| Title | : | Cavendon Hall (Cavendon Hall, #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1250032350 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781250032355 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 416 |
| Publication | : | First published April 1, 2014 |
Cavendon Hall is Barbara Taylor Bradford at her very best, and its sweeping story of secrets, love, honor, and betrayal will have readers riveted up to the very last page.
Cavendon Hall (Cavendon Hall, #1) Reviews
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Cavendon Hall sat on my Amazon Wishlist for months as I awaited it's release. Historical Fiction is by far my favorite genre of literary escape, and as a reader who immensely enjoyed BTB's Ravenscar Series, I was excited to read her foray into historical fiction.
Unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed. I almost changed my mind about purchasing this book as I read Amazon reviews, however, I made up my mind and clicked purchase and 10 seconds later, the book was on my Kindle.
Cavendon Hall wants to read like an episode of Downton Abbey, but it doesn't have the benefit of the experience or colorful imagination of Julian Fellowes. I love Downton Abbey and Cavendon Hall has potential, but in the end, BTB doesn't have to chops to make it work. Instead of being a solid example of a writer who has published more than 30 novels, Cavendon Hall reads like the unorganized thoughts of a high school creative writing project- and it does not receive a passing grade.
Cavendon Hall begins by thrusting you into pre-WWI England and into the stately home of the Ingham family. The Earl of Mowbray and his absent wife Felecity have 4 beautiful daughters and 2 dignified sons. The family is noted as unusually good looking many times without the benefit of particularly vibrant descriptions. I never formed a clear picture for any of the characters OR the house, which is completely abnormal for me in a BTB book.
The Earl has great hopes for his stunning daughter Daphne, a young lady who has it all- money, class, good looks, kindness, generosity. I actually quite like her character, but the writing skips around constantly like an indecisive flibbertigibbet and you never get anything more than a superficial glimpse into the lives of the characters.
A horrible tragedy befalls Daphne, but the writing is so cold and so unfeeling that you can't relate to the tragedy or to any of the characters as they react to it. It is the Swann family who steps forward to save the day- the Swanns who are an unnatural mix of friend and servant and are the secret keepers for the Inghams after hundreds of years of ties that bound the families together. The book alludes to this illusive relationship an obscene number of times, but at no point do we learn any background that helps us understand the relationships between the Inghams and Swanns.
The books plows through a speedy courtship, the birth of children, the beginning and end of the Great War and other major life changes for many of the characters without any substance to the writing. The actual writing is sloppy and boring, not organized and colorful as I expected from BTB. The characters are not well-developed or even well thought out. The timing is rushed, the story jumps all over the place and I really don't think BTB has any idea of the reality of life in the early 1900's.
The ending is horrible- after spending most of the book tied up with Daphne, you suddenly turn the page to a "many years later" that ends abruptly to "set up" the next book.
Overall, I think this book needed another year of story and character development and a much better Editor... maybe even a different writer. There is so much wasted potential in this book. -
I have not read Barbara Taylor Bradford for years....yet I had always enjoyed her work.
I picked up Cavendon Hall purely because I had been approved for #2 in the series, The Cavendon Women, by NetGalley. And I am so glad I did. otherwise I would have missed out on the beginning of a thoroughly enjoyable family saga.
I listened to Cavendon Hall on audio, and I don't think I missed a word - unusual for me!
I will be starting The Cavendon Women in the next day or so and am looking forward to repeating this very pleasurable experience. -
It has been a long time since I have read a Barbara Taylor Bradford book, so I was looking for a book rich with characters. Unfortunately this did not live up to my expectations. I found the relationship between the Inghams and the Swanns unusual - not servant/master or as equals, but something in between - and I did not need to be told every second page about it. Normally I like these type of stories but I did not feel fully invested in what happens to the characters.
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*Spoliers* If you want to read one of the worst books ever written.
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No character development. None.
Bossy and secretive Charlotte apparently had an affair with the late Earl, and when the current Earl's wife leaves him with little fanfare - yeah right that's plausible in 1916 England - he and Charlotte suddenly fall madly in love. No preamble. She literally falls off a ladder into his arms and has sex with him. Because they've been in love with each other since childhood. Oops except for those many years she was sleeping with the late Earl. The current Earl's father. Ewwwwwww.
So many secondary characters have half assed plots. Perhaps if the author hadn't focused attention on those characters then the main characters could have had better detailing?
