Thank you for the chance to read this ARC in return for my honest opinion

This was a great sequel to The Artists Apprentice.

Well researched and well written if harrowing in places. I have learnt this is to be expected of descriptive books centred on WW1

it was great to learn more about the characters and their lives

Absolutely loved this 2nd book in the series and really looking forward to the 3rd book. This book moves on with the lives of the Dalton and Cutler lives through good times and bad.
My thanks as always to NetGalley and Publisher Storm for the early read.

This book continues the history of Alice and Edmond, as well as of their families. I suggest you read "The Artist's Apprentice first. Now, World War I is in the background of this love novel. It is quite unbelievable that so many years later, we are dealing with such severe wars. I would expect that learning about the past would allow us to avoid some mistakes made in the past. It looks like this is a naive expectation! I recommend this book; I enjoyed reading it very much.

Sometimes when you read a series of books each book is about a slightly different set of characters who you know from reading the books, but what you really want is the continuation of the story of the first set of characters you met. This series does that and I love it. It follows Alice and Edmund’s story and continues with all their trials and tribulations with their business and personal lives. I really enjoyed this book, especially in conjunction with the first book of the series and I can’t wait to read the next instalment.

Historical fiction with aristocracy, romance, treachery, murder and the overwhelming tragedy of WWI. Excellent layered characters. Realistic writing of the horrors of war, of the returning wounded men and the growing rancor of the suffrage movement. This is also an emotional love story of heartbreak and bruised survival. Thank you Netgalley and Storm Publishing for an early copy. This review is my honest opinion. 4.5stars

Finally we get so see Edmund and Alice together and building a life during WWI. Of course it wouldn’t be a proper story if there weren’t obstacles to their love. Along with their story, this novel also follows Victor as he struggles with his own life after returning to England. Heartbreaking in many ways, this book swept me away. I can’t wait to see what the next book brings! (I’m assuming there will be a 3rd book with the ending of this one).
TW: stillbirth, murder, suicide.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This is the second book on the lives of Edward and Alice.
WW1 has just started. Edward and Alice are still living happily together, although Edward is distraught being exiled from his daughter Lottie.
Social history runs through this story smoothly. Both of the fathers characters remain very annoying, but I guess truthful to that era.
I simply adore these two characters, I was sad when the book finished but pleased that their saga will continue.

During WWI, Alicia and Edmund are together, expecting a baby. Edmund is trying hard to protect them and keep his father away. Life is crumbling around them. Alice fights to hold on. A great story of survival.

This novel is the second in the Hearts of Glass series that I assume will continue. I did not read The Artist’s Apprentice, but I felt this novel stood on its own.

It is set during the volatile time of 1914-16, when World War I was beginning and the fabric of Edwardian society was unraveling.

The heroine, Alice, was born into the upper reaches of British society but she and her great love, Edmund, also a product of wealth, fall in love, defy conventions and move to the country to do their art. They work together creating stained glass windows and other art pieces.

The book opens with Alice’s brother, Victor who becomes a major player in the overall story. He is coming back from America to continue working for Edmund’s father, a hostile, emotionally barren, greedy man. Bear with me— this really isn’t a soap opera. Victor had been in love with Edmund’s brother, Gilbert, who was engaged to Alice. When Gilbert commits suicide, the planned path for all the children fall apart.

Before really knowing Alice, Edmund married a beautiful, social climber and they have a daughter. Edmund can’t abide her and leaves the marriage. She then lives with his father who is determined to cut Edmund off from his daughter.

Through the characters' struggles, we get a real understanding of the social mores of the time. Suicide, divorce, out of wedlock pregnancy, gay love, are all issues that rise within the story. When Britain enters the war, the impact of other social movements of the time—suffragettes and the white feathers, who shame young men into joining, are in full view. Victor, disgusted by the man he works for and the death of a lover on the Luisitania, joins up and finds himself in Gallipoli. That part of the book is very difficult to read but well done and important to know about.

The book deepened for me as I read on. Alice and Edmund’s struggles as the war comes closer to upending their lives, were deeply felt. Different aspects of war are confronted as Victor fights at Gallipoli and Edmund, attempts to protect his domestic world. Edmund has a strong moral compass and protective side. He needs to balance duty to country with the need to protect his family. Alice is also a great character, although I think given her inner strength and expansive sense of love and duty, her excessive emotion could have been pared back.

Since the book ends in 1916, I am hoping Flynn finishes out the war in her next book of the series. I’ll look forward to reading that.

Many thanks to Storm Publishing and Netgalley for the opportunity to read the ARC and post an honest review.

This novel was an easy read with all one can expect from a family's saga: love, forbidden passion, aristocrats as opposed to an artist's lufe, betrayals and war (WWI). Characters are not original, but if one needs a light novel, this story will be satisfying.
I received a digital copy from NetGalley and I am leaving voluntarily an honest review.

I loved this book sooo much! The writing was beautiful. The plot was very well thought out and I would highly recommend this book!

Clare Flynn, The Artist’s Wife, (Hearts of Glass Book 2) Storm Publishing February 2024.

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.

The Artist’s Wife reintroduces the story of several British families whose behaviour and activities continue to raise the social issues of the time. Although in the early part of the book domestic and romantic issues largely push out the intense and varied social commentary that was an excellent feature of Hearts of Glass Book 1, The Artist’s Apprentice, there is enough to ensure that this novel retains what I found appealing in the first, the social history of the time.

