Description
1820. Mary Dorothea is living under the sole charge of her widowed father, Sir Edward, a man of strict principles and high moral values.
But when Sir Edward marries Miss Fanny Knight of Godmersham Park, Mary’s life is suddenly changed.
Mary’s new stepmother, Fanny, comes from a large, happy and sociable family, and Fanny’s brothers are amusing, handsome and completely charming.
One brother is particularly attentive and, as Mary approaches her seventeenth birthday, a bond forms between them that leads, on the last day of the year 1825, to a proposal of marriage.
Sir Edward’s outrage is immediate, his refusal absolute. The union will never take place.
There appears to be only one solution . . .
Three women, two families, one forbidden marriage. Get ready to fall in love with this regency romance.
Endorsements
By a Sunday Times bestselling author
"A richly imagined family saga, love story and social comedy" — The Times
"Gripping and moving and also so sharp and funny. I loved it!" — Sabine Durrant
"Has all the wit and wisdom of a Jane Austen novel" — Red
"Hornby’s Austen books are funny, bittersweet family sagas, impeccably researched and lavishly imagined" — The Times
"Tremendous" — Nigella Lawson
"Has all Austen’s wit and unnerving powers of observation with an extra twenty-first century zap" — Ferdinand Mount
"Few writers are as perspicacious or half as delightful as Hornby" — Karen Joy Fowler
"A captivating return to the world of the Austens" — Woman & Home
"Combines meticulous period research with a fine feeling for the characters' inner lives, hopes and fears" — Daily Mail