Chrissie Walsh's 'A New Dawn for the Mill Girls' is an engaging historical novel about 1897 West Yorkshire. The novel centers on Verity Lockwood, who defies convention by running her father's dying mill. With rising debts and censure from other mill owners, Verity brings dramatic changes, including defiance of the conventional class distinctions and respect from her workers, especially the mill girls.

The book is best at portraying its characters, especially Verity, whose inner strength is concealed behind a dignified silence. Her relationship with the strict but noble mill manager, Oliver Hardcastle, gradually blossoms into an offbeat romance that provides a poignant depth to the story. The author skillfully interlaces social commentary with a page-turning story, emphasizing the plight of the working class and the resentment faced by Verity from the conservative elements who perceive her modern thoughts as menacing.

'A New Dawn for the Mill Girls' is an inspiring story of strength, defying conventions, and struggling to create a better tomorrow. It will appeal to readers of historical fiction and slow-burn romance, providing a rewarding combination of social drama and endearing courage.

Really enjoyed reading this one 😊 Verity is stubborn and headstrong and a likeable character. She's had a bumpy life that's seen more unhappiness than anyone deserves but I like her tenacity. She makes a big difference in a lot of people's life just through being fair and treating people equally.

Dolly is similar in terms of her ambition and I like how she interacts with Verity. The mill seemed a dire place to be but the likes of Oliver, Verity and Dolly have made it better. The competition between mill owners was interesting particularly as they seemed to have a code to follow. Verity.

I liked how this addresses a number of issues in the mill and within the community, highlighting work related problems around production, skill, politics and equality - not just in class but also gender. Most of the characters are relatable in terms of their views and sense of community. Some are just terrible but show another set of issues that affects the working classes, particularly the attitudes to women.

Chrissie Walsh kicks off her enthralling new Yorkshire saga series, The Lockwood Inheritance, with the first captivating instalment, A New Dawn for the Mill Girls.

As the daughter of mill owner Jebediah Lockwood, Verity despairs when she sees her father’s cavalier attitude to Lockwood’s Mill. More concerned with frittering away the profits and drowning his fortune in drink, Verity cannot idly sit by and watch the livelihoods of his workforce be put in jeopardy by her father’s recklessness and selfishness. With debts mounting, Verity ventures in to the mill and immediately begins to clash with manager Oliver Hardcastle.

Suspicious of Miss Lockwood’s sudden interest, Oliver isn’t sure what his boss’s daughter wants to prove. However, he quickly realises that behind her quiet and unassuming exterior lies a sharp brain and fearsome intellect. Verity’s passion, interest and determination soon wins over some of the workers and as their respect for her grows so too does Oliver’s admiration for her.

However, when Verity’s reforms begin to spread beyond Lockwood’s Mill, some powerful men begin to take a malign interest in her. As her ruthless enemies are prepared to go to any lengths to keep Verity in her rightful place, she must work closely with Oliver to protect herself and the lives of the people who look up to her.

Will this be a new dawn for Lockwood’s Mill? Or will Verity’s generosity and determination to better the lives of her workers lead to her undoing?

Dilly Court fans will not want to miss Chrissie Walsh’s brilliant new saga. A stirring, dramatic and powerful tale with a compassionate heroine and a charismatic hero, A New Dawn for the Mill Girls is saga storytelling at its finest. A tale of class conflict, power struggles and forbidden love, A New Dawn for the Mill Girls will hold readers spellbound and have them eagerly awaiting the next entry in Chrissie Walsh’s excellent Victorian-set saga series.

Verity's beginnings couldn't predict her future. With perseverance and hard work, she climbed out of the pit she lived in.

Oliver ran the mill that was Verity's inheritance. Attraction was immediate. He was from another class than her. And that caused a problem.

Verity was quite a firecracker. She had many ideas for the Mill and no one could stop her. She looked beyond what was expected.

I loved Oliver and Verity's relationship. He was the calm. She was the storm. And in the end, this did create conflict.

I couldn't put the book down. It was a great story. I loved it.

