A historical fiction debut that intrigues one right from the start. Two sisters and the stories they share in a time when women weren’t allowed independence. A lovely painting of life’s ups and downs Thank you for the advanced reader copy.

Super interesting story of the two daughters of the 18th century painter Thomas Gainsborough. Peggy (Margaret) and Molly (Mary) are the daughters, sisters who are exceedingly close. When Molly begins to display some strange behaviors, Peggy takes it upon herself to ensure that her older sisters oddities do not become public. Although the younger sister, she develops a number of strategies to manage and control Molly's "episodes" so that no one is the wiser. Their parents are in denial so it's up to Peggy.

There are a number of Margarets (including the girls' mother) and Marys in this book, and a second storyline features Meg, a young woman who finds herself pregnant by the heir to the throne. Meg's story and that of Peggy and Molly become inextricably linked as the book progresses. Beautifully written and impeccably researched, The Painter's Daughters is the story of sisterly love and the lengths that sisters will go to protect one another. It's a little known story and incredibly poignant, one that any sister can relate to. A definite must read!

I couldn't get into the book, no matter how I tried. It felt like the book would switch the perspective and I just couldn't get down who each of the characters were.

The Painter's Daughters by Emily Howes is an historical fiction that looks at the lives of the painter, Thomas Gainsborough's, two daughters, Peggy and Molly. While this is a time period I'm very familiar with, I didn't know much about Gainsborough's personal life and this book brings the world of mid to late 18th century England into sharp, clear focus. The book opens in Ipswich in 1759 and tells the story of these two curious, creative and inseparable siblings through their early years to the family's move to Bath and "polite society", and their father's growing fame as a portrait painter. Peggy, although the younger sister, finds herself needing to take care of Molly, and is constantly on a knife's edge of worry about her sister. Molly sometimes disappears into herself, causing Peggy to cover for her or make up excuses about her sister's odd behavior. These secrets are much harder to keep in Bath and as the girls get older, and Peggy struggles to try to find her own identity separate from that of her sister, as well as keep her sister safe.

The book also introduces a secondary story from earlier in the 18th century, with a character of a young woman whose father runs an inn. She has a chance meeting with an elegant young German aristocrat, and their clandestine nights spent together result in a pregnancy. The aristocrat, who turns out to be the son of King George III, eventually departs with his men and she decides to escape her abusive father and follow her lover to London, in the hopes of getting him to support her and her child. As her story unfolds, we realize that the young woman is the grandmother to these two girls, and her mother is the girl's mother, married to Gainsborough.

I really enjoyed the character development in this book, and the way the author was able to bring the two story lines together. The struggles of Peggy to try to navigate the strains in the household - her parents' somewhat difficult marriage, her sister's issues with mental illness, and her own growing pains - are poignant and heart-breaking. Howes is able to bring the layers of Georgian society in Bath, and stigma of mental illness and other social issues (like unwed pregnancy) to life. I always appreciate finding out more about an era and the people who lived in it, especially the lives of women, who tend not to be well represented in the history of a time and place.

The tie-in to George III's own mental illness is intriguing, and while there is not irrefutable proof that Peggy and Molly are his great-grandchildren, the author's note which discusses the type of mental illness George III and Molly had certainly raises questions about the potential genetic predisposition to the issues she experienced.

Overall, a very good read and one I'd recommend to readers interested in mid-18th century English or women's history topics.

The sisters were as naïve as they were on their portraits painted by their father. They thought they could solve their problems on their own when their father was only preoccupied with his work, and their mother with their heritage and potential husbands for the girls.

Their mother should have been more concerned about what that heritage left in their blood: how one girl had to battle a mental disorder, while the other tried to save her from going to an asylum. Their lives were revolving around how one could stop people figuring out what was wrong with her sister. One thing she was forgetting that she was a child herself too and committing her whole life to her sister would change the inevitable fact.

