Release Date: April 15, 2010
Format: E-Book
Pages: 422
Source: Publisher via NetGalley
From Goodreads: In 1903, New York heiress Caroline marries a cattle rancher and moves with him to rural Oklahoma, where she finds herself wholly out of her depth. Unable to adjust to the isolation of the vast prairies, Caroline grows increasingly frightened and unhappy. Driven to the edge of reason she commits a terrible crime from which she flees, all the way to London, to start a new life as the wife of English aristocrat Henry Calcott. She moves to Storton Manor in Wiltshire, but soon finds that the repercussions of her actions have crossed the Atlantic with her, and will not be so easily forgotten. In the bitter winter of 2008, following the death of their grandmother, Erica Calcott and her sister Beth return to Storton Manor, where they spent the summer holidays as children. As she begins to sort through her grandmother's belongings, Erica is inundated with memories of her childhood, and of Dinny, a local boy whom she idolised. She also remembers her spiteful cousin, Henry, whose disappearance from the manor tore the family apart. Convinced that she should remember what happened to Henry, Erica sets out to uncover the truth. She is reunited with Dinny, and finds herself as drawn to him in adulthood as she was as a child. Haunted by emotions and suspicions, Erica delves deeply into her memories, revisiting the people and places that shaped her childhood, and bringing to light a truth more shocking than she had ever imagined.(
My review: This book has it all – settling the Wild West of the US, summers spent on an English Manor, love, deception, heartbreak and death. I really enjoy novels that span generations – there is something about that longevity, especially when secrets are buried through those years. Actions cause results and those results can haunt a person for decades – this is the theme woven through the pages of this story. My favorite aspect of this novel had to be this theme. Quick decisions made on high emotions and in the moment can lead to a lifetime of deception and pain. That deception continues through the generations until someone is too stubborn to let the past go. Erica is just that person and begins digging into her family’s past.
A secondary plot exists between Erica and her sister Beth, who is fighting depression with a bleak outlook. Erica is desperate to trace back their lives to the one summer she believes the light left her sister’s eyes. She knows this is the only way to enable Beth to conquer her depression.
The writing was very nice – full of beautiful descriptions of the English countryside and those of the barren Wild West ranches and far reaching prairies. Each location, far different, were both painted in such colorful portraits I could feel that oppressive heat and smell the garden after a summer shower. The ending is complete, but not tied up into a pretty bow which I usually don’t like but it fit for the characters.