Petty point here. But the author glosses over everything. Even the main character's rape is benignly described but oh my god does she go overboard with the description of horse deaths during WWI. Good god I had to skip those tragic lines.
Everything in this book is a derivative of Downton Abbey, and poorly done so. I am so confused. I've never read Barbara Taylor Bradford and she's supposed to be popular right? This was worse than fan fic. I'll most likely never pick up another of her books. I most definitely won't read what is most likely to be next in the series (oh so clunkily alluded to in the abrupt and asinine ending). Save yourself from misery. Don't read this terrible book. -
I was quite hesitant to pick this book up because the last one I read by this author was SO terrible. But I'm quite pleased to see that this one was heaps better and I actually quite enjoyed it! I'm always a fan of a good historical fiction story!
What I especially enjoyed about this book was that while it was historical fiction, it didn't focus TOO much on that aspect and so it avoided being dry like some tend to be. This story had just the right balance between the historical side and the other aspects of the story.
I also really enjoyed the relationship between the Swann and Ingham families. It was interesting to see how interconnected they were after years of one family being in service to the other. The relationships they developed among themselves definitely added some spice to the story!
All in all, I really enjoyed this book! The only thing that stopped it from being five stars is that I found some parts were quite repetitive and could have been cut down to make the pace a little less plodding. But I'm still definitely looking forward to the next in the series! -
In a nutshell: Downton Abbey meets Danielle Steel. Except…I enjoy both Steel and Downton Abbey more than this novel, a tome overstuffed with one very, very tediously blessed aristocratic family and their abnormally loyal retainers in Edwardian England.
The Inghams of Cavendon Hall are more than usually blessed with an abundance of (attractive) heirs and the wealth to sustain them, as well charm and kindness and personality, to boot. They are supported by their loyal retainers, the Swann family, who have passed down an oath (more like a motto, and an uninspired one at that) of “Loyalty binds me” that directs them to obsessively devote themselves to the Inghams, despite certain disparities in class and income. Between these two families, and more than a few servants, we meet about 30 characters in 35 pages.
Besides a few scandals which are fairly easily resolved, an attack on the prettiest female of the family, and a pesky world war mucking up the works, the Inghams don’t suffer much. The plot, however, does suffer, rather a lot, actually, as one by one they encounter various melodramas and complications, some of which are tidily wrapped up, others not so much.
If you’re in need of a mindless, fluffy read on a summer afternoon, you could do worse than this one…but don’t spend your hard-earned money on it. You’d be better off trying Fay Weldon’s Habits of the House or Phillip Rock’s The Passing Bells. -
Barbara Taylor Bradford used to be one of my favourite authors back in the day but something has gone badly wrong with this book and its hard to believe that it was written by her. The dialogue was sickly sweet and the whole storyline was just unrealistic and unconvincing - and so repetitive. After being told for the 100th time that "the Swanns will protect you", "trust only the Swanns", "loyalty binds me" I was ready to put my head down the toilet. There were so many similarities to the cast of Downton Abbey (especially the downstairs staff) that when Mr Hanson, the butler appeared, I was hearing the voice of Downton's Mr Carson. The story is set in 1914 but the Great War is really only mentioned briefly in a few pages towards the end, almost as an inconvenience. There was so much that could have been good but some characters were never developed, plotlines seemed to be only half formed and certain aspects unexplained. It's such a shame - the cover is stunning but the contents were very disappointing. I am reluctant to give any book 1 star but I am really struggling with 2 stars here.
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I received an ARC from a goodreads giveaway in an exchange for an honest review.
I loved the cover of this book! Simply gorgeous. However, that's about all I liked about this book. So far, this is the worst book I've read this year. There were too many characters, too much repetitiveness, and time moved too fast. The Swann's, the servant family, and their relationship with the Ingham's, the aristocratic family, was unrealistic. Their motto, "loyalty binds me" was awful and overplayed, they said it a lot! The dialogue wasn't very good. For a best selling author the writing seemed very amateur. I don't think I would run out and read anything else by this author. I hate writing a review that "trashes" a book but this was such a disappointment. -
I usually love these type of reads and get caught up and whisked away to a different time and place but I just couldn't get into this like I wanted to.
I found myself skimming over the too long details and trying to get to the heart of the story and while that story was a good but sad one, this still felt like it could have been told and laid out in half the number of pages it was.
