⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Thanks to #netgalley for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. Another delightfuly charming read from Rosalie Ham. I thoroughly enjoyed being back in Tilly's world. A heartwarming and amusing insight into her life now that she has a child. Warm, light moments intermingled with the grief and heartbreak she is dealing with. #rosalieham #thedressmakerssecret #teasippingbookworm #netgalley #goodreads #amazonkindle #litsy #thestorygraph #bookstagram

There's always a risk with sequels, particularly when you love the bit that came first. And I enjoyed <em>The Dressmaker</em> by Rosalie Ham - her signature blend of rural Australian noir, satire, and the lampooning of small-town politics was good fun. With Ham's stories, there's never any doubt as to who the 'goodies' and the 'badies' are - it's the book equivalent of a pantomime, where you're shouting "He's behind you!"

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53442167-the-dressmaker-s-secret" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>The Dressmaker's Secret</em></a> follows Ham's formula - there's a bit of mystery and intrigue; and you know the villains will eventually get their comeuppance. <!--more-->

There are lots of bright spots - the descriptions of the fashions are sublime; as is the perfectly-described Melbourne setting and the tiresome woman Tilly works for at second-rate salon at the wrong end of Collins Street. Also notable is the fact that the story highlights the social prejudices that many people whose lifestyle circumstances didn't fit the accepted norm, faced in the fifties.

Ham's sense of humour is evident, whether she's describing a Dungatar resident, or an unfortunate death -
<p style="padding-left: 40px;"><em>She arrived at dinner wearing her brown velvet suit. The entire CWA dining room turned to stare, and Marigold told her loudly that she looked like a full set of stacked luggage.</em></p>
But... it was all a bit much and Tilly Dunnage's 'secret' becomes diluted in a story with too many layers, too many subplots, and too many characters.

2.5/5 A miss for me but if it was made into a film, I'd be there.

I received my copy of <em>The Dressmaker's Secret </em>from the publisher, Pan Macmillan Australia, via <a href="https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/book/202170" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NetGalley</a>, in exchange for an honest review.

In the sequel to The Dressmaker, Rosalie Ham has the reader reuniting with residents of Dungatar in The Dressmaker’s Secret.

This is an easy read, with quirky characters and one you could easily devour in a day.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Pan MacMillan Australia for kindly gifting me this book to read and review.

This was a lot of fun, spiky with sarcasm and dripping with dark – sometimes very, very dark! – humour. I wouldn’t recommend reading it though unless you’ve already read The Dressmaker. This is firmly sequel territory and not a whole lot will make sense without the backstory and context offered by the first book.

If you enjoy reading about fashion, particularly design from bygone days, you will relish much of this book. I adore reading about fashion, so these parts were my favourite. I was less interested in the goings on back in Dungatar, they were all mad as cut snakes and I felt the inclusion of this sub-plot resulted in the story being overly busy. Whilst most of the villains in the story had fairly transparent motives, the welfare officer was a puzzle. Overly zealous in his job, he seemed to have a baseless personal vendetta against Tilly and the McSwiney family. With the story jumping all over Melbourne and back to Dungatar, there were a lot of characters to keep track of and many scenes that made my head spin. I also found it a bit on the longish side, to be honest.

This entire novel is outlandish, absurd, slightly horrific, and endlessly entertaining. It didn’t quite measure up to its predecessor, The Dressmaker, but as a way of marking the 20th anniversary of that iconic novel, it’s a worthy salute. I’ll be interested to see if it’s adapted into a film as well, it would be worth it for the fashion alone.

I was fully invested in this book. I read it in one day that never happens. While reading i was there and it was written jn a way that was not too descriptive but gave me just what i needed. This was a lovely surprise. I really enjoyed this.

THIS BOOK IS SEQUEL. I think it's important to mention that in shouty letters, because it doesn't actually say so on the back of the book anywhere. I got about half way through and went "why does this sound like a recap?" and looked it up. It was still an effort to find out that this was a sequel.
I really enjoyed the first half. Tilly is great character, with wonderful friendships. Then it got repetitious. The people from Dungatar felt like caricatures. The Welfare office and officer felt forced. People just dying and being left under trams was very strange.
Again, not having read the first one might have contributed to this feeling of disconnection from the tone of the book.. There were some very strong elements to this book, but I really wish, somewhere in the description it said "sequel to...".

