A compelling plot, a cast of well developed and intriguing characters, a well researched historical background. A story of relationships, of women, and of the beginning of porno photographies.
Well done, good storytelling.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

An interesting story set in late Victorian Brighton that examines the hypocrisy of the male dominated society and the beginning of visual pornography. Strong female characters and the Brighton setting was beautifully described. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

Set in late Victorian Brighton ,the story tells of twins Ellen and Reynold who own a Photographers Shop who take respectable portraits during the day but when the shop is closed in the Golden Hour the models arrive for the more lucrative and illegal pornography of the time .The book deals with the inequalities between sexes of the time and the total power men had over women !.It is also a love story ,a beautifully written book with great characters .Thanks to NetGalley for my ARC.

I’ll give you a minute to get over the beauty of this cover…

Ok, ready?

Meet Ellen. Her life is closely interlinked with that of her twin brother. They live and work together as photographers. They are colleagues only in theory, though. The truth is that he’s the one taking the photos and she’s in charge of scouting for models willing to undress. Yes, because their most lucrative business is selling illicit prints to titillate the appetite of men.

Feeling unappreciated, Ellen’s encounter with Clementine gives her the opportunity to change her life. She becomes the live-in companion of this American woman, newly married to a rich English man whose only interest is producing an heir. Both unhappy and lonely, they find great pleasure in their blossoming friendship. Perhaps too much pleasure? Let me say no more!

As you’d expect, not everything is sunshine and roses. Ellen is sucked back into her brother’s failing business and things start going downhill from there. Will she be able to take back the reins of her own destiny? Well, you’ll just have to read this exquisite novel set in a late-Victorian Brighton that jumps out of the page!

Ellen and Reynold Harper are twins, they live in Brighton, Reynold is a portrait photographer and he also takes erotic photographs that are sold under the counter in selected bookshops or by mail. Ellen finds everyday girls to be his models, factory workers and seamstresses to be his models, at the golden hour and after his respectable customers leave. Ellen thinks she's helping them, earn easy money and doesn’t consider what she’s doing is wrong.

Lily March works as a laundress, with her mother and sister and at home she tries to keep away from her sleazy uncle who likes to corner her and Lily’s worried she won’t be able to dodge his advances for much longer and she desperately wants to leave.

Clementine Brouwer is American, to save her family from financial ruin she marries Herbert Williams, he wants an heir and it’s Clem’s duty to provide him with one and she detests him. Ellen, Lily and Clementine all meet, Ellen is preoccupied by her growing attraction to Lily and her new friendship with Clementine. Ellen has never considered the consequences and if the identity of the girls being photographed is uncovered, she discovers it can be used as blackmail against the women, they feel ashamed and it’s illegal.

I received a copy of The Golden Hour by Jacquie Bloese from Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The author has chosen to write story about the flourishing trade of risque photographs, it was a lucrative business during the late 1890 and during The Great War.

What you discover from reading the narrative, is young women and girls were desperate to escape poverty and you can understand why they became models. I read Ms Bloese’s previous book, The French House which I enjoyed, but her latest novel wasn’t what I was expecting, it's about the exploitation of women and the early days of pornography.

The parts of the narrative I found interesting was about the work of The National Vigilance Association who tried to stop young girls and women being taken advantage of, many were suffragettes and they went to theatres where women worked as music hall and tableaux dancers and three stars from me.

I must admit i struggled with this book and nearly gave up on it but pleased I carried on reading. Really enjoyed it and bit of an eye opener with regards to the way these photos were available after the war. The story has strong characters and gives a different view into Victorian Britain at that time.
My thanks as always to Netgalley and to Publishers Hodder & Stoughton for the early read, a new author to add to my list.

Thanks to the Publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it kept me hooked from start to finish.

The characters were lovely, especially Ellen and Reynold.

I loved the setting, during the Victorian times in Brighton.

There was some parts that were hard to read, about Clementine.

I recommend this book.

Well THAT was an eye opener!

Those poor women! I had no idea of how this industry of erotic photos grew after the war and how women were dragged into it. The work involved trying to help them. the abuse and corruption. Wow. A real eye opener.

I don;t think the cover really reflects the content but then again it hides it well and makes it even more of a shock.

Very compelling.

This was an interesting novel, showing a different side of society. Some parts were more enjoyable than others, and certain characters easier to connect with. All in all, I found it an intriguing read.

3.5 stars rounded up.

In the genteel square of late-Victorian Brighton, Ellen and Reynold Harper - twins, companions, colleagues - ply their trade as portrait photographers. But at the golden hour, the models arrive to pose for the lucrative - and illicit - photographs that really keep the harpers' business afloat. This is the other, shadowy, world of the world of erotic tableaux, boundary-crossing music hall performers, and the sinister figure of local gangster, the Croc. When Ellen is drawn into the orbit of unhappy, newly-wed Clementine, she finds herself torn between loyalty to her brother, her dangerous attraction to new model, Lily, and her burgeoning friendship with Clem.

The story centers around twins, Ellen and Reynold Harper. - portrait photographers, who through circumstance, find themselves producing porn. We are taken into an illicit world in late-Victorian Brighton, where nearly everything is prohibited. The characters are well-developed. Ellen and Reynold have a great relationship. But then they fall on hard times. Ellen takes a job as a Governess. Ellen and Clem - her employer - quickly form a relationship. But they live in a world of prejudice. This is a compelling love story.

