the estuary. Hester is forced to leave school to keep house and look after Robbie and Alice as well as take charge of the ferry herself. At least this way she can keep track of the finances so they always have enough for food, coal and the rent man. Plus her mother's secret stash of coins saved from selling her preserves and chutneys.

But before she died, her mother gave her a book filled with all her recipes and made Hester promise not to give up on her dreams of owning and running a cafe. But what with keeping the house and their bellies full, how was she to follow her dreams now? Her family needed her...and she couldn't abandon her siblings.

Then her father, who drinks at the Fisherman's Arms every night (even moreso since his accident), hatches a plan with young Jimmy Hacknell to take charge of the family's finances once again. Jimmy, who seems to be spending more and more time at their table, has taken a liking to Hester and between him and her father they have decided that Hester will marry the boy, and putting Jimmy in sole charge of ferrying the passengers and therefore her father in charge of the money. But Hester has no plans to marry Jimmy. She cannot stand the puffed up tosser who loudly boasts to anyone within hearing distance of his grand plans to become rich and lord it over the fishing village.

Then war breaks out and Hester escapes to become head cook at Afalon under the employ of new owner Miss Chesterfield, who has turned the once grand house into a convalescent home for soldiers. There she puts her mother's recipes to good use in simple and nutritious meals for the men whilst training up young Molly as under-cook.

Before the war, Hester had bravely saved the life of Clara Trewarren, who tried crossing the estuary in a storm and nearly drowned. Since that night, Clara owes her life to Hester and becomes firm friends with her, despite the difference in their classes. Now Clara has escaped a life that is expected of her as a lady to Afalon where she assists the old gardener after the young gardeners joined up to fight. When injured men are brought to Afalon to be treated as the hospitals are full to overflowing, Clara then assists the VADs with cleaning and treating the men as best she can. At least this way she feels as if she is doing something more worthwhile than sitting around embroidering and waiting for a husband.

Although Hester is now safe within the confines of the big house, she still must be careful when she walks to the village and keeps a lookout for Jimmy who attacked her one evening when she rebuffed his advances. When Jimmy leaves for war, Hester breathes a sigh of relief that at last she's safe. At least Robbie is now old enough to take over the running of the ferry but he must also find ways to hide the takings from his father who will scavenge it to buy a pint or three. But when Jimmy suddenly returns announcing to everyone that Hester is fiance, Hester realises she will never be safe here and begins to make plans to escape the village and Jimmy's clutches.

As time goes on, Hester begins to wonder will she ever be able to fulfill her dream of owning and running that cafe she saw overlooking the beach in St Ives with her mother all those years ago?

I loved THE FERRYMAN'S DAUGHTER and didn't want it to end. I love the Cornish setting and the era when women were just coming into themselves with war taking the men away and women having to fulfill the roles they left behind. I'm not a feminist but I loved Hester and her determination to make something of herself without the aid of a husband. I also loved Clara who stepped out of the mould that had been shaped for women in her position to befriend Hester, a working class woman, and did more than just sit around looking pretty. Besides, I'm a sucker for books set in Cornwall.

A refreshing and engaging story from beginning to end, THE FERRYMAN'S DAUGHTER is everything I had hope it would be and more. Even down to the unsavoury villain. Will he get his just desserts? You'll have to read it and find out!

Perfect for those who love historical fiction sagas or who just want something to take them away from the troubled times of a reality for a few hours.

I would like to thank #JulietGreenwood, #NetGalley and #OrionPublishing for an ARC of #TheFerrymansDaughter in exchange for an honest review.

Strong,trail breaking women feature in this early 20th century story. The main character is a resourceful girl/woman who has to overcome much before finding her way. A good read.

Isn’t it wonderful when a book turns out to be exactly what you hope it might be? My reading choices, since lockdown began, have mainly been romantic comedies – and that’s where I tend to turn when looking for comfort and escape. But I was rather looking forward to something totally different, the best of storytelling with a historical context, strong characters I could believe in, some trials and tribulations… and as I sank into the pages, entirely swept away by this wonderful story, experiencing every twist and turn in Hester’s life, I soon realised that I might have found the most perfect escape of all.