I loved how Captain's emotions and devotion were captured in the story. She was the only person in this book with legitimate worries over superficial ones her parents had. I felt sorry for her while appreciating what she decided to do for her sister. Stigma around mental illness was oozing from this book, and I was happy to be alive during these times when you have little bit more understanding

A story and rich imagining that will keep you reading late into the night.
Many thanks to Simon & Schuster and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

3.25 – 3.5 STARS

“The Painter’s Daughters is a historical fiction centering around Peggy and Molly Gainsborough—the daughters of the 1700’s English Painter, Thomas Gainsborough—and Peggy’s life-long devotion to protecting her sister, who suffered from mental illness at a time when treatment equaled an asylum lockup. Unfortunately for Molly, she lived during a period when mental illness was not understood and was looked upon as something shameful that needed to be kept hidden. While I found this aspect of the sister’s story both interesting and tragic, I struggled to remain engaged throughout much of this book due to the disjointed way it was written. Still, there were parts that were fascinating, especially in relation to the girls’ lineage. All in all, a fairly decent read, just not a great one.

"The Painter's Daughters" follows the women in the life of painter Thomas Gainsborough. Today famous for being the subjects of some of his most beloved paintings, this story looks at what life was life for his two daughters: Molly and Margaret (Peggy). Molly struggles with mental illness and Peggy takes it upon herself to try and keep her sister's malady a secret. Terrified that telling her parents will force them to be separated, she juggles trying to manage Molly, navigate the marriage market in society obsessed Bath and follow her own heart. We also follow a different story from a seemingly unrelated character named Meg. Pay close attention to the details and as the story progresses you can start to puzzle together just who she is and how she fits into the narrative of this family. This story is a fascinating, heartbreaking and a deeply impressive debut.

Many thanks to Simon & Schuster and Netgalley for the ARC

THE PAINTER’S DAUGHTERS showcases the life of Peggy and Molly Gainsborough in a way that is both heartfelt and candid. Howes’ beautifully written prose highlights the ups and downs that these sisters experienced throughout their years, in addition to flashing back to their mother’s early years.

What pulled me into this book is the simple premise that I have seen the paintings by Thomas Gainsborough of his family. Many times, when standing in front of a portrait, my mind wanders to what the lives of those depicted were like. I tell myself the facts I know, but there are moments when I let my imagination run a little wild. This fictional storytelling is the kinship I feel with Howes. She effortlessly conceived a narrative about the Gainsborough family that is believable and captivating. It is apparent the author did her research through the historical elements while still developing a world of her own.

THE PAINTER’S DAUGHTERS brings to life the girls captured on canvas through their love, pain, and strife. Howes wrote a tale that emphasizes that the bonds of sisterhood can go far past madness and perceived betrayal. Every moment spent with Peggy and Molly felt honest and I truly loved getting to know them.

My thanks for the ARC goes to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster. I'm voluntarily leaving a review.

Genre: Historical Fiction
Spice Level: High with sex on page but not in a titillating way
Language: Some swearing
Representation: Mental health

If historical fiction and art history are your jam, I think you'll like this book.

It's a detailed account of how the artist's daughter navigate life, a life that is confusing when Molly has her spells. Peggy is devoted to her sister, and that comes through like a shining light.

The second plot with Meg Gray confused me, interrupting the first narrative. Eventually it comes together (as in at the end). I think I would have liked the book more without this secondary plot because it took me out of the story of the sisters because it was so different.

I felt like mental health practices of the time were thoroughly researched and shown on the page.

Happy reading!

This was not a light fluffy read. This was a tragedy. And it pulled me in like Wuthering Heights but without a possible romance. The lure of something maybe wonderful to come, but alas it is written of the realities of our history. A past I wanted to look away from and I found uncomfortable. The novel is not true, not really. And it spoke of the harsh lives of women in a time I’m grateful I was not apart of. Women who controlled nothing and had to bear everything. It was also about sisters. Sister so entangled that I am still unsettled about them. When I finished this I looked for all of the painters work and love the art.
But after saying all this I found the writing brilliant. It is layered with conflict and passion of survival that was said so well. I am reader of most things who has turned into a reviewer by chance and these are my thoughts.
It was a painful 5 ⭐️ and I will be thinking about this one for months and grateful for my life. Thanks Simon & Schuster via NetGalley.

Just some of my favorite quotes:

“It is not fury with his lust. It is not the humiliation, as I had thought at first. It is fury with what he has debased. Trust. Faith. Honesty. It is fury that he has wasted those things in me, and that I have let him.”

