Reviews

The Hidden Palace by Dinah Jefferies

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estaffanson's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

portybelle's review against another edition

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4.0

This is the second book in the Daughters of War series by Dinah Jefferies. The first book, simply named Daughters of War, features many of the characters you will find in The Hidden Palace. I do enjoy Dinah Jefferies novels but somehow missed Daughters of War. So I can tell you that this works perfectly well as a standalone novel even if you have never met Helene, Elise and Florence before.

The novel focusses on two women in two different times but both closely linked to wartime and its aftermath. 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. Her relationship with her mother is not good but she is persuaded to try to find Rosalie, her mother’s sister, who disappeared some years before. In the earlier strand of the story, we follow Rosalie in the 1920s in Malta as she too uncovers some dark secrets.

What Dinah Jefferies is so good at is transporting her reader back in time and bringing the past to life. She writes about her settings so well too and here we get a clear picture of life in post-war Malta and the difficulties and dangers faced by the people. As we get to know both Rosalie and Florence, we see two strong, courageous women. Florence soon discovers that the destruction experienced by Malta means that tracing records relating to her aunt or the time she was in Malta is very difficult. Many people may not be aware of how just badly the Maltese people suffered during the Second World War. It was in a strategically important position between Europe and Africa and the subject of intense bombing by the Nazis. We certainly get a sense of this throughout the novel.

Dinah Jefferies covers so much in The Hidden Palace. There’s love and loss, grief and betrayal, relationships between sisters and inter-generational relationships, secrets and courage. Once again the author has written a sweeping epic novel with plenty to please readers of both romance and historical fiction.

maz403's review against another edition

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3.0

This book is the second in a trilogy and I really enjoyed the first volume. Loved the setting of this one since I’ve spent many weeks in Malta - the descriptions of Malta, Mdina in particular, brought back lots of good memories. However, I found the pace of this novel slower and less engaging. Looking forward to the final volume nevertheless.