Another heartbreaking but glorious tale of secrets and love from the Sunday Times bestselling author Erica James…
July 1981. As the country prepares to celebrate Prince Charles’ wedding to Lady Diana, Libby wants to be as far away from royal wedding fever as possible.
Having caught her own fiancé in bed with her best friend just weeks before they were due to marry, she’s fled London for the comfort of the Suffolk countryside.
At Larkspur House, with its magical garden created by renowned garden designer and one-time socialite Elfrida Ambrose, and its comfortingly familiar kitchen presided over by Libby’s great-aunt Bess, she hopes to find a way to put her life back together.
But for lifelong friends Bess and Elfrida, Libby’s arrival has stirred up the ghosts of the past. And before they can help her rebuild her shattered future, they must confront their own unspoken secrets, lost loves, and tragedies…
From the Sunday Times bestselling author Erica James comes a captivating story that sweeps through sixty years of history, love and family drama. James has written twenty-four international bestsellers, including Swallowtail Summer and Coming Home to Island House. Her last novel, Mothers and Daughters, was a gripping domestic drama exploring familial bonds, set in a recently post-pandemic UK.
This time, James takes us back in time to 1981, and a UK obsessed with the upcoming nuptials of Prince Charles and Lady Di. A dual timeline takes place in the 1930s and 1950s.
Three very different and equally compelling characters sit at the heart of this story: Libby, whose own wedding is off after catching her fiancé in bed with her best friend, her great aunt Bess, and Bess’ boss/best friend/acclaimed garden designer Elfrida Ambrose.
Early on we see the pressure Libby’s mother places on her, to forgive her fiancé, and the reprieve from everything as she heads to the place she knows she’ll have support – Larkspur House, where Bess lives with Elfrida. While all three characters have a carefully crafted story arc, Elfrida’s particularly drew me in, in many ways mirroring Libby, only decades earlier.
I loved the historical timelines with their decadent social gatherings, the development of decades-long friendships and, importantly, James using the richly drawn Larkspur House and its gardens as the anchor for all the characters and the novel. It’s a place of refuge, of friendship and new beginnings.
Erica James has once again written a relatable and compelling multigenerational domestic drama. It’s a genuinely delightful way to spend a weekend.
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