Cover Image: These Lost & Broken Things

These Lost & Broken Things

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Member Reviews

Sofia, a new widow desperate to keep her family together and away from the poor house , takes a job in one of the notorious gaming houses in London. 1905 saw great changes to the city, and life or death decisions made in the turn of a card. Women were learning to expand beyond the home , some like Sofia had little or no choice. Emmet Vinsant offers her a chance to support her family, but as she learns that will cost you in the end. Gaming houses are for profit and Sofia may just be the cost of doing business.

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The subject of grief, poverty, the workhouses, the lack of health care, bullying, suicide and the harshness of life all played a part in this gritty and engrossing story.
I truly loved the scene between Sofia and Beatrice at the end, I thought the author played it perfectly and an ending that really worked for a potential second book.

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Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher. This was a hard review for me as I do like Helen Fields books but this was not for me. I like Sofia as a character but I did not enjoy the historical aspect of this book. This was something new for Helen and it did not work for me but I see that it worked for others. I will still enjoy her coming books when they come out.

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I am a huge fan of this author and was surprised to see that this wasn’t her usual genre.
It is told over a dual timeline and I liked the characters.
This is a good historical fiction read with an interesting storyline.
The descriptions in this book aren’t for the faint hearted.

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This is very different from the Helen Fields I am used to, but I was very pleasantly surprised. I thoroughly enjoyed this and would like to read more in this style from Helen.

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Thanking you Wailing Banshee Limited, Helen Fields and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book and I apologise for the delay in reading the book and writing this review.

I love Helen Fields, I have read all of her other books and have a bit of an addiction to her stories. I was very sceptical about this as I am not a historical fiction fan but I thought I like the way Helen writes so I would give it a go if I received it and I did.

I enjoyed this from start to finish. For me it as a little slow in parts, but then I am used to reading crime fiction. This was a dark read with a good plot and I found it kept me wanting to read, which is good for me with historical fiction. Well written and a great plot.

Definitely recommend

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This was ab great standalone Historical thriller. The main character is a compulsive gambler. She is widowed with two small children and goes back to gambling. She also has a past murder in her history and the story that follows is very compelling with lots of twists and turns

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While I am grateful to the author and publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this title, a busy schedule got in the way, and I was unable to read it before it was archived on Netgalley. I will be looking for a physical copy of this title at my local bookstore!

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I was disappointed by These Lost and Broken Things by Helen Fields. I found it lacking in substance and characterisation. Usually I enjoy a Victorian historical novel based on women’s lives but this one just didn’t work for me.

My thanks to Netgalley and Wailing Banshee Ltd for allowing me to have an advanced copy to read.

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*Note to potential readers; I personally think even the official blurb gives too much away here, so be careful if you read reviews first as several give far more away still.

Let me say first and foremost that whilst I haven’t read any of this authors works prior to this novel, that is an error I will certainly be rectifying in the future. If These Lost and Broken Things is any gauge for Fields’ more contemporary works, I have been missing a treat. This novel caught me from the word go and refused to let off. I was absolutely hooked from the start to the end.

Set in early twentieth century London, this is a novel about family, temptation and just how far you can fall in your desire to protect those you love. Sofia is a character you can truly empathise with and yet also struggle to understand in the same breath. When her husband dies suddenly, she is left a widow with two young children to think of in a time when men were the main breadwinners of the family. Jobs deemed acceptable for women were low paid and demeaning, back breaking work, so when Sofia gets a job offer from her husband’s employer it seems too good to be true. And as Sofia quickly finds out, it may just be exactly that.

This is a novel that gets dark quickly and doesn’t shy away from violence, gore and the darker realities of a lone woman’s lot in early twentieth century Britain. It is also beautifully written and continually twists and turns in unexpected directions throughout. The bulk of the narrative takes place with Sofia as an adult, but there are flashbacks to her childhood that do a lot to expand her character and I found both narratives equally interesting. Fields captures the settings well, catapulting you into the different scenes even as she brings the fast paced plot to life.

