Reader, I cannot begin to tell you how much I loved this book. I honestly think it's one of the most brilliant books I've ever read.
It was chosen for a lockdown book club that one of my friends started and I'm so glad, as I'd never heard of it, thus never would have had the pleasure of reading it. One Goodreads reader described it as the literary equivalent of eating a big slice of chocolate cake, and I have to agree.
Penelope, the main character, is accosted by a girl called Charlotte at a bus station and carted off to her Aunt's for tea. There, she meets Charlotte's cousin, Harry, who is pining for his ex-girlfriend, who is now engaged to a rich member of the gentry. Penelope willingly gets caught up in this family drama, as she's keen to avoid her own. Penelope, her younger brother Indigo, and her mother live in a huge estate they can no longer afford to maintain. They are all still grieving the death of their father during WW2.
Charlotte offers Penelope a window into high society, which offers enough thrills and fizz to keep Penelope from worrying about her own problems. Charlotte is fun and charming, Harry (who engages Penelope to make his ex jealous in exchange for front row seats of Penelope's favourite artist, Johnnie Ray), is sardonic, cutting but deeply feeling (I could imagine Timothee Chalamet playing him) and Penelope allows herself to get caught up in everything, despite her own feelings for Harry becoming more complex.
WW2 is over, rationing has come to an end, and the new dawn of the happier, more prosperous, and almost YOLO living is the order of the day.
This story is sweet, uplifting, heartbreaking, hopeful, and perfectly escapist. Reading it during lockdown will definitely help with your mood, I promise.
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