Welcome to my stop on The Glittering Hour blog tour!
This book spans one of my favorite periods in time, especially for novels featuring women.
Synopsis:
Selina Lennox is a Bright Young Thing. Her life is a whirl of parties and drinking, pursued by the press and staying on just the right side of scandal, all while running from the life her parents would choose for her.
Lawrence Weston is a penniless painter who stumbles into Selina’s orbit one night and can never let her go even while knowing someone of her stature could never end up with someone of his. Except Selina falls hard for Lawrence, envisioning a life of true happiness. But when tragedy strikes, Selina finds herself choosing what’s safe over what’s right.
Spanning two decades and a seismic shift in British history as World War II approaches, Iona Grey’s The Glittering Hour is an epic novel of passion, heartache and loss.
An unforgettable historical novel about true love found and lost and the secrets we keep from one another from award winning author, Iona Grey.
Review:
This was a one night read – one sign of a great book for me.
Told from multiple points of view, I was almost immediately sucked into the story. This is one of my favorite formats because you get to know each character so well.
There was also a shifting timeline but it felt natural and necessary to tell the story. It also made me more invested – a.k.a. I couldn’t put the book down.
I knew I would enjoy this book because of the time period but the character development was so well done that I found myself hurting for Alice, the homesick little girl left behind with her grandparents while my heart broke into a million pieces over the reason for Selina’s absence and her attempts to keep her daughter close to her through letters.
I didn’t expect to become so emotional and my descriptions here won’t do any character any justice. All I will say is that I hope they found peace and happiness in the end.
This book borders on a 5 star read for me – completely unexpected which is almost even better. My only negative was that the plot slowed a few times more than I would have liked but that’s a personal preference and probably just me dying to know what happened next.
If you enjoyed The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Rules of Civility, you will most likely love this book. It would make a wonderful gift for the historical fiction lover in your life!
About the Author:
IONA GREY is the author of the award winning Letters to the Lost. She has a degree in English Literature and Language from Manchester University, an obsession with history and an enduring fascination with the lives of women in the twentieth century. She lives in rural Cheshire with her husband and three daughters.
Thank you to Thomas Dunn Books for gifting me this copy to read and review. All opinions in my review are my own.
If you would like to enter to win a copy, head over to my Instagram to enter!
2 Comments
Rachel White
Ah! I chose this for my book of the month! Seeing your review on it makes me even more excited to read it!
jj3nkinson
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! 💗