The Midnight Rose: A Novel Author: Visit Amazon's Lucinda Riley Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1476703574 | Format: PDF
The Midnight Rose: A Novel Description
Review
"A bit of a ghost story, a little romance, some historical fiction, and plenty of family drama mix into one wonderful story... A sure bet for fans of Lauren Willig, Kate Morton, or Maeve Binchy." (
Library Journal)
"An extraordinary story, a complex, deeply engaging tale filled with fascinating characters whose slowly revealed secrets carry readers to the very end. Spanning four generations and moving from the great palaces of India to the stately country home of an English lord, this is a sweeping tale of love lost and found." (
Booklist)
"Romantic... Confidently blends multiple storylines, large helpings of tragedy, a fairy-tale villain and some startling plot twists... Engrossing." (
Kirkus Reviews)
About the Author
Lucinda Riley is the internationally bestselling author of
The Orchid House (published as
Hothouse Flower in the UK, more than 2 million copies sold worldwide);
The Girl on the Cliff (an instant
New York Times bestseller), and
The Lavender Garden (published as
The Light Behind the Window in the UK). Her fourth novel,
The Midnight Rose, will be published around the world in early 2014. Her novels have been translated into twenty-two languages and published in thirty-six countries. Born in Ireland, she lives with her husband and four children in the English countryside and in the South of France.
See all Editorial Reviews
- Paperback: 496 pages
- Publisher: Atria Books (March 18, 2014)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1476703574
- ISBN-13: 978-1476703572
- Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 1.2 inches
- Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Thank you to the author and publisher for the review copy via netgalley.
An epic saga of two remarkable women and two love stories spanning the years from 1920s India to modern-day England. In the gilded years before World War I, Anahita is a bright and curious Indian girl who never thought she would come to England. But as the companion to a royal princess, she is given rare access to a world of privilege and is sent to an English boarding school. When she meets young Lord Donald Astbury, they share a special bond that is only made stronger by their harrowing wartime experiences. Pressured by his family to marry Violet, an American heiress, Lord Astbury must say good-bye to a love that will haunt him for the rest of his life
I don’t actually read a lot of Historical/saga Fiction although I have been getting far more into it lately, this particular story was compelling and beautiful and had me hooked right from the start.
Rebecca Bradley, an American Actress, is on location in England at Astbury Hall – the owner, Lord Anthony Astbury is stunned by her strong resemblance to his Grandmother Violet. When Rebecca finds some old papers written by an Indian girl who visited Astbury Hall back in the twenties, an age old love affair comes to light.
I adored the characters in this novel – Annie particularly. So real and yet ethereal, their story is a compelling one. The parts of the book set in India were very beautifully described and the sense of an era was extraordinarily well done. And this author is not afraid to write an epic – this is a long book but there are no wasted moments, every word paints a picture.
As the author of several romantic sagas (The Orchid House: A Novel, The Girl on the Cliff: A Novel and The Lavender Garden: A Novel that usually relate how a tragic moment in the past multiplies over time to wreck havoc on ancestors of the present day, Lucinda Riley turns her ample abilities to focus on yet another doomed relationship--set during the Jazz Age in British India and a country estate, a la Downton Abbey, in the jolly old England of the era. Riley excels in conveying her main character, Anahita's voice and even though the last quarter of her novel is wrought with much outlandish coincidence and convenient scenarios that tie up the novel's many loose threads, for the most part, "Midnight Rose," is an entertaining diversion from the reality of everyday life.
One major event blights the long life of Anahita: she is told her three-year-old child has died. Because Anahita is blessed/cursed with a variation of the second sight, she knows from the depth of her being that this is not true and spends the rest of her days attempting to find her lost boy. At her 100th birthday party, she commissions her great-grandson Ari, a successful businessman to continue her lifelong search.
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