This is the first book in the Lockwood Inheritance series. It was an interesting story revolving around cotton mills. One in particular is being run by Verity Lockwood, whose father owns the mill but is too ill to run it. Oliver is the manager of the mill, and together they attempt to save the mill from closing. Her father is a drunk and a gambler and has let the mill run to the ground. They employ the absolute minimum staff, have shoddy machines that are barely working, and a lot of suppliers are withholding goods because of unpaid bills. Verity needs to keep the place running, but more than that, she wants to do more for the employees, much to the disgust of other mill owners in the area.

A budding romance develops between Oliver and Verity, but the course of true love doesn't run smoothly when there is a class divide between them. Also, there is a very disgruntled man, another mill owner, wanting to have Verity for himself.

There were some dramatic scenes, and the book is written well. The pace was a little slow for me, but it did hold my interest until the end.

BOOK: A NEW DAWN FOR THE MILL GIRLS
AUTHOR: CHRISSIE WALSH
PUB DATE: JUNE, 2025
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REVIEW
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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This was a simple, fast, easy read. I liked almost everything about this book; the storyline, the characters, setting, and pace. It was a good book. My favourite thing about this book was the author's portrayal of the middle class in Britain then. Most books like this mostly involve the aristocracy, and this was different. However, just because these people are not aristocrats doesn't mean they do not see class. Class exist between them just as they do in the nobility.
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Now, Verity Lockwood was an admirable character, I fell in love with her. She grew up without love, but she didn't let it stop or deter her. She grabbed the bulls by the horn and did the right thing, especially when it came to the mill. I learnt a lot about mills thanks to her. She literally learnt from the ground up and made the working conditions much better. She was a trailblazer!
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The MMC, Oliver Hardcastle, was also a good, hardworking man. I liked him. He was a good for for the mill and for our fmc. Both of them were perfect together, there was some issue between both of them, bit they settled it.
There was also another side character, Dolly, a working, middle-class girl. She was nice and okay and very friendly to the FMC
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Now, I liked this book, and I'd recommend it, but there were some things I didn't get that were promised in the synopsis. I was expecting a lot of drama in the mill, especially from other competitors, but I didn't really get that. And I'd gave loved an extensive epilogue too. But, it was worth my time
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Set in Almondsbury, a town in the Yorkshire region of England, during the time of Queen Victoria, Mrs. Walsh introduces you to a variety of characters in this new series.
Verity Lockwood is home after being moved around between various relatives and boarding school following the death of her mother. Her father, Jeb Lockwood, is the owner of a struggling mill factory, and Verity, very lonely with only her Aunt Martha to talk to, decides to explore the family business. Seeing that it is a dismal state, she seeks to turn it around.

Mrs. Walsh introduces you to a town full of lovely people and some full of pure evil. Her characters are well fleshed out and not one-dimensional. The plot is very engaging and held my attention. I recommend this to fans of Historical fiction with a touch of innocent romance. I am looking forward to more books in this series and by this author.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood for an ARC to read and review.

Chrissie Walsh has written a number of richly-detailed historical sagas, and this novel is the first of her new Lockwood inheritance series. As in all her books, she has done impressive research to fill in a true-to-history context.

This is a very character-driven novel, and each of the mill girls (and women, boys and men) has a role to play in their own right. The two personalities that really come alive are at opposite ends of a rarely breached class divide. Cute, bubbly and bold for a young woman of West Yorkshire in the late Victorian era, Dolly lives with her hard working parents in one of the better working class neighborhoods, along with her brother George, also a mill hand. Thanks to their mother’s youthful employment as a maid in a ‘big house,’ where she learned to read, do sums, sew and speak proper English, they are in a strange middle ground between regular working people and their betters. This often makes them wish for more, while recognizing how narrow their choices actually are.

The other main female protagonist is Verity Lockwood, the thirtyish spinster
daughter of a much despised, brutish, alcoholic mill owner. Jeb Lockwood is effectively bleeding his family’s once prosperous mill dry by laying off experienced workers, cutting wages, imposing long hours and harsh working conditions, and taking a large part of the mill’s earnings to fund his gambling, drinking and womanizing. He had cared little for his ailing wife, who had lost two sons and rightful heirs, and not at all for his only surviving child. She had been sent away to boarding school, then shunted between two aunts, and had just returned to a house where she was clearly unwanted. Her father wants only to marry her off to someone with enough money to bail him out of the mess he has made. He constantly tells her that she is ugly and stupid. Not surprisingly, having received very little kindness all her life, she also has difficulty distinguishing between those who really care about her and those who just want to take advantage.

