This is still the ambitious and determined foundling I fell in love reading about, but in a way I couldn't relate to her. I really liked how when something bad were to happen to Hetty/Diamond, you will generally feel saddened and sympathetic.

A few reviews by Jacqueline Wilson fans expressed disappointment with this one, which is great news to me. I don't know if Jacqueline Wilson is planning on writing another volume in this series (I greatly hope she will), but if she does, I would very much like to see Hetty and Diamond in a much stable place by the end of it.It's weird to think that she never ever thought about acting in her childhood, but she is so good at it now.

After a long train ride Hetty arrives at the southern coast and checks into an inn as 'Emerald Star'.She has appeared in eight books, Hetty Feather, Sapphire Battersea, Emerald Star, Diamond, Little Stars, Clover Moon, Hetty Feather's Christmas and Dancing the Charleston. Overall it was very enjoyable and a pleasure to read, a good finishing point at this story but there is still a lot more Jacqueline could do and I hope she does! After that time is over Hetty is invited to live with them, but she declines and works as a mermaid at a freak show, where she befriends Freda, the 'female giant'. This final stretch of Hetty's story (which seemed to end just a wee bit too suddenly, I might add), entrancingly narrated in my beloved simple-yet-appropriately-inviting style of Jacqueline Wilson's, manages to combine the new and exciting with the old and comfortingly familiar so well, among other things, by reintroducing one of my old favourites from all the way back in book 2, in a whole new light and yet so obviously still the same old dear at the core.

I've got to say, when it comes to subverting societal expectations, Gid really is like a true twin of Hetty's, going once more to prove that found family trumps all. There’s drama, peril, sadness, a budding romance and happy times skilfully woven into the fabric of Hetty’s story. I must admit; there was one bit towards the end of the book, where I was getting nervous that Hetty was not going to get herself out of a difficult situation.Before wrapping this (entirely too lengthy) review, I need to spare a word or two for the littlest Little Star, sweet tiny Diamond who seems to steal every heart (of anyone with a heart, that is) wherever she goes. The other characters, no matter how small their role, are deftly and deeply portrayed, from the landlady, Ms.