This is a charming historical fiction looking at the lives of three women.
The writing is very good and it had been researched so well
The middle of the book dragged a bit.

DNF

Nothing about this story captured my attention. I didn't think any of the girls had any real personalities and ultimately I just couldn't become interested in the plote.

I loved the idea of this book, I have a huge interest in this period and was intrigued by the story of the Guinness girls. I am also fascinated by the Mitford sisters and love novels set in this period so this novel seemed to tick all the boxes for me. I did enjoy some of it- it is beautifully written and I loved some of the social history aspects looking at Ireland and London in the 1920s. Although I was really engaged in parts other parts of the novel seemed slow and I lost interest. There was a huge cast of characters to keep track of and ultimately I think I would have more interest in reading a non fiction biography of the sisters.
Many thanks to NetGalley for a digital ARC.

The main draw for this book was the period of history it covers - primarily the 1920s. Throw in some glitz and glamour, some high society sisters from the famous brewing dynasty, lots of Bright Young Things and raucous parties and I was absolutely sold!

This book fictionalises the story of the Glorious Guinness Girls - three sisters from Ireland who were celebrated in the contemporary media for being beautiful, privileged and eminently newsworthy. They were the daughters of Ernest and Cloe Guinness and raised in wealth and luxury in Glenmaroon until the events of the Irish Civil War became a little too close to home. They then embarked on a round the world yacht trip before settling in London where the girls were 'brought out' as debutantes and attended some pretty wild-sounding parties.

The story is told from the point of view of a fictional cousin of the Guinness Girls, Fliss, who is invited to live with the family and so is witness to the girls' lives in the twelve year period that the book covers. Although she lives alongside the family, it is clear that she isn't one of them - she is not invited on the yacht trip and instead becomes a kind of companion to Cloe and chaperone figure for the girls, even though she is a similar age to them. Fliss' narrative covers mainly her time with the family in the 1920s, although we also see her as an older woman revisiting the former Guinness estate that has now been turned over to a religious order.

I'll admit to being unsure how this book would work - particularly how the mixture of fact and fiction would work. In fact, the story is beautifully presented and engaging, although it is slightly ironic that the character we get the most vivid sense of is Fliss, the fictional one. This isn't really surprising though, as her personal story - including her relationship with her brother, Hughie, who is caught up in the Irish Civil War - is really the heart of this book.

Of the three Guinness Girls (Aileen, Maureen and Oonagh), the one developed the most as a fully rounded character is Maureen, so it came as no surprise to me to read the author's note at the end of the book which explained that one of her main sources was someone who knew Maureen best. Indeed, Maureen is vividly rendered as someone who is quite spiky and willing to test the boundaries of her sheltered life - it is a clever device to place Fliss as being a similar age to her and so sharing her experiences most closely. Aileen, the eldest, is probably the most mysterious of the three, while Oonagh (the baby of the family) is mostly sweet and spends most of her time on childish pursuits.

I thoroughly enjoyed the story of the Guinness Girls as I followed them from the volatility of the Irish situation to the glamour of the Roaring 20s in London. It was really interesting to see the ways that their wealth protected them from the political situation up until the point they could no longer ignore the reality of what was happening on their doorstep. I also loved how the author presented the fact that the traditions of the aristocracy were slowly dying in the youth revolution of the 1920s - to be young and free and living life to the full was the most important thing and Maureen embodies this.

Obviously, this presents a narrow view of what life in the 1920s was like, but it is an exhilarating experience to be carried along with the beautiful people as they partied like it was 1929 (pre-Wall Street crash, of course!) The blending of historical figures with the fictional ones was also engaging - it was lovely to 'see' Nancy Mitford, Evelyn Waugh and Brian Howard among others.

This book left me desperate to learn more about the Guinness Girls - all of whom had absolutely fascinating lives after the period of this book. In many ways, I really wanted this book to be more fact and less fiction - the historical figures are interesting in their own right and Fliss' story is perhaps less compelling than the other elements of the novel. However, as a piece of historical fiction based in fact, it does work and is engaging.