The far apart worlds of Far View House and the mill town come closer when her father’s stroke forces Verity to take an active interest in the mill’s workings. With the help of the mill manager, the handsome and upright Oliver Hardcastle, she involves herself in every aspect of the business. She brings in needed reforms in wages and conditions, starts reading and sewing classes, rehires skilled workers and fires those who abused their power, and quickly—despite many setbacks—does away with her father’s debts. She makes friends with Dolly Armitage, whom she recognizes as a leader among the mill girls; both Dolly and George, through their own hard work and Verity’s regard, better their positions. The dark side of all these beneficial undertakings is that Verity makes enemies—both among the workers and her powerful male rivals. While her self-esteem grows as she proves her worth in the business, and earns the admiration of her colleagues, especially, she can never be sure of her position because she is an unmarried woman among men who look down on her just because of their gender biases.

If anything slows the novel’s pace, it’s the constant equivocation between Verity and her would-be fiancée. It’s almost a ‘he loves me, he loves me not’ game. For Dolly and her young man, there are his frequent disappearances which are quickly explained away as misunderstandings. The misunderstanding trope is a bit overplayed. Even without easy access to telephones, it’s hard to believe these people couldn’t manage to get vital messages across the street or to a neighbouring village. But few writers of historical romance center the complex matters of class and gender so effectively. Chrissie Walsh recognizes that there is much more to the story than just the material differences between rich and poor, and the differences of power between men and women. I’m looking forward to seeing where she takes Verity and the mill workers in the second volume.

This was an enjoyable read with likeable characters. Verity had spent much time living with her father and in one way that was fortunate as he truly was a horrid man. However, it did mean she hadn’t experienced much love in her life. I did like the way that Verity cared for the mill workers and how she helped to make their life easier. Class difference is mentioned several times from various classes in society. There is romance in the story for several different people, some having misunderstandings, before a happy ending is achieved. Verity also comes across a number of men who think women are incapable of running a mill. There is some danger as well. It was a little slow at first but then it moved along at a good pace. I received a copy and have voluntarily reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

An interesting and intense historical saga set in 1897/8, with some very “unlikeable” characters, mainly men. Verity is young and naive, but she gains strength and character throughout the book. Women were fighting for their place in the world and workers wanted to better their lot. Verity was all for social change. An intriguing look at a slice of Yorkshire history.

I enjoyed this; it was a quick read with engaging characters. It felt realistic in that bad things happened to good people and good things also happened - much like everyday life. I have to admit I was initially turned off by the dialect spoken by the mill workers and wondered if I could manage reading the entire book while spending so much time trying to decipher what was being said -- however, the frequency of the accent/dialect receded within the first 10-15% of the book.

The portrayal of the drunken mill-owner father was difficult but his comeuppance was cause for rejoicing; I liked that his stroke and death were treated with dignity showing strong character for Verity and Clara.

There were a handful of examples of upper class vs lower class distinctions and society's reaction to classes intermixing. Again these played out in believable ways with the expected miscommunications/misunderstandings built in. In this story, after fairly easy resolutions, all the good characters triumphed in the end.

I'd read another installment involving these characters!

What Yorkshire 1897. Verity Lockwood despises life at Fair View House, where her father and mill owner, Jebediah Lockwood, drowns his fortune - and his wits - in drink. With debts mounting, whispers spread - how much longer can Lockwood's Mill survive? The dark and dirty mills of Yorkshire are no place for gently bred young women, but when Verity learns that her father's ruin threatens not only her home but the livelihoods of the workers who depend on it, she refuses to stand idly by.

Verity Lockwood is not happy when she learns that her drunken father is not running his mill properly, so she decides to run it for him. Verity wants to improve working conditions for the workers. The mill is close to bankruptcy.

This nook will mess with your emotions. Verity is a strong character in an age where women were second class citizens. She has great ideas to improve working conditions.

Published 26th June 2025.

I would like to thank #NetGalley #BoldwoodBooks and the author #ChrissieWalsh for my ARC of #ANewDawnForTheMillGirls in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Boldwood Books and Netgalley for the ARC.

