The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets – Eva Rice
I read about this novel on Amazon – the bit where it tells you what other people bought who also bought the book you just bought. I find Amazon’s recommendations to be quite handy.
Blurb…
Set in 1950s London, The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets centers around Penelope, the wide- eyed daughter of a legendary beauty, Talitha, who lost her husband to the war. Penelope, with her mother and brother, struggles to maintain their vast and crumbling ancestral home—while postwar London spins toward the next decade’s cultural revolution.
Penelope wants nothing more than to fall in love, and when her new best friend, Charlotte, a free spirit in the young society set, drags Penelope into London with all of its grand parties, she sets in motion great change for them all. Charlotte’s mysterious and attractive brother Harry uses Penelope to make his American ex-girlfriend jealous, with unforeseen consequences, and a dashing, wealthy American movie producer arrives with what might be the key to Penelope’s— and her family’s—future happiness.
Vibrant, witty, and filled with vivid historical detail, The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets is an utterly unique debut novel about a time and place just slipping into history.
This was a fun easy to read novel that reminds me of I Capture the Castle. I liked it so much I went on to read The Misinterpretation of Tara Jupp. This novel was charming – the settings and characters were all believable by which I mean nothing jarred as I was reading. I kept turning the pages despite having a pretty good idea about how it would all turn out.
More reviews …
http://writemeg.com/2009/12/18/book-review-the-lost-art-of-keeping-secrets-by-eva-rice/