This was my second Lauren Willig stand-alone novel and I loved it. I thought this was a very interesting story spanning many eras. The novel follows Willig's pattern of telling her story over two different time periods. The first one follows Clementine in the late 1990s-early 2000s. Clemmie is a successful lawyer hoping to make partner soon. When her grandmother becomes unwell, Clemmie realizes she doesn't really know a whole lot about her grandmother's past.While the novel focuses on Clemmie in the more present, the true story is based in the early 1900s. It follows Addie (Clementine's grandmother) through her struggles in life and love. Once orphaned, Addie is taken in by her Uncle's family where she becomes best friends with her cousin Bea. As the girls grow older their lives take very different shapes, until one huge turn of events that will change their lives forever.When Clemmie visits Grandma Addie, Addie mistakes her for Bea. Clemmie has no idea who Bea is but starts to dig further into her Grandmothers history, only to come across a dark family secret that could tear her family apart. Synopsis: One modern tale, mostly in New York City and one historic tale, mostly in England and the then colony, Kenya, Africa. When orphaned, a young girl goes to live with her titled cousins and becomes friends for life with the girl closest her age. She's a wallflower and her cousin is the deb of the century. We meander over country estates, attend debutante balls and experience the changes the first World War brings to English society. We meet the young girl late in her life through the eyes of her ambitious lawyer granddaughter who realizes while her granny knows all about her and helped raised her she's only known her granny at a very superficial level. I "read" in audio book. The narrator has an excellent voice and her "American" makes me laugh. Several British references here. I haven't looked but I think the author is British and her editor didn't change them to make the American granddaughter authentic. I liked the book pretty well but found the latter parts of the story so implausible it detracted (Clementine's ignorance or the later story of Cousin Bea).I do not like the modern day main character or her story. Her romance part is silly stupid. Today's example, when she gets freaked out because washcloths fall over on her when she's packing. Or even though her Mother is staying with Granny, she asks love interest to check on her while she's gone for four days and feels relief when he says yes. Or illogical writing when she says she has to be at work at 9:30, gets to her 8 am appointment at 7:50, finds out she is stood up instantly and starts saying she's late. Or asking where step cousin had put her coat when author just said she watched him put it on the couch like a typical man.
What do You think about Ashford Park (2013)?
Easy read, predictable plot. Interesting twist on a theme
—jeyashree