I need to stop setting myself up and requesting books that are connected to a preexisting series or a prolific author because now I feel the FOMO 😂

The writing is exquisite. And the relationship between Oliver and Verity was fun to read. There were so many heartfelt moments, both sorrow and joy and I will definitely read more from Ms. Walsh.

I can’t wait for the audiobook release; I know it will be enjoyable to listen to and relive the story.

Thanks to the Publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

I loved reading this book.

Verity, now back the home her family lived, she was always having to move homes since being a child. But Jebediah, her father, makes it clear that he feels no love for her as he wanted a boy to carry on the family name.

But his behaviour makes Verity to whatever age can to carry on with her life, more so when she finds out that the mill is facing hardship due to the way her father lives.

The manager doesn’t make that much of her when she meets him to talk through the changes she’s wanting to make, can she make him change his opinion of her?

As she begins to familiarise herself with the work that’s carried out in the mill, there’s some there that are happy with the chsnges, and others that aren’t.

The story was well-written and had me turning the pages and found it hard to put down.

I highly recommend this book.

A good story told well by the author. Easy reading and some wonderful strong women. Amazing what we can do if we put our mind to the task! Have read a few of this authors books and thoroughly enjoyed all.
Many thanx to NetGalley, the author and the publishers for allowing me to read and review this book

Verity Lockwood is shuffled around between her aunts after her mother dies but eventually she is back living with an alcoholic, abusive father. When he has a stroke she vows to revive his failing mill. Verity had a lot of spunk and even though she didn't have a lot of confidence she had a heart and wanted to make things better for the mill workers. This was a little bit of a love story and at times I just wanted her to talk to Oliver instead of assuming they knew what the other was thinking. In the end I enjoyed this. I liked Verity and Oliver and the bond they were forming and the growth of her character throughout the book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Boldwood Books for providing me with a digital copy.

This is the story of Verity Lockwood whose father owns Lockwood Mills.Jebediah is an alcoholic and the mill is not being run at a profit ,if it wasn’t for his manager Oliver Hardcastle it would have been ruined.Jebediah does not want his daughter getting involved in the running of the mill and when he finds out she has been looking round it he becomes very angry.Debts have been mounting as he drinks all the money it makes and mill workers are being made redundant.Verity tries to help Oliver to run the mill without her father knowing but they both find it hard to do.Will they be able to turn things around at the mill ,only time will tell.Thank you to Netgalley and Boldwood Books.

I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. I was originally drawn to the cover. I was a bit confused with how the characters spoke but all in all this was a great book. I enjoyed all the characters and the plot. Highly recommend! I would read from this author again.

A joy of a read through and through! I fully enjoyed reading every moment of the inspiring and heartwarming story. Verity the main character is a little firecracker while she is kind she also has some great ideas to improve working conditions. Verity is a strong character who I liked getting to know more. The plot is full of history, romance and emotion.

“A New Dawn for the Mill Girls” tells the familiar tale of the working class of their employers. For many people, even today, what they earned and how they lived depended on how the owner of the property managed things. Unfortunately for some, this was not very well, as you will see in this novel. Verity is a breath of fresh air for a heroine. Early on, however, I felt the story did not need her to have a romance and her determination along with the stories of Dolly, Georgie, and Theo could have carried the story. Oliver has the appearance of a male lead you have seen a dozen times. Tall, blue-eyed with those ‘strong arms’ you always read about. If I am honest his character was not very interesting to me, because I feel this man exists everywhere in Victorian set stories. More on Verity. How nice to have a smart female lead. There are things she does not know, but shows eagerness to learn and help people. She is also described as being on the taller side which one does not see often for female characters. All around she made the story interesting because she felt real. She is also kind and not needlessly rude like the leads, male or female, in so many books today. Then we have her father Jeb who from the start you will want to see walk off a cliff. He is horrid to her. So horrid it is a wonder Verity has a shred of self esteem. The poor Medleys downstairs fair none the better under his hand. Worst still is Sam, a learning man at the mill who will not keep his eyes and hands off the women and girls. Theo on the other hand was great and Dolly almost stole the show. The main characters in general were nice to read about. No lust at first sight here. In fact all of the lustful characters, Amy, Sam, and Clarence are painted in a negative light and pay the consequences.
I would recommend this book to those interested in the late Victorian era and the working class.