“I gambled everything, and I won it for us. And you were supposed to ruin everything, but you saved me. And they don’t sing about that in the ballads, do they, Margaret Burr? They don’t sing about us.”

‘I cannot stand it! You act as if it has no consequence, as if people have no – feelings! You break words away from their meanings, until nothing holds true at all.’

“He takes a step towards me, as if he is going to explain myself to me in the way that only men do……It is not fair, I think, with a kind of despair. You may take what you want. “

The household of popular British portrait painter Thomas Gainsborough holds many secrets, not the least of which is older daughter Molly’s episodes of mental illness. Her sister Peggy tries to keep Molly from being sent away to Bedlam, even at the cost of her own future.

This novel plods along from one scene of sisterly devotion to another, occasionally interrupted by the spicier tale of their grandmother, an ale house girl impregnated by a prince. I wished for less modern-style family dysfunction and a more convincing eighteenth century atmosphere. Moreover, the novel could also have been at least one hundred pages shorter.

The Painters’s Daughters sounded so promising, but, alas, I cannot wholeheartedly recommend it.

I received a free electronic copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I was not compensated in any way.

The Painter's Daughters by Emily Howes

I knew little about the 1700s English painter Thomas Gainsborough and nothing about his family. The story starts with the family living in rural Ipswich but Thomas's wife wants the family to move to the city because she feels their daughters, Molly and Peggy, are running wild. Mrs. Gainsborough wants better for their daughters, wants to be sure they are raised to be ladies and to marry well. Thomas wants for the girls to have a passion for something, similar to his passion for painting landscapes. Alas, to support the family Thomas must paint commissioned portraits more than he gets to paint landscapes. Often in the story, the lives of the Gainsboroughs are compared to the painting of portraits, or more precisely, the way that an original face, even after being painted over, will still manages to show through, in a way, when a new face is painted over it.

Peggy sees this painting over of one face, only for that old face to show through a painting, to resemble what her family does. Her sister Molly, one year older than Peggy, has something wrong with her. Peggy tries to hide Molly's strange episodes from her parents as long as she can, which is a huge weight for a child to handle herself. But her parents have to face up to the fact that Molly is not well. Mrs. Gainsborough wants Molly sent somewhere that can take care of her but Thomas and Peggy don't want that to happen. Peggy is willing to always take care of her sister, a promise she makes at a very young age. But that promise sometimes makes Peggy lash out in anger, causes her to act in disordered ways. This family of four loves each other but they can't help hurting each other at the same time.

There is another story interspersed with the story of the Gainsborough family. Meg is twenty years old and works in her abusive father's bar. There is a stable hand who loves her and wants to marry her but Meg dreams of something different and when that something comes along she makes a choice. It took me a while to start piecing together the connections between the story of Meg and the Gainsboroughs but once I did, it helped to explain several things to me. This is not a happy story, there is too much going on that is troubling, too much dysfunction in the Gainsborough family for the story to be happy. But it is a story of love, commitment, and dedication to the very end. Even when I couldn't agree with everything the characters did, I realize they often had very few or no good choices, and that they had strengths that helped them to get through times that most could not have survived.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for this ARC.

As an admirer of Thomas Gainsborough's art, and knowing he painted his two daughters on several occasions, I was intrigued by this premise.
Gainsborough struggled between his art and finances, and he and his family attempted to present a particular image to his clients. His wife hopes for more for their daughters, and painters are finding more opportunities in the fashionable town of Bath, so the family moves there. However, his girls are struggling to live up to the image. The reality is that the oldest, Molly, has bouts of memory loss, sleepwalking, and confusion, and the younger sister, Peggy, cares for her and goes to extraordinary lengths to cover up the situation, hoping to keep her sister from being sent to an asylum. And the situation becomes more difficult for Peggy to conceal after the move. When Peggy falls in love, the fragilities of their arrangement and relationship are exposed.

A second storyline is told from the POV of a young woman named Meg, an innkeeper's daughter who wants to escape her circumstances and makes a connection with the Prince of Wales. How the two storylines intersect becomes a mystery for the reader, as the stories initially seem unconnected, but Howe manages to pull the threads together in a satisfying way by the end.

