Unable to find a position as a
secretary, primarily because of the ways she speaks, Grace Campbell
becomes a housemaid at a magnificent house on Park Lane. Here she
meets Bea, one of the daughters of the house, who has recently
suffered the pain of a disappointing love affair, and Edward, the son
of the family. As many young men of his social position, he's
gambling and spending too many late nights with his friends. Michael,
Grace's brother, is also in the city. He becomes involved with Bea
when he rescues her from a riot at one of Mrs. Pankhurst's rallies.
Then war comes to these privileged young people and changes their
lives forever for good and evil.
On the positive side, this novel is
well researched. The setting is realistic and historical events are
accurate. On the negative side, it's extremely slow. The characters
are not particularly interesting. The author tries to inject some
suspense by giving glimpses of what went wrong with Bea's romance,
but it isn't enough to keep a reader's interest.
As with Tolstoys's famous novel on war
and peace, the characters become stronger, or weaker, during the war
and as a result more interesting, but it's a long slog to get to the
war scenes. I can't recommend this book unless you're fascinated by
the period. It isn't even close to the delightful period works like
Upstairs Downstairs and Downton Abbey.
I reviewed this book for the Amazon Vine Program.
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