The Golden Hour is set in the late 19th century. Twins Ellen and Reynold are portrait photographers in Brighton but during the golden hour of the title they dabbling in mild pornographic photography which they sell via a P.O. box for healthy amounts of money. Ellen is frustrated that as a woman of the time she is always her brother's apprentice and procuress of models despite arguably taking better photographs. After a chance meeting with Clem - a rich American woman in an unhappy marriage of convenience - she leaves her unhealthy relationship with her brother and becomes Clem's companion. Ellen discovers she has feelings for women especially Lily one of the girls she procured for her brother's special photos. She then becomes involved with Clem her employer. The book deals with the inequalities of the time between the sexes. The total power men had over women and the exploration of same sex relationships between women at that time. I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Golden Hour. The characters were beautifully written. Definitely a book I'm happy to recommend.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy. All opinions are my own.

This was a really enjoyable read. A strongly feminist story, full of strong female characters challenging and pushing at the boundaries victorian society has placed upon them, and often railing against the double standards of the era. I enjoyed the setting and the story itself, and for the most part the characters were well fleshed out and likeable. I did find Ellen a little flighty and struggled to really sympathise with her at points as her motivations were often a bit lacklustre. Overall, an enjoyable read with an interesting setting and some unique challenges.

I absolutely adored The Golden Hour by Jacquie Bloese. This novel illuminated a little known aspect of the history of sex, particularly the early days of pornography, but was also an intelligent, thrilling character-driven tale of forbidden love. Ellen lives with her brother, both of them social misfits, earning a crust with their down at heel photographic studio. When Ellen meets Lily, a young woman with nothing to lose, she has feelings for her that have no place in genteel Edwardian society. As the story progresses, Ellen must navigate her complex feelings for both Lily, and her new mistress Clem, whilst endeavoring to protect her brother from the violent debt-collectors who will stop at nothing to get their money. Bloese has clearly done her research, and I learned so much about Edwardian photography and society. A wonderful read.

An absorbing read that took you into Victorian Britain when there were extreme differences in class and gender status. It revealed that many men were hypocrites with a veneer of respectability while also in thrall to the burgeoning photographic porn industry. The action centres on twin brother and sister who through force of circumstance find themselves producing this porn. Their subjects, though willing participants are victims here, receiving public vilification for their music hall performing lifestyle. A sapphic romance develops and in a surprising turn, one person whose character is developed as being sincere and tender in her affections is ditched in favour of a music hall performer as she is revealed as opportunistic. A word about the national vigilance association. In the book they are seen as overbearing, even sanctimonious. In the authors note they are described as saving many women from poverty and exploitation despite being overzealous at the time. All in all, much to take from a worthwhile read.

I loved The French House and The Golden Hour is another beautifully written story by Jacquie Bloese. Set in late 19th century Brighton, the story oozed atmosphere where twins Ellen and Reynold Harper scrape a living as photographers. The Golden Hour refers to when photographers including Ellen and Reynold, take photos of scantily clad and nude young women and girls which are then sold for a lot of money. Independent Ellen is unhappy at playing second fiddle to her brother, and sought a change to her circumstances by becoming a ladies maid to the wealthy, but equally disenchanted, Clementine. A great read illustrating the constraints women lived under when men saw them as their property and inferior beings.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the opportunity to read and review The Golden Hour.

The blurb sounded good and promising, and the cover also had a positive, mysterious effect on me. So I grabbed this book spontaneously. Well and what should I say? It didn’t catch me at all. I have to state this straight away.

We are in Brighton, late 19th century. Our protagonists are Ellen and Reynold Harper, twins, and freelance photographers. Business isn’t really going well, but there is also a lucrative side business: At the golden hour, the photographers like to take pictures of young women who are lightly or not at all clad. The pictures are sold very well paid from a mailbox address…… yessss……. Ellen thinks it’s all rather semi-cool, and besides, as a woman, she’s just her brother’s assistant anyway… so she looks for and finds a way to change her life a little and takes a job as a companion to the unhappy newly married Clementine at. The relationship between the two is somewhat unbalanced because Clem also wants to break out of her life and believes that she has found the right person in the more independent Ellen who can help her with this. Oh yes, and then there’s Lily, the young and pretty laundress, the last porn model that Ellen picked up, and Lily isn’t happy either. Life in poverty plus an abusive uncle is unfunny. Yes, the lives of the three women intersect several times, and – yes and what actually? I didn’t understand what the novel was trying to tell me. I guess I didn’t understand much here. The story somehow didn’t affect me. The style is, on the one hand, fluid and easy to read (I mean that in a positive way as a non-native english speaker!), but somehow distant. I wasn’t able to build any relationship with any of the protagonists. At some point I didn’t think it mattered what happened next and I just read across the second half of the book. Where was the announced atmosphere? What was “spellbinding” here? And “sensual”?? Didn’t notice anything about it. But I shook my head during one scene when one of the porn photo buyers started masturbating over his new picture. Nope! Okay – it wasn’t for me. Thanks anyway to Netgalley for the review copy!

An interesting read which brought you into the society and morals of Victorian England.
It is a social commentary on women’s place in society and the moral values of men and where they see women whether it is as their property or a play thing with no rights of their own regardless of their class .

An interesting book which unfortunately I don’t enjoy. Ellen & Reynold Harper are twins and run a photography business which most of the time is respectable but then they turn to nude photography. Thanks to Jacquie and her publisher. Thanks also to NetGalley

An interesting and great read with a story that keeps you entertained. Flawed characters with flawed lives

This was a good, but strange read. The content was very good. Learning about the clandestine world of explicit photography was quite capturing. I did not, however, like how the chapters were laid out. It switched from one storyline to the next, without any warning. I had to go back and re-read the first paragraph to make sure I was in the correct storyline. Very good content, just strangely laid out.