My enormous thanks to Niamh Wallace at Boldwood for sending me a copy of The Orphan Songbird by Chrissie Walsh in return for an honest review. It’s my pleasure to share that review today.

Published by Boldwood on 22nd August 2024, The Orphan Songbird is available for pre-order through the links here.

The Orphan Songbird

With no parents to protect her, Darcy Earnshaw must make her own way in the world.

After the death of her beloved mill-owner father, thirteen-year-old Darcy Earnshaw is left in the care of her lascivious uncle Abe. Not only is he determined to steal her inheritance, but as she blossoms into a captivating young woman, he longs to steal her innocence too. Desperate to avoid his advances, Darcy decides to flee.

Alone and homeless, she is soon taken under the wing of John Carver, a kind-hearted beloved street performer and his family who is captivated by Darcy’s beautiful voice. But it’s Danny, an Italian singer, who captures Darcy’s heart and finally seems to offer the promise of a happy future.

But, when war breaks out, and the pressure on Danny and John to enlist mounts, all Darcy’s dreams start to crumble. And with her evil uncle Abe still determined to wreak his terrible revenge on her, surely now there can be no happy ending for the orphan songbird?

My Review of The Orphan Songbird

Darcy Earnshaw is suffering at the hands of her uncle.

The Orphan Songbird was not what I was expecting. I had anticipated a rather gentle saga with a happy ever after ending. I hadn’t reckoned on a gritty, feminist and occasionally quite sexually explicit #metoo style narrative that not only fitted the early 1900s era brilliantly, but which had complete relevance to today’s society too. I think The Orphan Songbird would somewhat surprise readers who eschew the genre as too twee for their tastes! 

The story is very much about Darcy Earnshaw, but it is set against an authentic historical backdrop that feels real and interesting. As many men head off to war, the author makes such a large global event feel personal and affecting which makes for high impact. Other elements such as the fight for Women’s suffrage give depth and colour. So too do the themes of the story. Family and belonging are very much at the heart and Chrissie Walsh illustrates perfectly that family does not necessarily mean blood relatives. Reading The Orphan Songbird brings home powerfully what is important in life. I loved the title too because it suggests both Darcy’s actual status in life with both her parents dead, and her singing skill, as well as the metaphorical concept of a bird in a cage which very much fits some of the things that happen to her. 

The characters are vividly drawn with Darcy at the heart of the action, but her interplay with others from her odious uncle Abe, her relationship with Danny and her various friendships, give her a special depth and appeal. I thought her the way she developed beyond the trauma of her childhood to realise that her past may have shaped her present, but does not need to constrain her future was a gloriously uplifting message.

Darker and more profound than I had imagined it to be, The Orphan Songbird packs a punch that I thoroughly enjoyed. And as for my expectation of a happy ever after ending, well, you’ll just have to read it for yourself to see if I got one!  

About Chrissie Walsh

Chrissie Walsh was born and raised in West Yorkshire and is a retired schoolteacher with a passion for history. She has written several successful sagas documenting feisty women in challenging times for Aria. Welcome to Weaver Street, was the first title in her WW1 saga series for Boldwood.