It's 1999, and after working nonstop for seven years, Clementine Evans is finally about to make partner at her New York law firm. Clemmie's been so focused on her job she hasn't spent much time with her family; at her Granny Addie's 99th birthday party, Clemmie is shocked to realize how frail her grandmother has become. She's even more confused when Addie mistakes Clemmie for a woman named Bea--a woman Clemmie has never heard of, but whose name distresses both her mother and aunt.
Lauren Willig's The Ashford Affair sends Clemmie on a voyage of discovery back to her grandmother's life as a Kenyan coffee farmer in the 1920s and 1930s, then even further back to her grandmother's childhood at Ashford Park, home of the Earls of Gillecote. The stories of Addie's upbringing, and her complicated relationship with her cousin Bea, are all new to Clemmie, who is staggered to realize that her beloved grandmother has been hiding secrets for 70 years.
Willig (the Pink Carnation series) skillfully intertwines three separate story lines--New York at the end of the 20th century, London during the Great War and Kenya in the 1920s--as she tells the stories of Addie, Bea and Clemmie. Clemmie's modern stresses interweave seamlessly with Addie's wartime worries to create a fascinating, yet believable, Bridget Jones meets Downton Abbey atmosphere. Fans of Willig's other books or of Kate Morton's family sagas will enjoy The Ashford Affair. --Jessica Howard, blogger at Quirky Bookworm