Definitely rich in detail and background but maybe for me, this time, a little too much so. -
Cavendon Hall starts in 1913, and tells a tale of an aristocratic family, the Inghams, and their ever loyal aides, the Swanns. For over 160 years, the Swanns have served the Inghams, through births, deaths, weddings, and deepest darkest secrets, and are loyal until their last breaths. When an unthinkable tragedy occurs, the Swanns take charge to protect the Ingham family.
To start with, I absolutely love the era that this book is set in. Unlike some books set in this time, I also loved the fact that the Inghams didn't treat the Swanns as servants, they were friends, confidents, and treat with as much respect as the aristocratic family themselves.
At the start of the book, there is a detailed section of all the families, and other characters in the book, and the were so many I felt a little daunted as to how I would keep up with them all and how they were connected, but I needn't have been as in fact it was quite easy to pick up and remember who was who.
The characters were beautifully written, and going back to an era filled with Earls, and Dukes and Duchesses, Ladies and so on, it is sometimes easy to become disconnected to these kinds of characters as they come across as pompous, but I found so many of these ones loveable, and was able to warm to them, which made reading Cavendon Hall such a pleasure. Of course, there were a few characters the reader wasn't meant to like, and these were just as well written.
I adored Lady Daphne, and when the unthinkable happened to her, my heart broke for her. I really enjoyed reading the way she battled through to come out the other side, and her blossoming relationship with Hugo. In fact I could happily read an entire story about Daphne and Hugo (maybe a follow on from Cavendon Hall?!)
I thought I would find myself feeling sorry for the Swanns, and in a way I did, especially by the ending (which, by the way, really felt like it had been left for a next book, and I really do hope so!) but not in a way that I felt they were worked to the bone and under appreciated, but that wasn't the case. You can really understand that growing up with the Inghams and knowing each other all their lives, it would be easy to develop deeper feelings for one another, but in a time when society would have seriously frowned down on a relationship between a true blue blood and the hired help, those relationships would never have happened.
As well as the colourful and amazing characters, I loved the settings of the book. From Cavendon Hall itself, I had such a wonderful image of a beautiful, grand stately home, to the area it was in. Being a person that spent half of her life being brought up in Yorkshire, it was nice to have a mental image of some places that I knew from decades before I was born. I also really enjoyed the chapters that were based on the war. If I had any criticism at all of this book it would be that I would have loved a few more chapters based on that particular time slot.
This was a beautifully written story, with a wonderful mix of heart warming, horrifying, saddening and deeply interesting scenes. It made me smile, it made me cry, and it made me really appreciate a different era in a way I never have before.
I would really like to thank the people at HarperCollins who allowed me to have a pre release copy off Cavendon Hall to read and review. I think this has been one of my favourite books I have been lucky enough to have been sent, and as well as being a thoroughly enjoyable book to read, the cover is stunning and will look great on my bookshelf! -
Sketchy characters, thin plot, generally wishy washy......disappointed and frustrated as I usually love this authors work :( I'd persevere and read a follow on but if I read any more cliched statements professing the loyalty of the Swanns to the Inghams I might actually cry!!!! It had the makings of a great series.....but I feel really let down.
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The quality of writing is very poor, and the story is not interesting enough to hold my attention.
Made it to page 36 and bailed.
UPDATE: 08-12-19
I started reading this last night, and it felt very familiar. I was 64 pages in and not enjoying it, so I decided it was best to give it up. I came to Goodreads to post "abandoned ship"... Lo and Behold! -
DNF
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Barbara Taylor Bradford has been a novelist since the late 70’s selling millions of books. Cavendon Hall I think is her 30th novel. I needed a light read and thought I would try something a little ‘trashy’. This family saga fit the bill. Set in Edwardian England spanning WW1, it is the first in a trilogy. Unfortunately, I found it a bit difficult to keep track of the characters. I also found my mind wandering, as there were too many descriptions and repetition. The novel does have a decent storyline and I agree with other reviewers who have compared it to Downton Abbey. Cavendon Hall is character driven and has the DA kind of feel. People who are looking for their Harlequin Romance fix should enjoy this one. Am going to stick with it and read the next in the series to see how the storyline moves forward.
