Each day, Dilly begins at 8:30 and writes until lunch time. Some days she’ll get so immersed in her story that she forgets everything and time will pass so fast that, by the time she finally does stop, she can’t believe two to three hours have gone by. She’s been in some other world her characters who make their own story up actually inhabit. However when one good deed goes sour, a dangerous foe threatens to ruin all of them. Is she going to be able to save her new buddies along with her future? If she’s able to, there’s a Christmas gift that’s waiting sure to change her life forever. By the early afternoon, she’ll have done all her correspondence, paid a few bills, and written out a shopping list. Nothing all that romantic, but entirely necessary. After she’s done that, she’s earned a cup of tea and some custard creams in a biscuit tin.

A Mother’s Secret (2010) – When seventeen-year-old Belinda Phillips falls in love with a handsome Anglo-Indian officer, she knows that he is a man she can never hope to marry. When he is reported missing, believed killed in action, Belinda discovers that she is pregnant. Facing disgrace and ruin, she has no option other than to accept an arranged marriage with a middle-aged widower, knowing she must keep the secret of her child’s birth forever. Mermaids Singing (2005) – Born into poverty and living under the roof of her violent and abusive brother-in-law, young Kitty Cox dreams of working in a women’s dress shop in the West End – a million miles away from the reality of her life as a mud-lark, scavenging on the banks of the Thames. Fate soon intervenes and Kitty finds herself working as a skivvy for Sir Desmond and Lady Arabella Mableton in Mayfair. Bullied by the kitchen maids, Kitty is soon taken under Lady Arabella’s wing and for the first time in her life, Kitty dares to hope.

Don’t miss the third book in the heartwarming six-part series from the No.1 Sunday Times bestselling author Dilly Court!

Dilly’s debut novel, called “Mermaids Singing”, was released in the year 2005. She writes family saga and historical fiction novels and also writes as Lily Baxter. The Lady’s Maid (2012) – In the quiet of a warm summer’s evening, two young mothers are forced to give up their babies. Whilst Kate grows up knowing only poverty and servitude, Josie’s world is one of privilege and luxury. Despite the differences in their circumstances, Kate and Josie have been friends since childhood. But their past binds them together in ways they must never know. Until a chance meeting forces Kate and Josie to confront the truth of that night nearly twenty years before – a truth that turns both worlds upside down and threatens to destroy their friendship forever…

Then this one night, she has to transport this mysterious guy from a foreign ship onto the banks of the Thames. He is a man that ends up renting a room inside of Essie’s house, and only identifies himself as ‘Raven’. The Swan Maid (2016) – Lottie Lane is all alone in the world. As a chambermaid at one of London’s busiest inns, condemned to a life of drudgery and at the mercy of a vicious landlady, Lottie is too worn out to even dream of a better life. Until one night an injured soldier is brought to The Swan. A Village Scandal (2020) – April 1869. It’s spring in Little Creek and wedding bells are ringing. After their hasty marriage the Christmas before, Daisy is overjoyed to be finally marrying dashing Jay properly, in front of the whole village. But then, on the evening of their wedding, amid the festivities, Jay disappears. Daisy doesn’t know if Jay is dead or alive, if she’s his wife or his widow. And what’s more, without her husband, she has no means of supporting herself or her household. Dilly’s ability to bring the era alive the characters into believable entity’s and the colourful expression and great pace leaves me, the reader, never wanting it to end!!’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This book, like all the other books in the series, was excellent. I just couldn't put it down. It was filled with mystery and romance from beginning to end’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The village in Little Creek, during the long winter of 1867. The first flakes of snow are falling to the ground when Daisy Marshall, who is secretly engaged to her master’s son, finds she’s being jilted at the altar. Dolly Blanchard dreams of a bigger life. She wants to make a mark on the world, not simply wait for a husband to come along. So when an impoverished actress offers her a lifeline, Dolly flees to London, determined to make it on the stage and prove to her family – and herself – that she can strike out alone. There’s a dashing man she was thinking would be the hero all of a sudden develops some unattractive traits and will upset Dilly, along with her heroine. Then there’s times a rough diamond, that looked destined to swing from a noose’s end, winds up being an absolute charmer and she finds herself falling for them, so the heroine’s got zero chance of escaping. Sunday’s Child (2022) – Left on the steps of an orphanage when she was just days old, Nancy Sunday was brought up in hardship – until the kindly Rosalind Carey took her in. Now eighteen years old, Nancy is an adopted member of the Carey family. But she can’t help wondering who her parents really were… When Nancy is sent away to finishing school, she finds herself in the midst of London society. There she meets Freddie Ashton – kind and warm-hearted, he might just be the man of Nancy’s dreams. But she knows his wealthy parents would never let him marry a penniless foundling.