No Life for a Lady: The absolutely joyful and uplifting historical romcom everyone is talking about

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It’s the kind of book that you read too fast and race to the end, only to then wish you’d slowed down and savoured the pages more. Violet Hamilton is a woman who knows her own mind – which, in 1896, can make things a little complicated. I enjoyed the moments where Violet deliberately puts men off their attempts to court her, in acts which are both self-protective and self-destructive: ‘My father was [.

Violet was unmarried because she didn't want to be married, but her father tried every day to introduce her to a new suitor. This is a wonderful blend of humour ( laugh out loud at times), of innocent/not so innocent misunderstandings and crossed wires, of the unconventional versus the conventions of the day and there’s the mystery of the missing mother and a dash of Victorian/not so Victorian romance all in a great setting of St Leonard’s on Sea and Hastings. Inquisitive, tenacious and full of charisma, she was easy to like and root for, though I would sometimes cringe at her naivete that is a product of both her sheltered upbringing and the times they lived in. There is also a serious side to Violet’s growing disenchantment with people she has trusted, as there is with her increased self-confidence and ability to make tough decisions. I loved how Dolby injected so much heart, humour and joy into the book, making a story that could have been very dark into one that radiates fun and hopefulness.

No Life for a Lady is light-hearted, cosy historical mystery with a touch of romance from Hannah Dolby. As she tries to decide if her mother’s horrific story is accurate, Violet has many amusing adventures.

First, it was able to take hundreds of years of history and put it together in a way that was not overwhelming with billions of factoids. We’d woke up a grizzly as big as the Missouri mule out of a nice nap, and he was comin’ down that mountain with blood in his eye a-hittin’ the ground only once’t in a while. With rare exceptions such as bank holidays, the book group meets on the first Wednesday of every month at 7. Finding the missing is no job for a lady, but when Violet hires a seaside detective to help, she sets off a chain of events that will put more than just her reputation at risk.This novel was a breath of fresh air, a lively read that was a welcome pick-me-up without challenging the brain cells too much. It’s lucky then, that Hannah Dolby’s No Life For A Lady genuinely is the most joyful – not to mention funny, quirky and charming – book you’ll get your hands on this year. Since 2012 is the centennial year for NM statehood, my book club is reading 3 books about various aspects of NM history.

After a school mate spends the holiday at the ranch she reports, "Agnes is not given to exaggeration. She tells what it was really like to live and work on a cattle ranch back then, when going to get the mail happened once a week and entailed a fourteen mile horseback ride to the nearest town. There's no sex, no violence, just interesting, and often amazing, living with neighbors, community, and tourists. I would say that the last quarter of it picked up the pace and I felt myself being more drawn into the story. The why of her vanishing is as important to Violet as the how, and she’s determined not to give up until she discovers what happened all those years ago.I liked the personal connection Violet had to the disappearance of her mother and I think readers will enjoy reading the mystery parts.

Raymond presently became one of the great and famous cattle barons, with holdings in the neighborhood of half a million acres. However, she’s up for pretty much anything – except house cleaning – leading one character to remark ‘You are the most infuriating female I’ve ever met’. An advertisement discovered by chance leads her to an another private eye, and though Benjamin Blackthorn initially turns her down, Violet eventually convinces him to help.NO LIFE FOR A LADY is a funny, entertaining book that will actually have you laughing out loud at times. We’re in late-Victorian Hastings on England’s south coast, with 28 year-old Violet Hamilton, who lives alone with her banker father since the unexplained disappearance of her mother ten years before. It was unclear to me why Violet has waited ten years to make a serious attempt to investigate her mother’s disappearance but once she embarks upon it she has no intention of stopping. The format of the book was very interactive and although it distracted me a bit, I enjoyed finding out about this period in history. As always when I read books set in this time period, I get frustrated with the limitations of being a woman during this time.