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This book was like reading an episode (or several) of Downton but something that might have been done during the US Writer's Strike a few years back. The characters weren't well developed, big events happened in the books before you could get attached to any of the characters, the story jumped all over the place, the writing was subpar. I was literally jarred out of the book several times with confusion in why a character would have said something like that which seemed out of whatever character they had developed. I will not be continuing with the Swanns and Inghams, which is sad for me because were this better written, I would be a huge proponent.
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Eh; it was a rather mild-mannered soap** with long stretches of stagnant plot, yet it still managed to hold my interest. Why? Beats me. *shrug* I can't give a higher rating because the characters felt somewhat wooden -- combined with a Bertie Small-esque habit of recapping plot points that just happened -- but it was good enough. Overall, a (barely) adequate diversion for a tired brain.
**I say 'mild' because aside from the catalyst rape & a couple bits of language in the WW1 trenches, it was a fairly sedate read -- at least by the soap standards of yours truly. :P -
As a huge fan of Downton Abbey and the time period, I thought I would give this book a try...this is something I need to stop doing, as more often than not, I find myself completely disappointed. Cavendon Hall was no different. For such a long novel, absolutely NOTHING really happened! Instead, we are told repeatedly how beautiful and wonderful everyone is and what wonderful lives they have ahead of them! Insert eye rolling here. We also have to witness numerous characters dissecting the same things, which adds absolutely nothing to the story. The dialogue was very poor in my opinion - it is often used to tell us what someone is wearing, as Miles (a 14 year old) comments on how beautiful his sister looks in her royal blue riding habit. I found this a bit of a stretch. The dialogue overall was difficult to take! I was a bit confused with the way that the characters discuss divorce, as well. They talk as if it was a common occurrence in the British aristocracy, however, my impression was that this was not the case! The synopsis of the book discusses how the First World War would effect the family, however, it doesn't occur until the last 60 or so pages and is quickly glossed over! The ending jumps forward a few years, and is clearly trying to set up the next book in the series. It was awkwardly placed, in my opinion, and left this book with no real ending! I can't say that I will pick up the next in the series as I had my fill of hearing how beautiful everyone was, zip happening, and zero character development (every character - except Felicity and Diedre - were beautiful and happy)!
However, the cover of the book is BEAUTIFUL! My favourite part of the book! -
Barbara Taylor Bradford has always been a great storyteller and this book is no different. Her passion for Old England shines through in this story that tells the story of two families – the entitled and those that serve them. What is great about this story is you get the insider view to their relationships and how they live together in one house.
The story itself reminded me a lot of Downtown Abbey with similar relationships and the typical house “issues”, which is not necessarily a bad thing. If you are a fan of this type of storyline, then this will be a great book for you. The back history and period setting in 1913 is a great time for this story. There is not a lot of depth to this book but the author kept the book flowing and it was easy to get involved with each of the characters – love em or hate em!
The reader for this story, Anna Bentinck, does a fabulous job bringing each person to life. I love it when each character has their own voice. I enjoyed listening to the story as she really made it flow and I found the time slipping away as I was involved in the story. -
DNF
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CONSIGLIO DI DICEMBRE 2016: Tizi
Questo libro narra la storia della famiglia Ingham, lord dello Yorkshire, e dei suoi servitori gli Swan, uniti da un patto di amicizia e rispetto reciproco che dura da più di 150 anni e da amore ^^
L'arco temporale è molto vasto. Si parte dal 1913 fino ad arrivare al 1920, per tanto il libro viene diviso in 5 parti.
La prima parte è molto lenta. Vengono introdotti tutti i personaggi e sono una marea. Pensavo di fare confusione e invece mi sono ritorvata a divorare le pagine, nonostante sia poco coinvolgente emotivamente. E' più un racconto di cosa fanno e cosa succede. E di chiacchiere ;) fino a che..bè fino a che succedono due cose che iniziano a sconvolgere gli equilibri.
Per arrivare ad una fine che mi ha straziato il cuore. Voglio immediatamente il secondo!
Devo dire che anche se mi è piaciuto leggerlo e volevo sapere cosa succedesse, ho trovato questo libro un pò distaccato. All'inizio pensavo fosse perchè stava introducendo la storia, ma poi ho capito che era prorio il modo di scrivere dell'autrice. A parte in alcuni punti in cui mi ha davvero emozionato, facendomi sperare, ridere e piangere, per il resto è proprio un racconto di quello che succede.