All in all, this is an excellent historical thriller that weaves the turmoil of the time as the suffragettes fight for the vote of women with a dark and enthralling tale of how desperation and temptation can draw out the worst in people. I found the characters easy to engage with and was caught by the drama and the uncertainty throughout. I’m looking forward to reading for of Helen Sarah Fields’ work in her contemporary crime series, as the writing style caught and held me from beginning to end. I personally feel like this is a book you should go into as blind as you can, so the twists and turns actually take you by surprise.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my free review copy of this title.

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I very much enjoyed this book. It has a good story and excellent main characters. I would definately recommend this book.

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A darkly twisted tale about a young mother who is left to fend for herself after her husband dies. Sofia, a young beautiful widow who adores her children, is left destitute by her beloved husbands death and is approached by his previous employer to work for him. But Sofia has a very dark past which casts a terrible shadow on her life and brings to the fore a side of herself she has been trying to hide.
The perfect Halloween read.

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Historical fiction at its best.
This is the first of Helen Fields' books that I have read, but I will certainly be adding her to my "top authors" list. Wonderfully descriptive characters and a great story with non-stop suspense, twists and turns until the very last page. Keeps you hooked until the end.

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I have said it before, Helen Fields knows how to write a serial killer. And in her first historical fiction thriller, she continues with the dark, twisted manipulations and machinations of one person willing to inflict the ultimate pain against other humans. These Lost and Broken Things, set in 1905, examines the extremes that one woman, a widowed mother of two young children, will pursue to feed her needs, both physical and psychological.

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The author takes us inside a woman who is a killer in the early 1900s. The historical background is handled well. Formative pieces of the main character are given bit by bit. I didn't like her throughout, even at the end, but came to understand her enough to want to know what was going to happen.
Good plot construction; good getting inside an anti-hero. Nice linking the character's situation to overall women's issues and presenting those in the historical context.

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I liked the plot of this novel but had a hard time following it, not sure if it's the authors writhing style or me, and had a hard time finishing it.

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This is just so exactly my sort of book and story. Loved it from start to finish. I haven't read anything else by Helen Fields, but I shall definitely be keeping an eye on her future releases now!

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So this is my first Helen Fields book as I haven’t read the much raved about series yet! Shame on me! But I did really enjoy this one.

I went in completely blind so I had no idea how the MC Sofia was going to turn out and her character development throughout this book was written wonderfully.

I would have like there to have been a more likeable version of Sofia toward the end and I found that I was starting to dislike her which for me made it hard to connect with her book.

Spanning over years from late 1800s to early 1900s there was a lot of plot based around the suffragette movement which was really interesting.

Held my interest as a good piece of historical fiction but I personally would have preferred a different plot towards the end.

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I absolutely adore the author’s Luc Callanach series, which meant the moment I heard Helen Fields was releasing a standalone novel, I was all over that. Add in the fact this was a historical book and I was doubly excited.

Although These Lost & Broken things was a quick and addictive read, filled with plenty of twists and turns to keep me hooked, I’m going to be honest and say it’s my least favourite book from the author. The author’s Luc Callanach series have been four-star reads with some five-star moments, whereas this one had a few points where it wasn’t quite a full four-star rating. It was certainly a gripping read that had me hooked, but I never quite felt the connection with the characters that I had hoped.

There is no doubt that Helen Fields has provided another story that you cannot put down. It keeps you guessing, you’re sucked right into the events of the story, and you find yourself desperate to see how everything comes together. I simply would have liked to feel a stronger connection with the characters, as I found it was the events of this one that held my attention and there were certain elements of the story I didn’t care for because they were more personal to the characters and the connection was lacking.

All in all, another addictive read from the author and I cannot wait to see what comes next.

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Historical fiction isn't my usual genre -but I really enjoyed this .
Sofia -born around 1880 -begins life as a gypsy . As a child she learns how to gamble -and it is this that gets her into trouble and sent away to live on a cousins farm as punishment.
Eventually she marries Tom and has 2 children -but disaster strikes when Tom dies and she is left destitute.
She turns to gambling again to put food on the table and then realises she has an addiction which is threatening her life.
A great story !
Thank you NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review

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