Hester Pearce is a strong woman so perfectly drawn: you feel at your core every single moment of her life experience, aching for her as she shows such exceptional courage in the face of every new challenge. At first, it’s making ends meet against impossible odds, holding the family together after the loss of her mother, ensuring that there’s food on the table and enough money to pay the rent collector to keep a roof over their heads. Her father would happily spend every penny at the Fisherman’s Arms after his days working as a ferryman: she becomes adept at concealing any spare cash she can, raised from the sale of preserves made from fruit she forages from the deserted walled garden at Afalon, the nearby mansion and estate. It’s already a hand-to-mouth existence, but when her father has a serious accident that stops him working, Hester takes his place, rowing passengers across the estuary in all weathers – an incredibly demanding job for a young woman, and her effort and the hardship she endures entirely exhaust you as you read.

At the beginning, the main focus is on family, on relationships, on duty and obligation, on survival – with Hester’s hope of not living her whole life in the shadows, of achieving her dream and being able to make her own choices, looking increasingly impossible. But the war is coming, and with it the possibility of a change of fortune: the impossible dream begins to shimmer once more, but so does the threat to any possibility of future happiness, and Afalon may not be quite the place of safety it might seem.

And that’s as far as I’m going to go in telling the story – the author really does it very much better, and the writing and story-telling is so very, very good: the whole book is a thoroughly gripping and emotional read, filled with so many heart-stopping moments. The Cornish setting is really wonderfully drawn, as are the day-to-day lives of the people, the acts of kindness and cruelty, the yawning gulf between those who have so little and the tantalising glimpses into the lives of those who have so much more. Every character, no matter how peripheral, is entirely three-dimensional, alive on the page – and the villain of the piece really is a particularly sinister and threatening creation.

The depth of research that must have gone into this book is clearly evident, and there’s a wonderful richness in the detail – I found the focus on the production of food particularly fascinating, but also enjoyed the insights into the impact of the war on the small rural community, and the harsh realities of life for those who return.

This was a superb read, and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment – I really didn’t want to leave the world the author created behind, or the exceptional woman whose life I’d felt privileged to share. Just wonderful – worth every moment of the wait, and so highly recommended.

The Ferryman's Daughter by Juliet Greenwood was a sublime novel, written deftly, and with a keen attention to detail which ensured the ease of which I was able to slip into the 1900s alongside Hester Pearce, and traverse Cornwall as she fought tooth and nail for the survival and safety of her family, and for her life-long dream. This novel was bursting at the seams with courage and rebellion, and with women smashing the boundaries to become so much more than anyone previously thought they could be. It's a novel of war and sacrifice, of determination and selflessness, and of doing whatever it takes to pull through. I was grabbed by Juliet Greenwood, and flung deep into the pages of this book, and amongst the hustle and bustle of life in a tight-knit Cornish hamlet, I discovered I loved it, and wanted very much to stay there. This was a heart-wrenching, gripping and emotional novel, one which I thoroughly enjoyed, and already, I find myself waiting with baited breath for news of Greenwood's next novel, because I will be one of the first in line to read it.

This story begins with Afalon, a prestigious and stately home, where juicy, delicious fruit grows in abundance and dangles perilously over the high walls, as if waiting for Hester and her mother to find it. It is here where they gather apples aplenty, careful not to be caught by the residents who reside in Afalon, and then take their loot home, ready to be made into jams and preserves, and to be sold on in St Ives. Any money made is squirrelled away, kept aside by Hester's mother to ensure their rent is paid, and also to keep safe from Hester's father, who no doubt wouldn't think twice about using it to buy himself yet another drink in The Fisherman's Arms after a long day working the ferry. It is during these times when Hester is alone with her mother, that she first begins to learn that a woman's work is never done, even work that other people don't know about. Hester inherits her mother's determination and cleverness, her fierceness in protecting her siblings, and ensuring that no matter what, there is always food available, and always a bed to sleep in.