I received a free e-copy from Netgalley and the publisher, in exchange for this honest review. Thanks NetGalley and Pan Macmillian Australia.

Following on from The Dressmaker we find Tilly Dunnage hiding out in Melbourne having burned down the town and fled from the residents of Dungatar. Tilly is trying to stay anonymous working at the not so fabulous Salon Mystique, living alone at the horrible Short family residence whilst trying to hide from her terrible past and build herself a new future.

However Tilly's past is not so keen to let go, both friends and foe have followed her to Melbourne and her secrets cannot stay hidden forever.

This book was so fun, it was packed with drama, romance, secrets, unconventional characters and crazy 1950's vibes. I was immediately wrapped up in the story and carried away by Ham’s descriptive prose. I could vividly imagine the streets of Melbourne dressed up for the queen's coronation, feel the fabrics Tilly was working with and experienced Tilly's pain everytime another obstacle arose on her way to her new life. This was a novel with so many laugh out loud moments, moments that will leave you distraught and also moments that will have you so riled up with anger at how women were treated in the 50s. It is safe to say this novel was a rollercoaster of emotions for me.

There are characters you will recognise from The Dressmaker (The Sergeant, The McSwiney family, Marigold, Gertrude etc) as well as new characters who bring their own eccentricities to the story. In this novel we meet Nita the glamorous movie star and her stalker, the welfare officer who is also set to ruin Tilly's life, Julie a woman who can make a size 11 foot look like a size 5, and the members of the Hippocampus club, where crossdressers and rule breakers are welcomed with open arms. It is a wild and wacky novel that I thoroughly enjoyed.

I would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoyed The Dressmaker and i can’t wait to watch Tilly’s dresses come to life if this novel also gets a screen adaptation (fingers crossed).

The Dressmaker’s Secret is a sequel to The Dressmaker and it is certainly advisable to read that first. We revisit the characters we met in The Dressmaker but also meet some new characters as well. It is 1953 and Tilly is in Melbourne where the preparations are underway for the coronation of Elizabeth as Queen which, of course, includes the requirement for appropriate dresses for the wide range of balls and functions being organised.
That being said, the story of Tilly is the main focus. Tilly is talented but her ability is barely acknowledged, however her intention is to have a low profile and leave her past behind her. Her endeavours to do this are fraught with obstacles especially when her talent starts to be recognised.
Loved the depiction of Melbourne in the 1950’s with familiar streets and landmarks; social values and attitudes are a reflection of the time and place.

An interesting story with some unexpected developments.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan Australia for an ebook copy to read and review.

I received a copy of The Dressmaker’s Secret through Netgalley in return for my honest review.

The Dressmakers Secret is the sequel to The Dressmaker which is an Australian story, loved for it’s humour.

I enjoyed The Dressmaker and The Dressmakers Secret is a great sequel. There are characters we already know and a few new characters introduced in The Dressmaker’s Secret.

The Dressmaker’s secret has the reader wondering can Tilly succeed? and when and how will her secret(s) be revealed?

Within this book, there are some laugh-out-loud moments, some sad moments, and as expected, some beautiful creations described.

The wonderfully strong, loving friendship between Tilly and Sergeant Farrat shines brightest in this story of friendship, family, love and resilience. That is what I liked the best in thes book, the unconditional friendship between Tilly and Sergeant Farrat.

I recommend reading The Dressmaker before you read The Dressmakers Secret to make sure you are familiar with the characters and their background stories.

‘Now here she was, the sad mess of her life enduring and another past from which to flee.’

In this sequel to the wonderfully quirky ‘The Dressmaker’, we find Tilly Dunnage in Melbourne. It is 1953, and Melbourne society is looking forward to several events around the coronation of the young princess who is about to become Queen Elizabeth II. And appropriate dresses will be required. Tilly is working in a pretentious, second-rate salon in Collins Street where she is underpaid and unappreciated. Why? Because Tilly is keen to remain anonymous as she tries to escape from the past.

But the past is not quite so keen to let go of Tilly. Sergeant Farrat and the McSwiney clan have been looking for her, as are the residents of Dungatar. While the former might have Tilley’s best interests at heart, the residents want revenge. Well, some of them would just like some new frocks.

