and a 4 star for alice

I've read a few of this author's books now, and this is a distinct departure from his normal fair of historical erotica, it seems Charlie B. is very capable of writing other genres successfully. This Victorian melodrama concerns a poor East End girl who's mother is manipulated into selling her to a brothel to keep a roof over the head of her other children.
There are themes similar to Oliver Twist, with a rich benefactor and evil exploitative 'baddies' but despite much of the story taking place in a brothel, the content is not in the least salacious. As a Londoner myself, the accents were overwhelmingly well done, except for the characters pronouncing 'my' instead of 'me'. I found the history tidbits about the political climate at the beginning of each chapter fascinating, it brought the story a distinct air of realism.
This is a fine historical tale, slightly marred by the same faults as the author's other books; a confusion between plural and possessive, some hugely long sentences (50+ words in a few cases) and other missing punctuation. in addition, there was an occasional, and wholly unnecessary omnipotent narrator that I found rather irritating.