Dilly's Hope

Dilly's Story #3

by Rosie Goodwin

Hardworking widow Dilly Carey has struggled out of poverty to make a successful life for herself. Surrounded by her children and grandchildren, Dilly should be content, but she is still troubled by the one secret she must never share. Olivia, the daughter Dilly gave away at birth, cannot find out the real truth about her parentage. It's time for Dilly to make her peace with the choice that she was forced to make. As Dilly finds the strength and courage to visit her son's grave on the battlefields of the Great War, will she also find a way to a new happiness - and a new love?

432 pages, Paperback

Published August 25, 2016

About the author

Before becoming a writer, I was a Placement Support Worker and foster carer, and worked in the social services department after completing a teacher training course. Many children have joined my family over the years. I still live in Nuneaton, where many of my books are set, with my husband, Trevor, and our beloved dogs.

I was thrilled to discover that I'd become one of the top 250 most-borrowed library authors in the UK, and would like to thank all of you who have taken out my books over the last few years! I love meeting my readers and am always pleased to hear from you. I hope you will all continue to get in touch and please do sign up for my newsletter!

Reviews

[Rosemary Morris]

Dilly’s Hope by Rosie Goodwin

I really enjoyed Dilly’s Sacrifice and Dilly’s Loss, and also enjoyed Dilly’s Hope the final book in the trilogy, which I borrowed from the library.

Life has rarely been kind to Dilly, whose talent as a dress designer takes her from rags to riches, and from London to Paris and New York.

Although Dilly has her beloved children and grandchildren, her heart aches for Olivia, the daughter she gave up for adoption as a baby to her employers, Max and Camilla. The money she received from them paid for her other children to go to their grandparents in Ireland. Afterwards, Dilly worked hard, took care of her bed-ridden husband, and dragged herself up by her proverbial boot straps until she was widowed.

Max and Dilly always behave with propriety and suppress their unspoken love for each other, although she is grateful for his encouragement.

Dilly’s Hope is a novel with a fascinating cast of characters, good, bad and evil. It also has a well-researched historical background.

Rosie Goodwin brings the trilogy to a satisfactory conclusion, which brought a few tears to my eyes.

I don’t hesitate to recommend Dilly’s Hope.

[Shirley Revill]

Loved this book. Easy to read but very hard to put down.

[Brenda Anderson]

Brilliant third book.

[Mavis Hutt]

Dilly's Hope by Rosie Goodwin

As usual. A brilliant book. I have read the two previous books in the trilogy and this one came well up to my expectation. Keep them coming Rosie and thank you for making my life better looking forward to reading your brilliant books
Mavis Hutt

[Susan Mcknight]

Have so enjoyed reading this trilogy of books getting to know all the characters and all what has happened in their lives loved them all thoroughly enjoyable read sad it come to and end!!! but so is life. Great read.

[Carol Eccles]

Loved the three books deserves the 5 star rating very down to earth family and love would recommend to the romance novel lovers

Perfect ending from hard work to love at its best well worth the read it did take me the week to read all three but well worth the time.

[c m bolton]

Tear as I finished

OMG I have just finished all three books about Dilly and her wonderful family. I have enjoyed every page and didn't want it to finish but although the end was sad it was also wonderful. What a life you had Dilly.

[Natalie Pounder]

Read all three books in this saga and love each one of them t his book finished dillys story off perfectly and was sad when I finished it

[Lisa Trup]

Thoroughly enjoyed this trilogy, a very easy read.

[Molly]

I enjoyed this book however I thought it was very predictable. So happy everything worked out for everyone in the end and the ending did touch my heart.

[Samata]

It was a lovely read. Finished the book in less than a week.

[Rachel]

Fantastic end to a great series.

[marieka luker]

Dillys hope

I find the three books fantastic and wonderful to read as always Rosie Goodwin is a wonderful writer looking forward to the next one

[Ann Hicks]

I was really enjoying this book but l hated the ending. Was disappointed to find that dilly and max had cheated on their respective spouses early in their marriages. Then for probably the next 20 years even though dillys husband is dead and max's wife is in a mental asylum they are stupidly only just friends !! Also throughout book 2 & 3 Oscar and Olivia act like they are in love with each other but when they finally find out that they can be together because they aren't related they hook up with other people!! The last part of this book has spoilt the whole series for me !!

[Tracey]

This book is the third of a three book series and this final instalment did not disappoint. As in the other two books this story centres on Dilly Carey and her family and friends, it is fast paced and Dilly never seems to stop for a breath. There are many ups and downs, highs and lows and Dilly is the one that everyone turns to. Without spoiling the plot for those who have yet to read this book I would just like to say that for me the ending was perfect.

