Publisher: Harper
Pages: 279
Format: DRC
ISBN-10: 0062678221
ISBN-13: 9780062678225
Publisher: eBook | Hardcover | Paperback | Audiobook
It begins with a house and ends in ashes . . .
Diana Cooke was "born with the century" and came of age just after World War I. The daughter of Virginia gentry, she knew early that her parents had only one asset, besides her famous beauty: their stately house, Saratoga, the largest in the commonwealth, which has hosted the crème of society and Hollywood royalty. Though they are land-rich, the Cookes do not have the means to sustain the estate. Without a wealthy husband, Diana will lose the mansion that has been the heart and soul of her family for five generations.
The mysterious Captain Copperton is an outsider with no bloodline but plenty of cash. Seeing the ravishing nineteen-year-old Diana for the first time, he’s determined to have her. Diana knows that marrying him would make the Cookes solvent and ensure that Saratoga will always be theirs. Yet Copperton is cruel as well as vulgar; while she admires his money, she cannot abide him. Carrying the weight of Saratoga and generations of Cookes on her shoulders, she ultimately succumbs to duty, sacrificing everything, including love.
Luckily for Diana, fate intervenes. Her union with Copperton is brief and gives her a son she adores. But when her handsome, charming Ashton, now grown, returns to Saratoga with his college roommate, the real scandal and tragedy begins.
There are some very gruesome scenes and descriptions in this book, maybe fitting for the time but in most readers time it would be abuse.
The book begins in the now with a journalist trying to uncover the secrets of the last people who loved on the Saratoga Estate. Quickly we jump back in time being pulled in the story of Diana.
It was really interesting and believable to read how they lived their life. I enjoyed the developments and pace of the story a lot until the return of her son.
After the story looses focus. I lost my connection with Diana, she becomes more shallow and the story slows down significantly. I think I would have enjoyed it more if that part of the story was told by Ashton. Still the whole book is filled with beautiful sentences and some great life lessons.
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