First of all, let's talk about Hester Pearce. What. a. sensational. character. God, I loved her, even from the first moment I met her. Wise beyond her years, and incredibly intuitive, I could just tell that she was the sort of girl who would grow up to be a heroic woman, fearless, and simply not afraid to break tradition. From a young age, Hester already knew that she did not want the same life her mother, and so many other women in the hamlet, had lived. She did not want to simply get married, have children, then stay at home to live out the rest of her days, cleaning and cooking for her family. She had bolder, bigger and better ideas, ideas that would mean she wouldn't have to rely on a husband, and instead, would rely on herself, something unheard of in such an era. She added such a sense of adventure to this story, the overwhelming sense that absolutely anything was possible, and this was in part thanks to Hester's personality, that of which spilled off the pages and into my very soul. I soaked up Hester's enthusiasm for going after her dreams, for pushing aside the infuriating ideals of what a young woman should and shouldn't be doing, for doing whatever it took to get through the days, working hard and pushing her own needs and wants aside, often going without things she needed to put others needs first. I had so much for respect for her, and I was totally in awe of the woman she began to turn into as the years passed by, her courage and determination only ever growing stronger and stronger, never lessening. Hester, also, was never one to settle when it came to love. Sure as hell she wasn't going to marry someone just because they were well-acquainted with her father, either. Again, I strongly admired Hester for this. I mean, sure, this would have been the easiest route for her to take, the simplest, involving little to no effort on her part whatsoever, except of course, having to put up and shut up. But never one to choose the easy route, Hester preferred to work hard, struggle, and maybe even come close to failing, than to take someone's hand in a marriage she had no feeling towards. And you can't help but to respect a woman like that, can you? Especially in such a optionless era for women.

Following Hester on her journey towards capturing her dream, we delve deep into the little hamlet she calls home and watch as Hester comes face to face with many obstacles that lie waiting in her path. Juliet Greenwood paces this novel beautifully, and I can honestly say, hand on heart, that I didn't lose interest in this book once. It was more a commitment, than simply reading this story. It was a promise to walk alongside Hester, experience her life, along with the hardships, and be there when she finally reaches what she's been hoping for all her life. It was descriptive and eye-opening, a look into a world that came way before my own, and I loved wandering through the hamlet, meeting the characters that were familiar to the Pearce family, seeing what their individual lives were like. It was lively and invigorating, and I could picture it all so vividly in my mind's eye. Greenwood writes in a way that wholly involves you in the story. You feel for the characters, you want the very best for them and feel that you can't leave them, for fear of something happening while you're away! From chapter to chapter, we see Hester make choices and decisions based solely on the wellbeing of her family. We watch her push her own desires aside to ensure safety and health. We see the passing of her mother, and watch as Hester steps up and takes on the very same duties her mother once took care of. Not only does Hester begin to take control of the household, but when tragedy strikes, she has to step up once more, and works the ferry for her father. A job previously never held by a woman before! This was truly a wonderfully evocative story, leading me deeper into Hester's mind and thoughts, allowing me a glimpse into what life truly would have been like back then.

I feel that this is a novel I will remember and think about for a long time. So much happens throughout the years written within, and I adored my time spent lost in Hester's story, with the threat of war ever-present in the background. It was emotional, gripping, beautifully-descriptive with huge amounts of courage and love and all of the things between. It's not just about Hester chasing her dream, but it's about family and learning new skills, it's about taking chances and knowing that sometimes, we have to do the unthinkable in order to achieve things that have never been achieved before. It's a sweeping story of loss which incorporates many, many themes, and it's about Hester keeping her mother's memory and own dreams alive, alongside her own. It evoked numerous emotions within me, everything from happiness and joy to sadness and anger. We watch Hester tackle things no man would have to deal with, and her character is one of the most brilliant I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. I'm so thrilled for Juliet Greenwood because this was just perfect. It entertained, it moved, it held me captive and made me smile. An absolutely wonderful novel to lose oneself in, without a doubt.

All in all, I think it's fair to summarise my review of this novel by saying it was everything I had hoped for and more. Juliet Greenwood has surely made herself a spot in the list of historical fiction writers who do their genre beautifully with The Ferryman's Daughter. I was absolutely swept away by this scenic, poignant and elegantly told tale of one woman's strength and sacrifice, in a time when women weren't thought to be very brave at all. I applaud Juliet Greenwood, and I sincerely hope that there will be news of her next book soon. I can hardly wait! I think it goes without saying that I will be giving this terrific tale the highest rating of five out of five stars today.

Another lovely family saga book. How hard did women work years ago. Ferrying everywhere and all the obstacles she comes up against