Book reviews

L ondon, 1949: The ‘New Look’ is in, Princess Elizabeth’s wedding has raised morale and the capital is lled with a new energy.

The Earl of Mowbray’s niece, Alicia Stanton, is making her mark in the glamorous lm world. Alongside her, Victoria Brown, a wartime evacuee, is starting out as a fashion photographer.

Life is full of opportunity, but at Cavendon Hall, the stately home where they both grew up, the

Second World War has exacted a terrible price and the estate is facing bankruptcy.

The aristocratic Ingham family is at odds with its loyal retainers, the Swanns, for the rst time.

And when Cavendon’s secrets start to rise to the surface, young and old alike are threatened.

Can the Inghams and the Swanns unite to save the family name and their future? W hen Emmett and Daisy were eleven years old they made a shocking discovery that was to shatter their young friendship.

But while life took them in different directions, Emmett never forgot the feelings he had for Daisy.

Now, many years later, and Emmett has moved to London to forge a relationship with his seven-year-old daughter - whom until now he never knew existed.

But as Emmett gets to grips with parenthood, and his feelings for Misty’s mother Amanda, in walks Daisy.

Does Emmett choose a love he lost so long ago, or a future with his new family?

And can he ever move on from what happened all those years ago? B rothers at the ‘Black Dagger Brotherhood’ training centre push recruits to the limit to become faster and stronger than ever before as they prepare for the ght against the Lessening Society.

Novo, a resilient survivor who is a bit rough around the edges, has overcome a great deal - including her intense attraction to suave, aristocratic Peyton, with whom she has shared a passionate physical connection.

But when Peyton nally admits his true feelings for Novo, she rejects him for a more stable male.

Now they must train in close quarters and eventually confront the feelings they still undoubtedly harbour for each other. I t’s the day of the presidential elections and all of France is in a state of shock: the rst Arab candidate, who was projected to win, has just been shot.

The sprawling Nerrouche family is devastated to discover that one of their own is the prime suspect in the shooting.

It turns out that Nazir, a shadowy but compelling

gure, has links to Islamist extremists.

In the aftermath of the assassination attempt, the police and prosecution unravel, creating a vacuum in which old alliances shatter and new, more ominous ones emerge.

As riots break out, prosecutors and detectives descend upon the Nerrouches, turning them into a convenient political scapegoat for the country’s elite.

It falls to the family’s favourite son Fouad - Nazir’s brother and apparent opposite - to clear his family’s name.