When Lily's beau Dick is mowed down in a boating accident Lily vows to take revenge on the family involved.She does this by tricking into marriage the Clermont Read's son Bertie knowing it would devastate the family socially coming from the lower classes herself.But ultimately this causes not just the Reads' distress but also her own family and herself as this marriage is just one of mutual using, Bertie as he knew it would upset his dictatorial mother and Lily for her own personal quest of revenge.Enter Nathan Monroe a boy from Lily's past and childhood school bully and tormentor but from an annoying and spiteful boy Lily finds herself deeply attracted to Nathan but now she is in no position to do anything about it due to her binding herself so deeply to the Clermont Reads.But when the chips are down Lily does her duty and in the face of family tragedy and disaster she sticks by those who she originally sought out to vent her spite on and eventually saves the Reads from financial ruin but amidst the turmoil of her life can she ever find happiness in her personal relationships?Can she shake off the shackles and trap she has built for herself and find true love with Nathan or is she doomed to stay married to the inept and lazy Bertie and just be a source of income to his extended relatives?Well written, great characters and an enjoyable storyline this is a great read from beginning to end.
A lengthy novel with a complex plot, its theme is revenge. When Lily's childhood sweetheart is killed in a boating accident, she vows revenge on the family who owned the boat. How she does this and how so often the results backfire on Lily herself fill the entire book. The Lake District in described in vivid detail and is almost a character itself, giving a real flavour of what it is like to live there. Set in the early 20th century, it inevitably covers the Great War and, knowing the statistics, I found it hard to believe that both the men in Lily's life survived. But, of course, this is fiction, where anything can, and does, happen.
