“My name is Dolly Pleasance, sir, which is short for Delores, which, in Spanish, means sorrow.”

The main character in this novel always introduces herself this way. It was a cute character quirk that recurred over the entire book. She definitely had sorrow in her life, but she also had some wonderful times as well.

The main character in this story was old beyond her years after a rough start to her life. Her father and mother were drunks and her mother killed herself when the protagonist was quite young. The story opens with Dolly and her father Archie leaving the workhouse (a horrible place that I’ve read about before and watched documentaries about). If the poor child living in those conditions didn’t break her spirit, I felt like this was going to be a good story about a plucky girl who refused to be defeated by the hand she was dealt by fate.  The author didn’t disappoint. His Dolly was smart, clever and streetwise. She also had some flaws which made her tale even more interesting—no one likes a perfect protagonist.

She worked her way up in the theater from scrubbing floors to appearing on stage. Along the way, she did what she needed to in order to survive. The streets of London were rough and it had to be hard for a girl on her own. She had a mentor, Ben, who her father left her with, but she had been raised pretty feral and couldn’t adapt to living in his home with his wife and children.

Some parts of the story were gruesome and violent. The villain was a bit unbelievable—his motivation, I mean. It seemed like such a minor thing for someone to react the way he did. Mental illness could have been the root of it, I presume.  It stretched credulity to me. The other thing that seemed rushed and a bit off was how quickly and deeply Dolly was affected by the young man, Charlie Smithers. A few moments of interaction with him resulted in some life decisions that just seemed precipitous and rash.

There were a few usages of the wrong word—one was plane for plain and the other is a real pet peeve for me—taught for taut. They threw me out of the story.

Having not read the stories by this author about Charlie Smithers, (There was an author note about Charlie at the beginning of the book, but I didn’t have enough knowledge to know who he was) I had questions about him and how he was able to head off to foreign parts for months or years at a time when he is a valet. I plan to check those tales out as I enjoyed the writing in this book and think I’d like the adventures of Charlie.

Overall, I liked this story a lot. Dolly was a strong character with some weaknesses that made her vulnerable and she was very well-rounded. The style of the author’s prose was entertaining (except the few places the story got bogged down with recitations of various plays) and I also liked that he included real people of the theater/London scene as characters in his work. It gave a touch of realism to the tale.

This story had some flaws—in this reader’s opinion—but, for the most part, it was an enjoyable read.