The Glass Painter's Daughter: Uncover an extraordinary love story from the million-copy bestselling author of The Hidden Years Paperback – 10 Sept. 2015

Good read, lots of books that jump around are difficult to keep track of, this book handled it well. The story line was well researched and interesting

This is almost an amazing novel. The multifaceted and contrasting settings of stained-glass, music and Victorian London are convincing and fascinating. The characters are complicated, fully fleshed and involving. Our heroine's unfolding story has drama, mystery, historical interest and angels. Hey, we all like angels! But, and here is the problem, it also has romance.I have nothing against chic-lit. Read once, enjoy and bin is what the Kindle was made for. But this novel is also about real-life non-romantic love and anguish, drama that entranced me, and so I was surprisingly disappointed to be treated to the "who will she end up with" device like any old pulp fiction. Somehow the mushy stuff is irritating when put along side believable emotional drama. If you do read it (and I recommend you do) try to ignore the cliched romantic story line and concentrate on the other threads of this well woven tale.One minor niggle. The historic part of the story is told through a found Victorian diary. This is introduced with exerts in an authentic voice of the time. But the author lost her nerve or got lazy, and told the rest of the historical story in a modern voice. Maybe it is just me (an avid consumer of real Victorian fiction both good and bad), but that cop-out just diluted the impact.

I always enjoy Rachel Hore's books, and she explores a different subject, this time the restoration of old stained glass. Her main character Fran returns to her fathers home after he is taken ill, and begins to help his business partner Zac with the restoration work, as they begin to work together the local church asks them to take on the restoration of a Victorian window damaged during the war. Here the author begins to explore the back story of the window, and the family who commissioned it, and for me this added another enjoyable element to the story. An excellent read, highly recommended.

I thought I was going to be very engaged in this book, it starts really well with a sense of mystery and intrigue and the main character is a complex individual who has many facets - she's a musician, endured a difficult childhood shrouded in mystery but in the end I felt a bit disappointed - everything is predicable and the main character ruminates far too much - if she was a friend she would have to be ditched! All in all it is too long, too many subplots that amount to little and a sense that the author was not sure of her direction. Would I recommend it ? It's an easy read chick flick which I was not expecting from the the abstract - so good for holidays and journeys where you do not want to concentrate too much.

I really enjoyed this book despite it being very predictable from early on.The story begins with Fran who is abroad having finished a tour playing as part of an orchestra. She has just found out that her fling is actually engaged and saw her as his final bit of fun before settling down with his wife-to-be. On top of this she receives a phone call from her Dad's `assistant' Zac to tell her that her dad has taken seriously ill with a stroke and she must return home immediately.Once she gets home she takes over the glass workshop her Dad owns and starts to unravel the mystery of the Angel Window that was discovered in the local church. This leads her to find the diary of a girl called Laura Brownlow who was the daughter of the family who commissioned the window and which reveals a lot more than just the history leading up to the creation of the window.Overall the story is well written but feels a little bit clunky/unpolished at times. It's a lovely light read and I would recommend it.

I loved this book. An interesting subject, well written. I loved the parallel stories of Laura and Fran. Although you skipped about a bit, it wasn't to hard to keep up.I enjoyed the development of the characters and the exploration of the dynamics between parent and child as time passes. Altogether a really good read, perfect for holidays and a real 'feel good' book.

This story is not just about Angels or Stained Glass, it’s about those who believe in Angels. & those who make them out of amazing magical Stained. Glass & the richness that all its jewel like colours along with music can bring to our everyday lives .

The story was interesting giving an insight into the world of stained glass. The characters were varied and I enjoyed the plot.