Sinners & Shadows

Beggars and Choosers #3

by Catrin Collier

Orphaned at eight, raised by a brutal sadistic brother, nineteen-year-old parlour maid, Rhian, dreams of meeting a man who will love her and give her what she wants more than anything else in the world, a family of her own. When she is invited to join the Evans family on New Year's Eve 1913, her life is thrown into turmoil. The youngest Evans' brother, twenty-two year old Joey, confesses he loves her. Handsome, charming Joey has never met a woman who could refuse him anything. But Rhian is suspicious of his reputation as a ladies' man and it takes time, tenderness and persistence to win her trust. Just when she finally admits that she loves him as much as he loves her, Joey's past overshadows and finally shatters their happiness. Unable to separate truth from lies, wanting to hurt Joey as deeply as he has her, Rhian turns to her employer, Edward Larch, for solace. Unhappily married, Edward offers her the only position he can, that of his mistress. Her choice is simple and irrevocable - to forgo love, her reputation as a 'respectable girl' and all chance of a settled family life for the sake of financial security. Then Europe is plunged into war, turning everyone's lives upside down. But Rhian cannot stop thinking about the man she loved who betrayed her - and the problems peace will bring.

Genres: Historical

452 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2005

About the author

Catrin Collier is Wales' most prolific and well-known author of historical, romantic fictions. The daughter of a Prussian refugee and Welsh father, she grew up in Pontypridd. Her first historical novel Hearts of Gold, was filmed as a mini-series by the BBC in 2003. Her crime book, By Any Name, written as Katherine John was filmed by Tanabi and released on Amazon Prime in 2017. She lives with her family on the Gower Peninsula, near Swansea. More information on Catrin Collier, Katherine John and Caro French's books can be found on her website www.catrincollier.co.uk

Reviews

[Victoria Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

You know how people who aren't bookworms try to be when they know you are? Years ago, I had a friend like that. And for my birthday around 5 years ago, she got me this book. It looked pretty average. You could tell she'd just grabbed it off the shelf randomly. But it felt rude to throw it away when I hadn't even read it! So this year, I thought "I better read this. What if it's great?"
She didn't know what she was doing. It was terrible.
It was one of those books where they assume you know exactly what's going on. Collier didn't introduce any of the characters, she just let us work out who was who by ourselves. I didn't really get a clear idea in my head of what they all looked like. And for ages, I wasn't sure who was friends with who, and which ones were related, and which one was in love with the other. It was a small town, so everyone had some connection with the other people. It didn't help when she swapped between names for them. Sometime he was Mr Larch, sometimes he was Edward, sometimes he was Father. That just made it even more confusing! Worse, sometimes the same character would swap between names. As in, Rhian called him Mr Larch AND Edward at different parts in the book. If the characters had been better developed, I might have been able to work out who was who.
I hoped that an exciting plot would make up for me not caring in the slightest about any of the characters. In the blurb, it tells us that there's going to be a war, and an affair. I love war! But actually, that blurb was a massive spoiler. The affair happens half way through the book, and it's meant to be a huge shock when it's suggested. The war happens 3/4s of the way through, and isn't as big a part of the book as you'd expect. Plus, war is meant to break hearts. I want to worry about who's coming home, and if they're injured or whatever. One person died. Out of all the people that went, only one of them didn't come home. One of them complained a lot, but that was about it.
Okay. STOP. I'm going to talk about the ending, because it made me really mad. If you're dumb, and still want to read the book, don't carry on. If you don't care, keep reading.
So, Joey and Rhian broke up, because of stupid reasons. Then Joey had a one night stand, and got someone pregnant. Rhian had an affair with a married man. It was meant to be drama, but it wasn't. Then, for literally NO REASON, the married man got hit by a tram and died. I was meant to be sad, but I wasn't. Rhian was. Then the pregnant lady died in childbirth! So guess what happened then? Rhian and Joey got back together, and conveniently had a baby! Collier couldn't fix their relationship, so she had to KILL OFF THEIR PROBLEMS. I've read some bad books in my time, but that's got be one of the worst endings I've ever read
Okay, rant over, carry on! Well, actually, I'm still going to rant... Not only was the plot not what I expected, it also dragged. It took me almost a month to read this book. It's not because I'm a slow reader. I was still on summer holidays, I had a lot of free time. I just couldn't force myself to concentrate. I read loads of books in between this one, and whizzed through some of those in day. But not this one. I made so many excuses to put off reading this one. In fact, what I really wanted to do was give up and put it down. But I can't get rid of books until I've finished them, so I stuck with this one, just so I could have more space in my book shelf.
The one thing I liked was Julia. I don't know why. I liked how straight up she was about things. If she wasn't happy, she told you. She wanted to be married, so she walked straight up to a guy and asked him to marry her because she was filthy rich. So she was refreshing. It did make me mad how everyone went on and on about how ugly she was. The man she married was attractive, so every questioned their relationship. I mean, they were right to, but it was still offensive! Julia didn't care though. She knew she was ugly, and she was very straight up about it. Plus, it meant she cared about being intelligent, something too few women did then.
Overall, I give it two stars. I would have given it one, but Julia bumped it up a little. Not enough for me to recommend it though! Seriously, don't do it!

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did enjoy this book but it jumps around a lot. Also I felt some of it was a bit strange in some parts especially how certain characters got killed off so quickly.
I liked it but not as much as the previous ones in the series but definitely enough to want to read the next one.

[Mary-jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a mix-match of characters. At the very beginning, i was lost in all the characters since there were soo many names. It was beginning to get interested when she finally met Joey and then, there relationship grew. I read all the pages till Rhian told Joey's family that they were engaged, then, i was getting impatient and curious and decided to skip pages. (thank god actually)
The way it ended i guess was ok and i don't know but if is as if there was a message that you should forget the past and move forward. well, i'm not ok with this statement. Sure, that's how their relationship and trust grew apart but one has to know the other one's past before even considering a serious relationship.
Anyway, i hate that Rhian turned to Edward and became his mistress (god, that's cheating) and how she broke Joey's heart.
I get it, he is not a monk but damn, JULIA??and a kid?
That's how telenovelas are...recently.
From the back cover summary, the plot seemed very promising and heart-wrenching but there was too many characters and "unwanted" bits and chapters that made the book be too long and boring. Therefore, i read a 512 pages book in 4.5 hours max.
DECEPTION is the one word that comes to my mind

[Tes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book. I loved learning and reading what Rhian does where she was staying and reading into the people she works with. This book made me love Joey more. I loved Joey before when he was a charmer to who all the girls but him changing for Rhian was sweet. I felt so sad for Joey after Rhian and Joey were not going to get married :(. but the way the book ended was nice. It was also nice reading more about Sali's brother, I liked him in the first book until Sali decided to go back to Lloyd and he turned not nice, this book didn't change my view on him really but it was interesting. Poor Julia tho dying after her child was born. :( I loved when Rhian and Joey were talking and it was said Lloyd/Sali finish each other lines and I loved there scenes they got, they were perfect and how strong their marriage is amazing. and i think it was sweet that we found out that every time Sali got pregnant her and Lloyd argued on names for 9 months. Shame we didn't see much of that but was nice of what we saw. :) I love them <3