Ed è un peccato, perchè l'ho trovato molto bello. I personaggi sono poco approfonditi, così come anche le situazioni. Avrei voluto sapere di più su di loro, di quello che pensavano. Invece il filo conduttore è il dovere, dovere verso la famiglia, gli amici, gli Swan, la contea di cui sono padroni.
Si passa da un momento di racconto del quotidiano, ad un momento intenso tra i personaggi. E mi ha un pò spiazzato. Me lo aspettavo "più caldo" invece in alcuni punti l'ho trovato "freddo". Molto inglese ;P
E' anche vero che è il primo della serie. E l'autrice ha dovuto spiegare il passato, il presente, per farci capire il futuro. Inquadrare personaggi e storie in 7 anni, passando per la prima Guerra Mondiale, che ha stravolto molte cose, non è semplice, dato la quantità dei personaggi.
Cque il libro è godibilissimo e rispecchia molto bene le idee e i modi di fare dell'aristocrazia inglese dei primi del '900. Descrizioni di vestiti, case, luoghi sono spettacolari. Ho Cavendon davanti agli occhi..e mi mancheranno tutti.^^
E' il primo di una trilogia e sicuramente leggerò i prossimi. Vedremo come saranno i successivi. Intendiamoci, anche se non è stato all'altezza delle mie aspettative, ho voglia di leggerli, perchè adesso voglio scoprire che cosa succederà assolutamente! Come dicevo prima gli utlimi capitoli sono davvero laceranti!!! mi hanno distrutto. >_<
Lettura piacevole senza pretese. Consigliato a chi piace il genere molto rosa ^^ -
Setting: England 1913-1929
Steam Factor: Mild
3 1/2 Stars
For centuries now, Cavendon Hall has been the palatial home of the Inghams as well as their faithful servants the Swanns. All is well at Cavendon Hall as the Ingham's daughter Daphne is about to make her debut, and the family as well as the servants are elated as they prepare for the event. But someone is plotting to ruin the family, and it begins with tragedy and an act that nearly destroys Daphne. Then worse is yet to come as there is a devastating fire and strange sightings that ruin the peace of both families and also raise questions of past relationships and now present dangers. But it is the War and the ramifications of the conflict that will change all their lives forever. No one can do a family saga with lots of drama, filled with passion, betrayal's, romance and suspense with twists and turns and lush historical detail thrown in like Barbara Taylor Bradford. A really good story that captures the atmosphere of the country and the ordinary families caught up in the struggles of life. For those who are into and enjoy the "upstair/downstairs" story line/plot set in Yorkshire England, you can be assured a great read that begs for a sure to follow sequel. -
Cavendon Hall is a must read! Right from the beginning, I fell in love with the characters in this book. Well most of them. I did not care so much for Felicity and Diedre. Of course, it did not help that in Diedre's case, she hardly appeared in the book and when she did, she came off as not very likable. There was not much to say about Felicity. I loved, loved the Swanns. They are what really made this book so special for me. They are the type of friends that I would want watching my back. The ending was good but I had a slight complaint. I did not like that DeLacy turned out to be so mean. She and Cecily were such good friends. Of course as time passes and both ladies grew up to be young ladies, things do change. I hope that eventually they can mend their ways with each other in the next book to come. Which I have a feeling it will focus more on Cecily and DeLacy. I liked the way that the book progressed throughout the different time periods. I can not wait to read the next book and catch up with the Swanns and Inghams.
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The jacket summary piqued my interest, the actual content left me disappointed.
My first BTB reading experience, undoubtedly my last. I was hesitant to begin with, I should have paid attention to my inner voice. I'm not into authors mass producing books, and this experience validated my skepticism.
The narrative had possibilities but it veered off track. The writing was oversimplified, and the characters strained. The relationship between the servants and the aristocrats - absolutely implausible. The ending was frustrating, there was no ending but merely a prelude for the next installment which I find insulting.
I found the entire book to be a bit melodramatic for my taste, not at all what I was expecting.
An easy read, great if you're looking to kill time without putting forth cerebral effort, and not expecting narrative/characters of substance . Felt manufactured. -
Cavendon Hall is an engrossing family saga chronicling the lives of two British families--the noble Inghams and their faithful Swanns, the clan who has served them for generations. The intertwined histories of these British families are revealed against the backdrop of the years leading up to World War I, and ends just after the war, as class and society in Great Britain are changing.
