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swellchel's review against another edition
3.0
I am a fan of the author's series (Secret History of the Pink Carnation) ... so I thought I would try this new book she released. It was good, but I had JUST finished "The Secret Keeper" by Kate Morton and it was VERY similar. Maybe if I had waited a few months to space them out I would of enjoyed it more. Both books jump around different periods of the past while following their main characters. They also follow the main characters' posterity in the present-day while they try to uncover mysteries about those ancestors. Not saying it's a bad book ... just too similar to me! I kept mixing up characters and storylines in my head! haha
cakt1991's review against another edition
5.0
Just perfect! I think I'm in love with this book even more than the Pink Carnation books (and those are pretty amazing).
I loved the premise, first of all. It really hit home for me, because like Clemmie, i too lost a grandmother whom I was close to, but started to realize I didn't know as much about her as I thought.
And the characterizations were so well done. I like how there wasn't really a "good guy" or "bad guy" in this...everyone was flawed. Even Beatrice, who was a bit of a shrew, is painted in a sympathetic light, because you read about her upbringing with her elitist parents who pushed her into an elitist marriage with a man who didn't love her. And Frederick, despite being the "hero" of the book, falls prey to Bea's charms, and is trapped in marriage with her for several years as a result.
I thought the modern storyline was interesting, because it really reflected how the family turned out due to what happened between Frederick, Bea, and Addie. There are a lot of unresolved issues between family members, and they come to understand each other only by learning about and discussing their ancestors' past.
I also loved how the author incorporated events of her personal life into the book, which is especially noticeable when you read the ending "news clipping" about the marriage of Clemmie and Jon. Fans of the author will know that she too recently married and a lot of the details mentioned in the clipping are similar to those mentioned in her own wedding announcement.
I loved the premise, first of all. It really hit home for me, because like Clemmie, i too lost a grandmother whom I was close to, but started to realize I didn't know as much about her as I thought.
And the characterizations were so well done. I like how there wasn't really a "good guy" or "bad guy" in this...everyone was flawed. Even Beatrice, who was a bit of a shrew, is painted in a sympathetic light, because you read about her upbringing with her elitist parents who pushed her into an elitist marriage with a man who didn't love her. And Frederick, despite being the "hero" of the book, falls prey to Bea's charms, and is trapped in marriage with her for several years as a result.
I thought the modern storyline was interesting, because it really reflected how the family turned out due to what happened between Frederick, Bea, and Addie. There are a lot of unresolved issues between family members, and they come to understand each other only by learning about and discussing their ancestors' past.
I also loved how the author incorporated events of her personal life into the book, which is especially noticeable when you read the ending "news clipping" about the marriage of Clemmie and Jon. Fans of the author will know that she too recently married and a lot of the details mentioned in the clipping are similar to those mentioned in her own wedding announcement.
amdame1's review against another edition
3.0
Willig departs from her usual Napoleonic spy stories and takes us to Kenya, NYC, and into the homes of some English aristocracy.
A fun read.
A fun read.
ms45's review against another edition
4.0
This is the second Lauren Willig book that I've read. I much prefer this stand alone novel to her pink carnation series. I first learned about this author from the blurb she did on A Thousand Summers. So on to this book. It's a generational saga, which I love. Heck my mom got me hooked on those as a child with the Thorn Birds so it's those are my bread and butter. I love how she switched back and forth between 1999 in NYC and 1917 in England and the late 20s in Kenya. The characters were well developed and felt real to me. The true test of any novel for me is when I can read it and see it unfold in my head just like a good movie. The only negative thing I have to say is I dislike when an author tells you a character looks like a well known actor like Val Kilmer or Indiana Jones. I prefer to make up my own faces based on their description of a character. I read this one in 2 days and look forward to her next stand alone novel.
abookishaffair's review against another edition
4.0
"The Ashford Affair" is a book full of family secrets. It follows two women, Clemmie, who lives in late 1990s New York City and Addie, a young woman in the early 1900s running away from her life in England to carve out a new life in Kenya with her beloved cousin's family. This is the story of a woman figuring out her past and another building her future.