Two families are at the heart of the novel: Alice’s father, mother and brother, Lord and Lady Dalton and Victor, and Edmund’s father, Herbert Cutler. Connected to him is Dora, and her and Edmund’s daughter, Charlotte. Peripheral continuing characters are Christopher Whall, the stained-glass artist and Dora’s friend, Stanley. Alice’s aunt Eleanor and her husband, the Reverend Walter Hargreaves, have continued to befriend the couple. Harriet and Lord Wallingford, the former Alice’s childhood friend, also feature. As a background to the family dramas, young men leave for war, are mourned, and return needing nursing care in requisitioned accommodation.

The peace movement, suffrage groups, admonishment and encouragement of men to join the war effort, white feather harassment, and the relations between women and men around property, violence, work practices and opportunities, and the enduring nature of class hierarchy are public themes. Marriage and partnership alternatives, parenthood, divorce and emotional fragility are domestic themes. They are cleverly intertwined, so that the impact of war, even before the characters go to the front, becomes an underlying theme.

When the Gallipoli enterprise is covered in heartrending detail, along with the disregard for human life shown by those in command, Clare Flynn excels. This part of the novel is harrowing reading but gives the work the gravitas that I felt was missing in comparison with the adept weaving of so much social history into The Artist’s Apprentice.

Clare Flynn’s historical fiction features engaging characters and story lines that interweave personal relationships and romance with social history. This novel ends with World War 1 only into 1916 so it seems inevitable that Edmund and Alice, together with their stained-glass enterprise, and domestic storylines will appear again against the continuing backdrop of the war. It is a novel that readers of accessible historical fiction will anticipate with enthusiasm.

The second novel in the Hearts of Glass series, The Artist's Wife has left me wanting more...now! Excellent flow keeps the pages turning through this installment of Alice and Edmond 's life. I look forward to the next in the series.

Huge thanks to the publisher and NetGallery for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.

In the follow-up to The Artist's Apprentice, Clare Flynn returns to Hampshire and the home of Edmund and Alice. Beginning in July 1914, it is clear what the background to the story must be. And, indeed, the Great War is prominent and causes many of the plot turns. But not all. Some of them hang on decisions taken in the previous book, and continue the threads started there. The sequel sees the return from New York of Alice's brother Victor, and the reunion of both the leads with their parents...

Another excellent page-turning book. I was engrossed from beginning to end and stayed up very late to finish it. I hope (and think) there will be more as conscription and 1916 enter the story.

Having loved the first book of this series, I was thrilled to read an advanced copy of this one. There is always the fear that a follow-up book won't be as good but if anything, The Artist's Wife is even better than the first. Although it is much darker due to being set during World War I, it comprehensively covers many social issues of the period as well. I'm so impressed by the extensive research by the author and her ability to beautifully incorporate it into this fast-paced, hard-hitting novel.

Victor and Dora loom large in this book. It is through Victor that we get an inside look at the carnage and futility of World War I, as well as how ill-equipped the military leaders were for modern warfare. (Their expertise in cavalry charges wasn't very useful in the trenches under constant artillery bombardments.) Through Dora, we get an in-depth look at Herbert Cutler who is even more monstrous and corrupt than I thought possible...a truly evil man. Other important issues covered extensively include the strict class divisions of England extending into warfare & even hospitals, gender identity, conscription, the White Feather movement, and the stalemate of women's rights. Even with all of this, the focus remains firmly on the love affair of Alice and Edmund as the war threatens to tear them apart. I had great difficulty putting this book down for even a few minutes when life demanded it. This one ended in March 1916 so there must be another book, preferably soon. I hope that the next title doesn't include the word "widow" in it, although nothing could stop me from reading it. I highly recommend this brilliantly written book which opened my eyes to so much.

My thanks to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for providing the digital ARC. All opinions and the review are my own.

This is such a beautiful series, it wrings every emotion out of you. The main character the honourable Alice Dalton who was brought up to be a lady finds herself working for a living which she is enjoying greatly, as it means she gets to spend more time with Edmund, the love of her life. They both have to overcome obstacles, offering support to each other when Edmund is trying to get a commission for his stained glass work. Edmunds father , Herbert Cutler is used to getting his own way & getting others to live their life’s to suit him. After Edmund defied him it just made Herbert determined to make life as difficult as possible for his son. Will he go a step too far!
This story teaches you life lessons, that money doesn’t always get you what you want. Showing kindness, means so much more, whatever your station in life.
My favourite characters were Alice who regardless of what life throws at her she keeps going. Lady Lockwood who had hidden depths.
My least favourite had to be Leonard Fitzwarren, a detestable creature.
No I live in hope that there will be another in this series.

A splendid histfic story set during WWI that reveals the impact of war on family and soldiers, written with grace and heart-tugging emotion. Recommended!

Having enjoyed The Artist's Apprentice, I was thrilled to receive the sequel. It was just as good. With spectre of war hanging over Alice and Edmund, they also have to cope with the return of Alice's angry brother, Victor. This is marvellous story of greed, love, hidden desires and the power of old men over others. This is a lot darker than the previous book, but I liked where it headed. Victor's experiences at Gallipoli and Alice's work as a VAD add to the stories of how the various members of the family are getting on. The discussion around enlistment, white feathers and conscription, especially in relation to Edmund, was well handled. I was disappointed when it ended, and now anxiously await the next book to see what happens next. Many thanks to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for an ARC to read and freely review.