I would recommend this to fans of historical fiction - fans looking for heavy-duty non-fiction will not find the detail they want here as this isn't the intention of the book. As a fictional insight into the lives of the wealthy and fortunate in an interesting period of Anglo-Irish history, it absolutely hits the mark.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This story of the Guinness girls is told from the viewpoint of Fliss Burke, a fictional character from Co Wexford, who joins the Guinness family as companion to their three daughters, Aileen, Maureen and Oonagh. In the present day Fliss returns to the Guinnesses palatial home in Dublin, to look through old papers that had been discovered. Now a care home, the family residence had been a symbol of the family’s wealth, comprising of two parts joined by a walkway. One side was the private family residence and the other side was for parties and entertaining. Through this trip down memory lane the author blends fact and fiction to tell a story of rules and restrictions. The girls lived a restricted and routine life style, with the wishes of an absent father carried out through staff and with a nervous mother unable to intervene. The girls were very aware that they had a reputation to uphold in society.

Fliss has come from a poor background and noticed the difference keenly - she had worn and repaired clothes compared with the girls finery. I felt for her so much. Yet once you disregarded the finery and affectations, there were just three girls trying to work out their next steps in life. Excitement arrives in the form of Fliss’s brother Hughie and his friend Richard who come to stay. The presence of the boys feels like some sort of beginning, but actually it’s an ending. Discontent is raging across the country, civil war raises its head and the aristocracy living in Dublin are scared. There are threats of house burning and the girls father Ernest decides to pack up the house and take his family back to safety at their London residence. This takes the girls into 1920s London and the hedonistic partying of in the inter - war years. They become part of the set called Bright Young Things. For a family with money, 1920s London is a playground. I enjoyed how Fliss’s story is wound around this history and her struggle to find her own identity within the wild lifestyle of the Guinness girls. How can she find out who she is and the life she wants to live when her status in society is being artificially raised by her proximity to the Guinness fortune? Who does she want to be? There’s a sense of her finding the lifestyle exhausting and artificial. What does she want her life style to look like?

I found myself wanting to read more about this interesting family. I have books about the Mitford sisters from my interest in Chatsworth House, and met the late dowager Duchess of Devonshire when she signed a book of their letters for me. The Mitford and Guinness sisters would have been ‘out’ socially in a similar period and it’s a fascinating moment of history. A society wanting to celebrate living life to its fullest after a world war. I thought this was an interesting way of looking at the period and really liked Fliss’s story.

I received a copy of this book to review from Netgalley. Thank you for the opportunity.
This book is a interesting take on the classic, Downton Abbey-esque stories. The writing was good.
However, there was so many people that it was impossible to follow as none were introduced properly. This made it difficult to engage with the story and enjoy it properly.
On the whole a good book

Unfortunately I didn’t love this book and I really am sorry to say that. To be honest I struggled through it and found it contained too many people that at times had me confused as to who everyone was. I

This was certainly an easy and entertaining read but I feel that a true biography of the Guinness Girls would be even more fascinating, all the more because it would be true. Did not know until the end of the book which characters were invented and which were not. Probably should have read the blurb in a bit more detail before requesting this from Netgalley but thank you for the preview.

For poor relation Fliss, the opportunity to go live with the Guinness family means she can get away from home, get an education and move on. Her beloved elder brother Hugh is away at school and Fliss grows up at the heart of a rich family. The Irish are in revolt and Hugh is in sympathy but when he disappears after a party Fliss just believes he has emigrated. Later she becomes an onlooker as the family moves to London and the three girls join the wild society of the Bright Young Things.
I wasn't sure what to make of the structure of this book. At first it jumped between the present day and the past but that model seemed to disappear after a while and everything was about the 1920s. The effects on the Anglo-Irish or the uprisings in Ireland were actually interesting but the rest just seemed to drag a little.

As someone who didn't know a whole lot about the infamous or glorious Guinness girls as the title says. I was intrigued to learn more about them and this book didn't disappoint. I read it in one sitting and couldn't put it down.