Lauren Willig is also the author of the Pink Carnation series, of which I've read a few. Although this book marks a departure from Willig's world of flowery named spies, there are a lot of great elements present in this book that were present in the Pink Carnation series. The characters in this book are really memorable and interesting. The story itself is engaging. Willig even gives us a chance to do a little armchair traveling in NYC, England, and Kenya. Addie's cousin, Bea, lives on a coffee farm in Kenya (sounds awesome to me)!
After her beloved grandmother passes away, Clemmie finds out that there's more than meets the eye when it comes to her family. The book follows her as her life is crashing down as she is trying to find out the true story of her family. I really liked following her as she unravels the mystery. Clemmie was a great character. She's smart but still very vulnerable.
While I liked Clemmie's character, I really liked Addie's story. I wanted to know a little bit more about why she did what she did after the huge twist in the story (no spoilers). If I were in her position, I might have run the other way! I think the fact that she does the unexpected made Addie really interesting to read about!
Overall, this was a good story! I know that I'm going to be thinking about these characters for a long time!
Lauren Willig is also the author of the Pink Carnation series, of which I've read a few. Although this book marks a departure from Willig's world of flowery named spies, there are a lot of great elements present in this book that were present in the Pink Carnation series. The characters in this book are really memorable and interesting. The story itself is engaging. Willig even gives us a chance to do a little armchair traveling in NYC, England, and Kenya. Addie's cousin, Bea, lives on a coffee farm in Kenya (sounds awesome to me)!
After her beloved grandmother passes away, Clemmie finds out that there's more than meets the eye when it comes to her family. The book follows her as her life is crashing down as she is trying to find out the true story of her family. I really liked following her as she unravels the mystery. Clemmie was a great character. She's smart but still very vulnerable.
While I liked Clemmie's character, I really liked Addie's story. I wanted to know a little bit more about why she did what she did after the huge twist in the story (no spoilers). If I were in her position, I might have run the other way! I think the fact that she does the unexpected made Addie really interesting to read about!
Overall, this was a good story! I know that I'm going to be thinking about these characters for a long time!
piratequeen's review against another edition
1.0
Deeply disappointing. There wasn't a single sympathetic character in the book, which surprised me, given how talented Willig is at creating likeable figures. Additionally, the writing felt a bit slapdash, and the setting wasn't engaging. I was excited for a story set in the 1920s, with all of the glitz and glamor and post-war desperation and excess, but there was very little to be found. It could have been set in any 20th-century era; there was no historical vibe to it at all. Fortunately, she's done better with her Pink Carnation series, which I never fail to enjoy.
bdietrich's review against another edition
4.0
I had grown tired of the "cookie cutter" repetitiveness of the more recent Lauren Willig's Pink Carnation books, but I greatly enjoyed The Ashford Affair. It has enough of the style of Willig that I like, but it also had a breath of fresh air that has been absent in the past two or so Pink Carnation novels.
jennikreads's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this book. I love Willig's Pink Carnation series as more of junk food read, but this one was much more in my opinion. It was fascinating and I just kept wanting to know more and more about these relationships and what happened. I have always liked how Willig weaves the past with the present in such an interesting way that is constantly propelling the story forward. I still have unanswered questions after finishing this book, but sometimes that's not a terrible thing. Willig continues to impress me with her characters. And I can't believe I'm almost read all of her current books.
vkemp's review against another edition
3.0
Granny Addie is dying and Clemmie is devastated. Addie was Clemmie's rock during her mother's divorce and all the other comings-and-goings in the family, but Granny Addie was stalwart. Her love affair with her husband, Frederick Desborough, was the stuff of legend in the family. But, as the reader goes back and forth between the time when Addie first comes to live at Ashford, the familial seat in Dorset, in 1906, until the time she dies in New York, in 1999, the truth is very difficult to pin down. I found all of the characters annoying and pretentious.