Review - Dangerous Women by Hope Adams

 

 

 Title: Dangerous Women

Author: Hope Adams

Pages: 335

Publisher: Michael Joseph

Release Date: 4th March 2021

 

Blurb from Goodreads:

 Nearly two hundred condemned women board a transport ship bound for Australia. One of them is a murderer. From debut author Hope Adams comes a thrilling novel based on the 1841 voyage of the convict ship Rajah, about confinement, hope, and the terrible things we do to survive.

London, 1841. One hundred eighty Englishwomen file aboard the Rajah, embarking on a three-month voyage to the other side of the world.

They're daughters, sisters, mothers—and convicts.

Transported for petty crimes.

Except one of them has a deadly secret, and will do anything to flee justice.

As the Rajah sails farther from land, the women forge a tenuous kinship. Until, in the middle of the cold and unforgiving sea, a young mother is mortally wounded, and the hunt is on for the assailant before he or she strikes again.

Each woman called in for question has something to fear: Will she be attacked next? Will she be believed? Because far from land, there is nowhere to flee, and how can you prove innocence when you’ve already been found guilty?

Goodreads | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Bookshop | Waterstones

My Review:

*I received an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to Penguin Michael Joseph and NetGalley*

In 1841, a ship called the Rajah leaves London filled with nearly two hundred convicted women being shipped to Tasmania for their crimes.

As the Rajah makes it way south across the sea, some of the women are chosen by the ship's matron to work together to make a patchwork quilt.

But not all of the women will survive the journey . . .

I always like reading books set at sea, but this novel didn't live up to my hopes, unfortunately.

There were three main characters - Kezia, the ship's matron, Harriet, whose son had been allowed to join her on the voyage, and Clara, who didn't want her fellow shipmates to discover her past. They were all interesting characters and I enjoyed finding out more about them all. While I didn't feel that I developed a connection to any of them, I did find myself more drawn to Kezia and Harriet.

My favourite thing about the novel is that it's based on a voyage that actually happened, and real women who made a quilt that is being displayed in Australia.

The setting of the ship was interesting and it succeeded in making the story feel very confined, but this also limited what could happen.

The plot was quite slow and not much really happened over the length of the novel. While I did enjoy it for the most part, I did lose interest a couple of times. Friendship was a big theme and I did like reading as the women got to know each other and made friends. It couldn't have been easy for them being cooped up on a ship for several months on the way to a strange country, not knowing when or if they would see their families again.

The writing style was easy to follow.

I'm disappointed that I didn't enjoy this more.

Overall, this was a mixed read.