Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

An intriguing book about 2 sisters and their experiences in the wild, untamed Australian outback of the 1890s. The differing ways in how each sister deals with her new life is portrayed well in this detailed, extremely well developed book.

I really enjoyed the plot, although the characters seemed flat at times. This book deals with a lot of different topics and is well written overall.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy free of charge. This is my honest and unbiased opinion it.

The Philosopher’s Daughters is the story of two sisters, Harriet and Sarah, who were raised by their father, a renowned philosopher, in the 1890s. They were homeschooled in London and taught to be independent thinkers. Sarah falls in love with Henry, gets married, and the couple embarks on a two-year honeymoon in Australia. To Sarah’s dismay, the honeymoon is more like a “you-enjoy-while-I-work” Outback adventure. Harriet reaches crossroads in her life and joins her sister and.

The descriptions of the topography are gorgeous. Captivating too was the author’s depictions of the cultural and societal norms the women must navigate as Henry takes a job driving cattle alongside Aboriginal families in the Outback. Cushioned between beautiful prose, tales of sibling and romantic love, and art and music as a muse for understanding life is the ugliness of racial conflict and shocking scenes of violence.

While I enjoyed many aspects of this book, I became fixated on the portrayal of light throughout the narrative and was disappointed that there was no correlating payoff. I also couldn’t get past the title. While Harriet worked with her father and he played a pivotal role in shaping their values and views, they didn’t seem to live in his shadow. The book is a fascinating coming of age story, and not one character gives a hoot about their lineage. Even when Harriet gets flak from other women about traveling alone, she does not subjugate her courage and independence to her father. So why the title?

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of The Philospher’s Daughter, in exchange for this honest 3.5 star review.

*Many thanks to Alison Booth, RedDoor pres and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
A piece of good HF, with strong female characters and interesting plot. I always appreciate well-researched historical background and this offering by Ms Booth did not disappoint me.

I struggled to get into this novel, but I'm not sure why. I felt that the characters fell a little bit flat all the way through. However, the plot was interesting and addressed a lot of issues - women's rights, racism and indigenous rights. It was an okay read.

Alison Booth’s The Philosopher’s Daughters is a novel of antitheses: urban and rural, logic and creativity and, perhaps most importantly, the titular two protagonists at its centre. Sharply crafted, the two sisters represent the diverging paths available to white, middle-class women during the period: how one is tied to convention, whilst the other does all she can to disavow it. For most of the novel, the two women remain in these rigidly defined boxes until mayhem and character development step in to show that no one can be so easily defined.
And believe me, mayhem is there aplenty. Adventure is always tied to it and The Philosopher’s Daughters charts a grand and unexpected course: London, Sydney and all the way to the very edge of the colonial frontier. Because of this, it presents a timely rumination on the racial politics still present in the area: the uneven application of the law and despite the obvious discrimination faced by aboriginal communities, how complacency (and downright racism and aims towards brutality) reigns through much of the growing white population. Frankly, at its heart, it’s a condemnation on inaction: how you can’t just sit idly by and watch as something terrible and unjust happens to someone else. And how, in times as strange as these, it is the most unexpected of people who are the ones who answer the call of action.

This is an accomplished historical drama from Australian based author Booth. She has written a few best sellers so far but this one perhaps delves into her own past as she relates she took stories from her father who lived in the remote Northern Territories of Australia.
The two sisters of the famous philosopher James Cameron in Victorian London are lively, political and engaging. But perhaps their naivety with men is shown through the twists in the plot. Sarah marries Henry and is soon whisked off o his 'adventure' to Australia and yet when she moves to the outback, a rough and lonely expanse of farmland she seems to come into her own
Meanwhile Harriet is still at home looking after their father until his sudden death leaves her wondering too how her life must now be directed. She seems confident and adventurous bit once again nearly comes unstuck with the gruesome Dan Brady on the voyage over when she decides to join her sister in Australia. The plot is somewhat slow at the start but once both sisters are established in Dimbulah Downs, the underlying prejudice and violence shown by Carruthers and his side kick Brady lead to serious and life changing problems.
Description of the landscape is good. It is bleak yet we see the contrast between the white settlers who try to farm (often resulting in harsh treatment of the Aboriginals) and the respect with which those like Sarah and Harriet see to the need for education and respect for Bella and Daisy on the farm and then the artistic Mick who catches Harriet's attention with his quiet personality and shared love of painting.
Interesting to read about the transition of the suffragettes in London to the Women's Franchise League (WFL) in Australia and how the politics of the time was changing for women.
More than just a family tale or romance. Meat on the bones of two women here fighting for their future in harsh conditions.

“…the water was channelled into a series of rock pools. When she’d first seen this place, she’d thought it looked almost like the sequence of locks on the Grand Union Canal, but less even, less regulated. Some of the pools were short, some were long, some were curved, some almost rectangular. As the water flowed into these various receptacles, it altered its tempo, from adagio to allegro, and it varied its volume too, from pianissimo to fortissimo.”

The Philosopher’s Daughters is the fifth novel by critically-acclaimed best-selling Australian author, Alison Booth. It was 1892 when the Cameron sisters lost their father, James. The UCL Professor of Moral Philosophy, by then eighteen years a widower, had been an enlightened man who had raised his daughters as liberated women, giving them a broad education and ensuring for them independence, should they wish it.

