In the 17th century, Rose Gwyn ends up in jail when she tried to steal the crown jewels with her husband. She has to plead with her sister Nell, the king’s famous mistress, for her freedom. In the 21st century, Jess moves to Fortune Hall where her famous sister Tavy is running a TV show, after a break-up with her fraudulent boyfriend. There is a rumour that once Nell Gwyn would have walked in these corridors.
Nicola Cornick has already written several stories with so-called dual timelines. In ‘The other Gwyn girl’, she chooses Rose Gwyn, the unknown sister of Nell Gwyn as a main character. And I quite liked that choice because it introduced me to a historical character who was new to me. Rose is brave and headstrong and tries to be independent but she lives in the shadow of her more famous sister. A feeling modern-day Jess experiences also.
As always, the contemporary story worked less for me. The parallels between Rose and Jess are rather cliché and the whole story around Tavy and her influencer status seems off the mark. We also see some previous characters from Cornick’s other books – I haven’t read them all so I didn’t always knew the characters. A few of them have paranormal powers and I found that too much at times. There is also Francesca who pop ups with certain predictions, but her gift is never explained.
And yet Cornick’s books read like a train. There are entertaining reads. And I definitely want to read some more about Nell Gwyn and perhaps her sister Rose.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
In Another Era 
I’ve read some of Nicola Cornick’s other books, but not this one yet. I’m glad you found it entertaining, despite the problems with the contemporary story. Her historical storylines are always more interesting than the modern ones, I think.
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I agree, her modern characters just don’t live up to the historical ones. But still, I like to read her books.
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