At the heart of this novel is the relationship between the sisters. Their bond and its many facets, including the lengths one sister goes to and the sacrifices she makes to care for the other, are explored in depth. The reality beneath the lovely surface shows sometimes blurred lines between protection/caregiving and control/mistreatment, and I felt for all involved.

Stylistically written, this is at times sad and heartbreaking. It is character-driven, and the character development is very well done, particularly with Peggy. It is also well-researched, with excellent world-building in both timelines. Bath positively comes alive, and I appreciated all of the historical detail. An impressive debut, and I look forward to Howes' next book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I hated how the two (seemingly disconnected) timelines didn’t come together until the very end. I also think the prologue might have helped lend some insight, but it was absolutely disjointed and confusing - I literally think it’s 2 separate books that somehow got jumbled together?? I was mostly bored throughout and just never became invested.

I received this book as an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the author and publisher for this opportunity.

I absolutely loved this author’s interpretation of the famous painter Thomas Gainsborough’s daughter’s lives and their lineage.

The author has written a beautifully endearing story of family, lovers and devotions.

#ThePaintersDaughters
#NetGalley
#goodreads
#emilyhowes

Set in the 1700s, "The Painter's Daughters" is the story of Peggy and Molly Gainsborough, the daughters of one of England's most famous portrait artists. The two sisters are best friends who have been inseparable from a young age. When Molly begins experiencing bouts of mental confusion, her younger sister knows she must help hide Molly's condition. After the family moves to Bath, Molly's slip-ups become harder to conceal as she slides deeper into her delusions. Peggy worries that Molly may be sent to an asylum and goes to great lengths to protect her sister. But when the charming composer Johann Fischer enters the sisters' lives, their bond will be tested. The story is also told from the point of view of a young woman named Meg Grey who meets the Prince of Wales while he is staying at her father's inn. Her connection to the Gainsborough family is not immediately known, but as Peggy questions her mother's heritage, it soons becomes clear.

There are two things you should know about me: 1) I adore Jane Austen; and 2) I am obsessed with all things royal. So give me a historical fiction novel set in the 1700s involving the British Royal Family, and you know I'm going to love it. The book started off a bit slow, and it became confusing with Meg's chapters interspersed with Peggy's. Who is this Meg, and what does she have to do with the Gainsboroughs? But when I started to figure out their connection, I was hooked. As a mystery lover, I enjoyed having a bit of a puzzle to solve and thought it made the story more interesting. After finishing the book, I read the author's notes and was shocked to learn that this story is based on real people and events. I stayed up way too late searching for more information and am impressed by Howe's thorough research. Overall, a fascinating story that will transport you back in time and keep you entertained.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was very interesting. It takes place in the 1700s and is about painter Thomas Gainsborough, his wife, and daughters. His eldest daughter, Molly, is not all mentally there. Obviously that was very bad in the 1700s. His other daughter Peggy tries to hide what is wrong with Molly as best she can because she does not want her to get sent away to an asylum. There is not a lot of good that happens in this novel. It is just everything the family goes through. They are not rich by any means but they get by. Of course they want their daughters to marry rich men so they will be taken care of, but Peggy knows it can never happen for Molly and it can never happen for her because she will always have to take care of Molly. It is rough. I guess this book is also about keeping secrets and sisterhood. Thomas Gainsborough painted his daughters so I had to look up his paintings so that was fun to see.

-And he will have to play the game that we all play, the game of blanking out the things that are not convenient to remember.

Have you ever wondered whether there's a story behind the people/characters in a beloved piece of art? This mysterious novel explores just that - the stories behind many of Thomas Gainsborough's paintings. The prose is beautifully crafted, but the stories' threads left me wanting more clarity. Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

I thoroughly enjoyed this exploration of the Gainsborough sisters set in the city of Bath and the English countryside in the 1700s . The novel is beautifully written, with art and color infused into all parts of the story, but also as a contrast to the gray monotony of city life, poverty, and sickness. I rooted for the women in this story as they tried to fight against the norms and expectations of society but found myself wishing for more “wins,” however unrealistic those might have been for the time period.