Sweet but dull - that's how life has always been for Hazel Louise Mull-Dare. With money pouring in from the family's Caribbean sugar plantation, a father who spoils her rotten, and no pressure to excel in anything whatsoever, her future is looking as prim and proper as one of her hats. But on the day of the Epsom Derby - June 4th, 1913 - everything changes. A woman in a dark coat steps out in front of the King's horse, dying days later from her injuries. Who was she and why did she do it? Hazel is determined to find out. But finding out leads her into worse trouble than she could ever have imagined. It leads to banishment. To secrets that have festered, and a shame that lingers on. To madness and misunderstanding in the place where sugar cane grows. Sweet but dull - that's how life used to be for Hazel Louise Mull-Dare. Not any more.
The sequel to Ivy (actually it's Ivy: the Next Generation) It's an interesting story set in 1913, just before the war and England is a fairly Victorian world. Hazel is in a small school for young ladies and she's being taught to be a wife, to expect that she should marry well. She knows little about her mother's past.
Her world changes when a sufragette steps out in front of the King's horse, dying later from her injuries. Hazel's father had a lot of money riding on that horse and now things have to change. She will have to get married to a wealthy man, particularly as her father is broken by the events. She gets sucked into action by one of her classmates that means that she's sent to her father's parents in the Caribbean to learn to be a proper "lady". There she finds truths that's she not prepared for and this changes her again.
It's an interesting coming-of-age story with some very interesting subtexts that make it quite complex on one level and somewhat over-stated on others.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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5 December, 2007:
Finished reading
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5 December, 2007:
Reviewed