I loved ‘The Dressmaker’ (novel and film) and this novel is a worthy (albeit darker) sequel. Can Tilly succeed, despite the odds stacked against her? How many of her secrets will she be able to keep? There are some delightful laugh-out-loud moments (where would we be without Horatio Farrat?), some beautiful creations to admire and some very tricky moments to negotiate.

While I did not enjoy this quite as much as ‘The Dressmaker’, I am longing for it to be turned into a film so I can admire the dresses Tilly creates.

I strongly recommend reading ‘The Dressmaker’ first.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Pan MacMillan Australia for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

This sequel to "The Dressmaker" keeps the quirkiness and originality of the characters alive. Most of the characters in the first book make a reappearance, with a couple of new additions. You can visualise the beautiful dresses once again, and fall in love again with the outrageous Tilly.

Tilly Dunnage, a brilliant seamstress in a second-rate Melbourne salon, quietly works in anonymity in the lead-up to Princess Elizabeth's coronation, as her past looms.

The sequel to The Dressmaker, the story surrounds a number of the characters from the first book, with a few new faces. They're all very stuck in the past - but with the past they are stuck with, it's pretty hard to blame them! It is easy enough to refresh yourself on any details you may have forgotten from the first book, as they are repeated as characters reflect.

I was a bit deterred by one fairly major detail revealed early on - one that it feels we should have learned in the original novel, and by not having it revealed until now, I feel a bit cheated, as though the audience has been intentionally misled. This is something around which the whole story is built, and I was never able to shake that feeling, which did detract from my enjoyment of it.

However, I found myself really enjoying the perspectives of the residents of Dungatar. They're vicious, and cruel, and unable to move on - utterly awful, and utterly fun to read. We find out very early on that they have reaped what they have sown, and learned very little from it. The writing pulls you in. Ham’s prose is evocative, with spectacularly unflattering descriptions of characters who do nothing to warrant flattery. And, of course, the way in which fashion and landscapes are described is incredible. I grew up in country Victoria, and have spent most of my adult life in Melbourne, so the familiarity is a bonus.

For me, it was a compelling sequel that builds on the story originally told, but which is at odds with what I enjoyed about that original story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan Australia for this in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

I actually didn't like this book that much in that I couldn't like or empathise with any of the characters. Having said that, the writing itself dragged me along and I didn't stop reading. The background, costume descriptions and (sorry) how awful some of the characters are kept me intrigued enough to complete.

What a pleasure to catch up with Tilly and the population of Dungatar. With some new characters introduced, The Dressmaker's Secret gives some more insight into Tilly as well as Sergeant Farrat and the McSwiney family. Loved it. Thanks to Netgalley for a preview of this lovely book.

The Dressmaker was a quirky book that was made into a better film. The Dressmaker's Secret is the successor and sees the talented Tilly slaving away under a pretentious wannabe fashion designer in Melbourne. The Queen is about to be coronated so the demands for the newest and best dresses is at a premium. Back in Dungatar the residents are rebuilding their town and dreaming of staging their next production.
This book is full of eccentric characters, some old and some new. Plenty of humour, Dad-like-jokes and cringe worthy cultural values of the 1950s. My main criticism would be there is too many characters and their nuances are lost a little. Perhaps I should have reread The Dressmaker first.

I loved the dressmaker, it was one of my favourite books and I loved the movie, being able to read the sequel was such a pleasure and I wanna thank NetGalley and Pan Macmillan Australia for approving me.

The story starts out with buzz of the queen coronation.
Myrtle “Tilly” Dunnage is working at Salon Mystique after leaving Dungatar.

Just like “The Dressmaker” Rosalie Ham’s writing is a pleasure to flick through, you’re engaged by the first page and can’t stop even if you wanted too.

Not going to lie I was shook at what happened within the first couple chapters there were some things I DID not see coming.

I never wanted the story to end but I’m so satisfied with this ones ending, I’ll forgive it. What a heartwarming, engaging & beautiful story woven perfectly with twists and turns so mischievous. I could go on forever.

I can not wait for its release 27TH OF OCTOBER.
Gonna grab up a physical copy too,

5 stars.