The story's conclusion left me wanting to know more about the characters and how their lives are affected by social change. I'm looking forward to reading the sequel, Cavendon Women, which will undoubtedly provide more detail about the strong female characters Barbara Taylor Bradford has created in this new series. -
It's not often I abandon a book but I really couldn't do more than half. I don't know how many times an author can describe a woman as beautiful but this author pushed it... how these characters can be so shallow is beyond me... and the relationship between the Inghams and the Swanns. I get it, it is special. You don't need to beat me over the head with it. I got half way through and still could find only a bare outline of a plot. I did not have the patience for this!
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I think my grandmother has read every book by this author. That is not something we will have in common.
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I bought this (and its sequel) a while ago but hadn't got around to reading it. This is a hazard of the very deep To Be Read pile in ebook form. One forgets. As luck would have it, I received a Netgalley pre-approval invite to read the trilogy (as the final book arrives in June 2016) and that reminded me I owned them & prompted me to propel these to the top of my reading list. It wasn't a bad read & totally qualifies for my "Downton Abbey" fix list.
The Inghams are a handsome & good-natured aristocratic Yorkshire family who have what I can only say is a somewhat bizarre entwinement with a retainer family, the Swanns. Much ado is made of the pretty much blood oath bind the Swanns have in fealty to the Inghams ("Loyalty binds me"). The oath's so oft mentioned that it took on a creepy quality when the lengths they'd go to to protect the Inghams and sacrifice themselves, was on display. I don't know what is the origination of the fealty but perhaps that's addressed in future books. It seemed like Swann women, who just happen not to be married, just kept conveniently falling for the Ingham men who of course, can't marry them. I actually loved & laughed at the instance of one of the Inghams saying as much to a Swann. The Ingham men dutifully marry wives that either they realize after 20 years aren't their true match or go into marriage knowing they aren't, to get proper aristocratic issue. Conveniently, the Swann women don't seem to attract any man who isn't an Ingham and if the Ingham they love is already married they slip into dutiful spinsterhood waiting, just in case. The Ingham men find the Swann women irresistible but there's no evidence that the Swann men ever dared to fall in love with the Ingham women or marry them (Harry, I'm looking at you & I'm pulling for you!) or that the Ingham women are ever interested in them. So there's that.
The main point of this story is what befalls Daphne Ingham and much of the suspense to be had is in whether or not things will work out for her. Not only did they but in such a big way that I chided myself for having worried about it earlier in the story at all. This turned out to be a neatly tied Happily Ever After story but I hadn't realized that going in. By the summary, I'd thought the Great War would figure in more & that the families would be in much more turmoil, peril and possible ruin, so much so that I didn't want to get attached to any male characters of soldiering age.
In the end, I must say that I liked it and had very much cared about some of the characters. There are a good many of them & there's no way all could shine here or even have much development. I still feel like Felicity's turn came out of nowhere but she's not so deeply drawn that I can call if out of character behaviour. And the whole Charles/Charlotte romance is for me, marred by the fact that she'd been his father's mistress in the past. Her offering him his father's silk dressing gown after their enjoining was skeevy not romantic as the scene intended. I'll be glad to read the next. One criticism, the ending felt rather abrupt and if I didn't have the sequel at the ready to read & had to wait for it, that'd have ticked me right off.
If you like your pool & seaside reads easy and breezy this is the book for you. Definitely recommended. If you're looking for a glittering family more deeply affected by the Great War, I recommend the deWitts of
The Storms of War &
The Edge of the Fall by Kate Williams. -
I've always enjoyed Barbara Taylor Bradford's books, and this one is no exception. Cavendon Hall in Yorkshire, is the home of two families: the "upstairs" Ingrahams and the "downstairs" Swanns. The two families have been intertwined for over 150 years, each family keeping the others' secrets. In fact the two families have a common oath "Loyalty Binds" which is taken by all members of the two families. The plot in this first book of a series centers on the years just before and just after World War I, and in particular tells the story of Lady Daphne Ingraham and the terrible secret that she carries. Many characters are introduced - Daphne's siblings, her suitor, her parents, and Walter, Alicia, Charlotte, and Cecilie Swann. It's an idyllic existence until a terrible event changes Daphne's life. I liked the families, even if it's all a little too perfect. Of course, since this is the beginning of a "sweeping family saga" many threads are woven into the story upon which succeeding books will elaborate. At times the story felt forced and rushed, but I did really enjoy it.
