Review #94: The Debutante by Kathleen Tessaro (BLOG TOUR)

The Debutante by Kathleen Tessaro

Genre: Fiction

Publisher: Avon

Price/Pages: $13.99/379

My thoughts:

Crumbling estate: check

Tortured sisters: check

Secretive protaganist: check

Secrets items hidden in old bookshelf: check

London setting: check

Okay, so you got me. It doesn't take much more to convince me to read a book if you have the above items involved. Thank you to TLC Book Tours for introducing this book and this author to me.

Cate is a young woman artist running from a horrible past. She flees to London to work for her aunt. Her assignment is to help her aunt's assistant, Jack, inventory all of the items going to auction at an old estate called Endsleigh House. The house was owned by the Blythe sisters; Diana (also called Baby) and Irene. Though they were born poor their mother married a very rich man in her second marriage and the Blythe sisters were thrown into the fashionable debutante society of London in the 1930s. Irene was the reserved, mature one; Baby was the wild card whom everyone loved.

Sound like a familiar plot line? Well, yes but I enjoyed it anyway. Cate eventually finds some interesting items hidden away in a locked room. She steals them and becomes a bit obsessed with tracking down the owners and the mystery behind these sisters. Turns out, Baby disappeared and no one knows what happened to her.

On top of this story, you also get Cate's drama and the past she is running from or I should say, the man she is running from. She begins a friendship with Jack and they go back and forth with their fondness for one another. Both have pain from their past and both are unsure of what to do with the other but they have a delicious dialogue that I really enjoyed reading. Witty, charming, sweet and full of promise.

Nothing gets wrapped up quickly with this mystery or with their budding relationship. Tessaro weaves back and forth in time, sprinkles letters from Baby to Irene in the mix and by the end the mystery is solved and well...you see for yourself about the relationship. (no spoilers)

Rating: 4 stars/ 6 stars

This was a enjoyable, fast read. It had the potential to be a stellar, meaty novel but it wasn't. It did have the darkness throughout with the mystery of the sisters and the definite pain Cate was feeling throughout but it was written in a simple enough style that you didn't feel like you were reading an enormous character sketch.

I thought I would be a bit more harsh on this one because it sounds familiar to the story lines of Kate Morton but I wasn't. I enjoyed it. It had the drama but the humor and lightness of the relationship between Cate and Jack gave it a sweeter feel.

Recommended for fans of Adriana Triginai or Anita Shreve

Book Club Note:

It has a little fluff feel to it so I don't know how much discussion could come of it.

Still fun, though.

Author Info:

Kathleen Tessaro is the author of the novels Elegance, Innocence and The Flirt. She lives in Pennsylvania. She has worked in as an actress in films, television, and theater.

Thank you to TLC Book Tours

Here are the remaining stops on the tour:

Tuesday, October 26th: Write Meg

Wednesday, October 27th: Daydream Believer

Tuesday, November 2nd: Hospitable Pursuits

Wednesday, November 3rd: Confessions of a Bookaholic

Monday, November 8th: Bookstack

Tuesday, November 9th: Life in the Thumb

Happy Reading and as always, thanks for stopping by!

red headed book child