This was my first Tasha Alexander book and I am certain it will not be my last. The main character is Lady Emily Ashton, a young woman living in England, year 1888. She is uninterested in marriage and is a little rebellious. She marries only to escape the nagging of her crazy mother and spends her short married life not knowing her husband. When he dies, however, she begins to read his journals and this is when she falls in love with him. She finds out that her husband, Phillip, was actually more than the wealthy hunter she thought he was. In fact, he was very literary and artistic and very much in love with her. This of course causes her a great amount of grief because she realizes her marriage was a lost opportunity.
The book started out a little bit slow for me, it took me about three chapters to really get into it. Once I did get into it though, I became very interested. Alexander does an amazing job of really shaping the characters. Emily is very lovable. She becomes obsessed with drinking port and is really quite scandalous for her time. The mystery of her husband's death doesn't really arrive until halfway through the novel, but there is enough substance in the first half that I did not feel bored. There were some points that I laughed because they were just not realistic at all, like Emily's plan to go to Africa to find her husband, but Alexander made up for it in other parts and a highly realistic story for the most part. Overall a good read, I'll be sure to check out some of her other stuff.
Pub. Date: October 2006
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Format: Paperback, 336pp
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