Sarah Cameron, beautiful, musical and vivacious had, at eighteen, fallen instantly for the charms of Henry Vincent. Of independent means, he was much travelled in the colonies as a stock and station agent, and eager to show her the beauty of New South Wales on their honeymoon. “He began to tell her about it, his words pouring out, as if they’d been waiting for her question, waiting at the ready, perfectly formed and arrayed in coherent lines like the bars of music on the sheets in front of them.”

Within two years, rather to her surprise, they are managing a property, Dimbulah Downs station, in the Northern Territory of South Australia. If the conditions are primitive, it does not prevent Sarah from loving the harsh country and its people, although she finds some of the treatment meted out to the indigenous people deeply disturbing.

Harriet Cameron, older by some years, misses her sister: “Without her endless piano playing, the whistling and singing and, most of all, her laughter. Harriet felt almost as if one of her senses had been turned off and she was left not quite whole.” Between her attempts at sketching and painting, her work for the Women’s Franchise League and helping her father with his work (something she considers a privilege), she is too busy to think much about a future.

Marriage is of no interest, despite a proposal: “A vision came to her of her own future and it didn’t include Charles. She saw it as iridescent, patterned with light and shade, and punctuated with form and colour. Converting drabness to colour and light: that would be her mission.” When James dies, she buys a passage on a ship to Sydney, needing to again be close to her sister.

In Sydney, she paints: “The light here is harsher than I ever imagined. It cuts unrelentingly through the surplus dross to reveal the truth beneath. The structure, the shape, the meaning. Whether I can capture this on canvas remains to be seen. I can only try.” But soon enough, heads for Port Darwin where she, too, notes the way the Aborigines are treated and cannot help but call it out with letters to the press.
Hattie learns that while men like her brother-in-law may accept and indeed even support her suffragism and independence, others feel threatened enough by it to act. And to Henry’s dismay “Harriet sometimes lets her principles override her manners”

Hattie is also fascinated by this vast, dry country, changed by it, perhaps healed by it, and she feels a connection to the Aboriginal stockman, Mick. They bond over capturing the beauty of the landscape, but does that bond become a liability for either of them?

Booth gives the reader an excellent piece of historical fiction, exploring social attitudes in the late nineteenth century to the indigenous first peoples, their rights and the injustices they to which they are subjected. She also draws some parallels between the suffrage of women and indigenous.

Booth easily conveys her settings and is skilful with descriptive prose, often using snippets that perfectly describing a moment or person: “A tall thin figure, he had a thick grey moustache whose ends drooped down to the jawline, giving him a mournful expression. The visible part of his face was a parched landscape, and his eyebrows small ledges that cast his eyes into shadow, making them appear deep set.” Evocative and thought-provoking, this is an outstanding read.
This unbiased review is from a copy provided by NetGalley and RedDoor Press

A book that I honestly couldn't finish. I tried reading this one a few times, but I couldn't connect with either sister and just couldn't get up the ability to care about where the story was going. I finish almost all of the books I start, so it is frustrating when I quit a book and don't finish it.

Enjoyed reading about these sisters strong women & really enjoyed the setting.Australia always fascinates me
I was wrapped up in the involving story I really enjoyed this book of historical fiction #netgalley #reddoorpress

The book is a historical novel about life of two sisters. I haven’t read this genre for a while and I was positively impressed by the language use. The story itself started interesting with two women begging their journeys into their adult lifes - one stays home with father the second one moves far away to a new country with her new husband. As much as I loved the historical part of this story I didn’t get much interested in the action itself. By time I finished it I felt like there was something missing to make the story more memorable.

Thank you Netgalley for the copy

I wanted so much to like this story as it promised elements of the kind of fiction I enjoy: strong women in historical settings adapting to new ways of living. Unfortunately, I found the author's prose very leaden which made the novel rather a chore to read. I could only recommend this for a reader who is strongly interested in real life women who inspired the novel. For others. there are many better historical novels to choose.

A pretty simple but engaging story with a compelling premise and nice use of language. Learning more about other cultures is interesting, and the characters are well formed. I stayed mostly engaged, and recommend this for historical fiction fans.

Thanks very much for the ARC for review!!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I tried my hardest with this book, but I just couldn't get into it.

This book asked me to read between the lines to truly appreciate the depth it contains.
The story is simple enough: two sisters, Sarah and Harriet, daughters of a respected philosopher, grow up in 1890's London. Homeschooled and raised by their father to be free thinkers, the girls seem to have a good grasp of what the world's about.
Sarah gets married to Henry and they're off on honeymoon in Australia. The plan is to travel for two years.
Changes in her home situation give Harriet the opportunity to join the couple a little later.
By the time she arrives, Henry has taken on a job driving cattle in Australia's Outback. Red earth and harsh sunlight become the sisters new reality.
They share their land with Aboriginal families and all bond pretty well. This gives the reader a portal into the indigenous world, where Australia is struggling with the black and white divide.
Within the sisters calm surroundings flows a current of uproar. White Fellows law against the River of Stars.
The racial issue turns friends into enemies and truth into hatred. I'm blown away by the Aboriginal's resilience and ashamed for the white privilage.
Still this book reads like a fine novel and I finished it in one sitting. It made me ponder over history repeating itself again and again, but also put a smile on my face in the epilogue. An impressive piece of historical fiction, well written and moving at a sturdy pace.

Thank you Netgalley and Red Door Press for the ARC.

I loved this historical novel about two sisters in Australia great characters and a fascinating setting made for interesting and engaging reading. Full review to follow nearer publication.