Grace Reeves is fourteen and a servant for the prominent Ashbury family in war torn Britain during WWI.  She has to put up with Hannah and Emmeline, the heirs to the family’s wealth.  Grace can observe them without actually being a part of them, as she is a servant and more or less invisible.  Grace also knows how to keep secrets and she has found out a lot of secrets no one knows she has.  When Grace is an old woman living in a nursing home, a director approaches Grace and wants to know what it was like working for the family at their home, House of Riverton, he is planning on doing a film about the family.  Grace is transported back to her youth and the truth to what really happened there.

In 1924 a promising poet shot himself at Riverton, the only witnesses were Hannah and Emmelime and Grace.  These three are the only ones who know the truth and they are not telling it.  This action on the part of Grace will forever link her life to these two women.  Grace relives all of Hannah’s schemes to have her own way and live her own life without thinking about others.  She is also privy to Emmeline’s heightened jealousy.  Can Grace gather the courage to leave this place and still have a normal live, knowing she holds secrets which could change everything if she would unburden herself?

There was so much happening in the story; it’s hard at times to keep track of what you are reading.  It’s a worthwhile read in spite of this, and Grace is an incredible character who was put in a position she had no control over.  She kept true to herself and she grew from having to first-hand experience the events someone else put into motion.  It is a love story with twists and turns and the ending will take the reader off to another direction they did not see coming.  This is the author's debut novel.

October 8, 2008