General Chat

The Art of Love by Elizabeth Edmondson
1930s Bloomsbury: young artist Polly Smith is struggling to make a living when her rich friend Oliver invites her to stay with his father, the disgraced Lord fraddon, at his extraordinary house in the south of france.
Evicted by her landlady, and deeply unsatisfied with her painting, polly is happy to escape from grey skies as well as from her staid fiancé, but her happiness is shattered when she applies for a passport only to discover to her horror that she is not in fact Polly Smith.
On the Riviera Polly finds herself mingling with a glamorous circle of artists, aristocrats, millionaires and miscreants, none of whom, like Polly herself, sre quite what they seem.
Revelling in the brilliant light, and intrigues by her new friends, Polly paints with a new-found passion, unaware of the danger she is in. As secrets, past and present, are revealed, her own future begins to take on a new and fascinating shape.

My Suggestions

The Haunting by Alan Titchmarsh

How can the mysterious disappearance of Anne Flint in 1816 and the drowning of a young girl in a chalk stream so long ago possibly affect the life of schoolteacher Harry Flint some two centuries later?
Having left his job and with a failed marriage behind him, Harry begins to research his ancestors. The deeper he digs, the more he realises that the past is closer than he had ever imagined.
The Haunting is a story of love and betrayal, intrigue and murder. Where people are not what they seem, and the past is no more predictable than the future....

Lady of the English By Elizabeth Chadwick

Two very different women ...Linked by destiny and a power struggle for the English crown. Empress Matilda, daughter of Henry I, is determined to win back her crown from Stephen, the usurper king, against all odds and despite all men. Adeliza, Henry's widowed queen and Matilda's stepmother, has always been on Matilda's side but now she is married to William D'Albini, a warrior of the opposition. In a world where a man's word is law, how can Adeliza obey her husband while supporting Matilda, the rightful queen? What does it cost to be 'Lady of the English'?

I think I would rather review after Christmas, Please.

Please suggest your two books and please say if you want the review date to be the week before or the week after Christmas. Thanks.