Well I loved this book! This is a story of the Guiness sisters, told through the eyes of a friend, Fliss, who goes to live with them after her father is killed during WW1. If you would like to immerse yourself into the roaring twenties the parties, the bright young things and the antics they got up to, then this is the book to read!
The story starts in Ireland when the girls are all still very young. Taking on the troubles of the 1920s and the fight for an independent Ireland, the story then leads on to London of the 1920s. For me, this was when the book really came alive! Drawing on social history of the time, the author places our protagonists into some of the wildest parties that took place. I loved the mix of real history and fiction, which I think has worked really well, keeping the story going and the reader engaged. Overall, a fascinating story.

I read this ARC for an honest review
All thoughts and opinions are mine

I love the historical fiction genre but this didn't quite hit the spot for me

There's nothing intrinsically wrong with the telling of the story of the Guinness girls, it just didn't spark for me

A bit average, I'm afraid

Looking at the blurb of this book, or even the title, this seemed a book which would have great appeal to me. I love books set in the inter-war years and the lives of the Guinness Sisters – Aileen, Maureen and Oonagh – are fascinating. Oddly, though, this is a flat read, which never really seems to take off.

This famous, Anglo-Irish family, are seen through the eyes of Fliss, who goes to live with the sisters when she is ten, a year younger than Maureen and two years older than Oonagh. There is much about the Guinness family and the politics of Anglo-Irish families at that time. Of course, there are great Anglo-Irish authors who actually lived during these times, and one of my favourites is Elizabeth Bowen; whose novels really encapsulate that period brilliantly. However, in this novel, it is Fliss whose eyes we witness everything through and the author makes her so young and innocent, that the political concepts are never really explored. Again, I return to Bowen, whose novel, “The Last September,” takes those political themes and explores them through the eyes of a young woman, but does it so much better.

For me, the Guinness Girls are more about London, debutantes and Bright Young Things. We witness the family at various stages and we see them in London during the 1920’s. There are real life cameos, such as Baby and Zita Jungman, but, somehow, the excitement of those years are not realised. I just felt it was a rather straightforward re-telling; it lacked excitement and I failed to feel empathy with any of the characters. An interesting story, which was let down by a rather dull narrative.

Out of interest, the son of Oonagh Guinness was Tara Browne, the young heir who died in a car crash and was said to be the inspiration for, “A Day in the Life.”

I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.

The beautiful glittering dress on the cover, the blurb proclaiming revelations of 'Love affairs, lies, secrets', the focus on the famous 'Golden Guinness Girls' socialites... With this presentation, the readers have been brazenly promised a book crammed with glitz, glamour and lashings of scandal. It is hard to believe that the flat narrative, centred on the unspeakably dull, fictional (and not a Guinness Girl) Fliss, is the same book which was described.

I should have known something was amiss from the huge list of characters on the first few pages. The ever-changing group of people means no character is properly fleshed out, the Guinness Girls themselves remaining spoilt blonde things with little personality. The first half of the book sees Fliss and the girls living in Ireland, the plot focusing on the growing tension between rich and poor in a politically divided Ireland. Due to Fliss' lack of political knowledge, this stays quite surface although I did enjoy the inclusion of Fliss' brother Hughie.

It is only in the second half of the book we get to witness the girls' socialite life in London, even then not really being allowed to be fully immersed due to the simple narrative lens of Fliss. We only hear about glamorous and wonderful events or view them exclusively from Fliss' perspective who longs to go home whenever she is out of the house.

All in all, anyone interested in this period of history will find this an good read I'm sure but it was not for me. I was drawn in by marketing and was hoping for a more exciting and juicy story than the one which was presented. The author herself said she finds the personal tragedies of the Guinness Girls fascinating - perhaps this just didn't translate well in this instance because I felt nothing for them. However, I was compelled to do some more research into these girls after reading and there is clearly reams of material from their lives which could have inspired a more scandalous side to this book. It is just a shame the writing never really took off.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.