The Dressmaker Of Draper's Lane by Liz Trenow

This novel is a sequel, of sorts, to The Silk Weaver which I didn't realise until I started reading it and characters I recognised (Henri and Anna) started cropping up.  Unfortunately, for me, this book just did not live up the previous one.  The richness of the setting is completely lost along the way and the newly introduced characters really aren't sufficient to carry the story or hold your interest.  This isn't helped by having an Ann and an Anna and the main character Charlotte also being known as Agnes.  If you read the book in a couple of big chunks this wouldn't be a problem but picking it up several times over a couple of days it does become an issue; well, it did for me.

It doesn't help that the threads of Charlotte running her costumier business are interwoven with the Foundling Hospital that raised her and also her sister's strained marriage to a fire and brimstone Vicar.  Nothing really sits together and it all felt like a couple of different stories smooshed together with the filling that was supposed to link running away into the cracks.  Unlike with The Silk Weaver everything felt slightly artificial and contrived rather than absorbing you in the time and the place.

Characterisation takes second place to the plotting of the book so I never really felt that I knew Charlotte/Agnes and less so her sister Louisa.  In many ways things just happen to Charlotte and she rapidly became just a conduit to discuss child abandonment, abuse of servants, struggles of extended family and women in business in the 18th Century.  Louisa is mainly there to show abuse within marriage.  There is a plot twist towards the end but it comes as neither a surprise or of much interest by this point - all that's important is that we are nearly at the end.  Even the conclusion of the book was strangely dissatisfying and a bit "happy clappy".

One saving grace was the sub title of each chapter providing you with a description of a popular fashion item of the period or a popular cloth; these short snippets were informative and I finally know what a sackback dress would have looked like and why.  I suppose I should have known it didn't bode well when something that was not an intrinsic part of the story was the most enjoyable bit of the book.  There are some good insights in to the structuring of society but you have to dig for them and the relentless pursuit for everything to come out for the best for all characters did become a little wearisome.

Really the best I can say about the book is that it is relatively non-offensive and passed the time adequately without making me feel like I had completely wasted the hours spent reading it.  I did expect much better from the author though as I have read a couple of her previous books and thoroughly enjoyed them - I think nostalgia for those and the hope that this is just a blip is why I have rated this 3 Stars instead of the 2 that it probably deserves.