[Zoey Cortese]

The third book in the Dilly series and I simply adored how it all came together & I really feel like I actually know all the characters in the book, almost like they are real people. I'm so so SO happy that Samuel finally got what he deserved from the 'old lady' too!!! Nice one!!! So many ups and downs with many happy moments and sad moments but I'm so happy they all lived happily ever after. This book left me with a smile on my face :-)

[Ann Hancock]

An absolute must read

I really enjoyed this book from start to finish. I fell in love with the characters and felt as though I knew them all so deeply by the end if the book. The twist and turns and yet the family warmth of this book kept you engaged in the story throughout. I was sorry when it ended I would recommend this book to transport you away leaving you to want to read more. A beautiful story.

[Shiree rear]

Sad it’s ended

Really really enjoyed dilly’s story. Was hard to put down. Lots of twists and surprises. Lots of heartbreak and horrible people but shows a mix of two families sticking together. Beautiful ending in fact the best ending to a story I’ve read in a while.

[Jane Blake]

This is the third book in the series and I really enjoyed it, just one thing that bugged me was she keeps getting characters names mixed up, does she not have proofreaders?
If it wasn’t for this it would have been a 5* rating

[Ann Cowan]

Fantastic

Loved every line in this book. I couldn't put it down .I felt I was in the book and didn't want it to end.

[Rachel Lehmann]

I love this series of books about Dilly. Nice gentle family saga.

[Elizabeth Brown]

Amazing family saga.

An amazing set of stories about a very amazing lady. Found I couldn't get through the books fast enough. As usual Rosie Goodwin came up trumps.

[T D Munro]

Dollys trilogy

A very good read that showed the struggles that families went through and came through all three books were brilliant.

[Kristia]

I’ve really enjoyed this last instalment to Dilly’s story. Although I didn’t find it as easy to read than the previous too, it was nice to see how they eventually got their happy ending.

[Janet Fitch]

Very enjoyable read

This was the last book in a trilogy and ended the story of Dilly Carey. It was really heartwarming and an unputdownable book

[Simone McKenna]

Much like the previous two in the series, this was a brilliant book that kept me very absorbed, very compelling and moving! It was indeed a powerful conclusion.

I did feel however that Samuel's storyline dragged on, with us having spent the entire three books now of him getting into trouble all the time and being an absolute scoundrel, with this having also taken place throughout the vast majority of this book, and it just got a bit repetitive. I was just very relieved when he was finally killed off by the end.

I also found that it focused too much on Dilly advancing her fashion career, and that there were too many scenes on fashion, with the Paris trip having taken up more pages than it should have done, which I just found a bit boring and had to skim through.

I was also really disappointed when it was revealed at the end that Dilly had cheated on Fergal with Max all those years ago, with Olivia actually being his daughter after all. It was bad enough that Fergal was just dismissed and forgotten about even when he was still alive, with Dilly simply seeming to neglect him as she finds herself more interested in Max, but to find out she cheated on him was just awful! I also found it was unnecessary as why should Olivia suddenly being Max's daughter by blood suddenly make the whole thing so much more meaningful?! I feel this ruined it as it would have been better had she just stayed Dilly and Fergal's daughter.

Also like someone else has said here the amount of name mix ups is ridiculous, this seems to happen in so many of her books as well that it is just really glaring, especially as it would mess up the whole story with one of the name mix-ups having been for a character that has long died.

I'm actually glad that Oscar and Olivia didn't end up getting together, because of course it kept indicating that they would given they weren't actually blood siblings at all but they of course didn't know that yet, but even if they weren't it would still be weird given they grew up together as brother and sister. But most importantly, it was revealed in the end that they were actually blood related, as they were actually half siblings, so of course this still couldn't have happened. However it makes me realise that that whole thing with them having inappropriate feelings for each other was a total waste, not to mention most inappropriate, given they were siblings as far as they were concerned, and of course in the end after we thought they weren't blood related at all it turns out that they are actually blood siblings, being half siblings.

It was overall a very moving, gripping read though, and except for that big reveal of the affair from all those years ago, I thought it was all a very satisfying and fitting ending.

[Marilyn Williams]

Once again a brilliant read

I have loved all three books in this series but I have to say that I am a stickler for getting things right and one thing that has bothered me is that Samuel was five years old in 1900 so in 1927 he would have been thirty two and I thought that it said somewhere in an earlier book that his widowed lover was ten years older which would make her in her forties but it seemed from the description when she was ill she was in her fifties or sixties.

[Caroline]

No matter which book you pick up that Rosie Goodwin has written you simply can't put it down.
This is another fantastic book but I didn't realize it was the last book of the series so I read the last book first but can still get the jist of the series, then got the other books too from a sale shop so am able to see what really went on before. Dilly works far too hard for her age and you are hoping she finds true love and happiness. Enjoy

[Shereemckenzie]

Absolutely amazing

I truly believed that I was in the story I could not out it down you make everything so real couldn't wait for the next episode I would have followed up all the families if it were possible recommend to people of middle ages who know the happy times and the sad thankyou

[Linda Leedham]

Well what can I say , another page turner for me, a book I just wanted to carry on reading. I was surprised at the amount of incidents that could happen to one family and it felt a little unreal to be honest. but it added to the drama. I thought the Samual saga went on for too long how he got away with it was frustrating well done Rosie