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A Lady At Willowgrove Hall (2014)

by Sarah E. Ladd(Favorite Author)

4.14 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1401688373 (ISBN13: 9781401688370)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Thomas Nelson

series

Whispers on the Moors

review 1: I always worry about confusing people when I want to describe a book as being amazingly visual. As I read through the story, I just couldn't go through a single chapter without visualizing the entire scene. The descriptions of not only the characters and locations... but even (especially) the clothing made everything so clear in my mind. I would love to see A Lady at Willowgrove Hall made into a movie. I imagine it would be gorgeous.I loved that the story held so many secrets. Secrets that were shared by so many people. Keeping track of who knew which secret... and wondering who might know the secrets... and wondering when (and if) the secrets would ever come to light... kept the story so interesting. As the reader you knew what the secrets were... so suspense real... morely came from wondering just how everyone would react when everything was out in the open.Sometimes a book so full of intricate details and descriptions can be found slow. That was not at all the case with this book. It was absolutely a page turner.I'm oping the author will continue Cecily and Nathaniel's story in another book. I'd love to know what comes next for them.
review 2: Sixteen year old Cecily Faire thinks she knows what love is and is ready to act on that love. She’s about to elope to Scotland with her equally young suitor and, when they return, she’ll be a lady of means and far better than her twin sister. But the night takes a different turn and Cecily is abandoned by her father at a school named Rosemere. Four years later, having no other home, she is a teacher at the school when offered the position of companion to the wealthy Mrs. Tryst. She arrives at the Willowgrove estate in the middle of a storm, at a time when no one expects her, and is given shelter and hospitality by the estate steward and his family. The following day, she meets the indomitable Mrs. Tryst, a woman disliked by many, and her new life begins.The relationship between Cecily and Mrs. Tryst was my favorite aspect of this book. It starts hesitantly and isn’t helped by the elderly woman’s disparaging comments regarding Nathaniel. As time progresses, however, a bond forms between them. As I read, Mrs. Tryst went from being a cantankerous widow who speaks her mind to a more sympathetic character. I could understand why she didn’t regard the Stanton family. Nathaniel represented everything she had lost, including her only child. Eventually, bitterness turned to a loneliness that was only displaced by Cecily’s arrival.The one part of this book I didn’t like was Cecily’s mission to find her sister, especially the final scenes which involve a change of location from Willowgrove Hall to the northern city of Manchester. I felt that this plotline was superfluous and was, at the end, a little forced.Both Nathaniel and Cecily believe that their secrets prevent them from being with each other, despite the growing attraction between them. Nathaniel needs to accept that his secret is tied to events before his birth and, therefore, not his fault. Cecily comes to understand what really makes a lady. Everyone also gets a reminder that God has a plan for us. Life might not always be sweet, but sometimes we have to endure the bad times so that our path leads us something good. After all, if Cecily hadn’t been abandoned at Rosemere she probably wouldn’t have been employed at Willowgrove and met Nathaniel.Thank you to Thomas Nelson for my complimentary electronic copy of A Lady at Willowgrove Hall which I downloaded from NetGalley. No review was required. less

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