The Midnight Rose

February 1, 2014
Stretching from Darjeeling, India, to Dartmoor, England, the latest romantic saga from a popular British novelist confidently blends multiple storylines, large helpings of tragedy, a fairy-tale villain and some startling plot twists. "My child, I remember," begins Indian Anahita Chavan's 300-page letter to her lost son, whose mysterious life is the central thread of Riley's (The Lavender Garden, 2013, etc.) fourth novel. The daughter of a healer, Anahita inherited her mother's gifts, including an element of second sight that has convinced her for 80 years that the son she bore in 1919, and whom everyone believed dead at age 3, is still alive. Upon Anahita's death, it falls to her great-grandson Ari, a successful Indian IT entrepreneur, to read her manuscript and follow its trail to Astbury Hall, a country house in England. Now, in 2011, the hall is being used as the location for a movie starring American screen favorite Rebecca Bradley. Uncannily, Rebecca bears an extraordinary likeness to Violet Astbury, the American heiress whose grandson Anthony now presides over Astbury Hall's slow decline. Anahita's tale of love for Donald Astbury, a World War I officer, and the birth of her son, twinned with Rebecca's present-day involvement with a substance-abusing Hollywood hunk, is engrossing until the closing chapters, when both women's stories lurch into Hitchcock-ian melodrama. Riley continues her run of solid, if earthbound, love stories, but this one derails close to its conclusion.

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February 15, 2014

At the celebration of her 100th birthday in 2000, Anahita reflects on her full and happy life. Anni's only regret? Not knowing the true story of her missing son, Moh, reported dead at the age of two. Entrusted with the task of finding Moh, her ambitious great-grandson Ari quickly forgets his promise in pursuit of professional success until he's compelled by a personal loss of his own. What he finds is more than he, or Anni, could have ever imagined, including the solution to a mystery surrounding the current Lord Astbury and up-and-coming young American actress Rebecca Bradley. Using India and England as settings for past and present time frames, Riley's (The Lavender Garden; The Girl on the Cliff) multigenerational novel contrasts historical and contemporary attitudes toward issues of social class, racial prejudice, and financial status while creating cleverly connected, likable characters. A bit of a ghost story, a little romance, some historical fiction, and plenty of family drama mix into one wonderful story. VERDICT Easy to read but hard to categorize, this novel is a sure bet for fans of Lauren Willig, Kate Morton, or Maeve Binchy.--Stacey Hayman, Rocky River P.L., OH

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March 1, 2014
For Anahita Chavan, childhood in India under the British raj was simple and happy. But when she is asked to become the companion to the maharajah's daughter, Princess Indira, Anni is suddenly exposed to a life of wealth and privilege. Then the two girls are sent to England to attend boarding school, a move that will change Anni's life in ways she never dreamed of. Meanwhile, in present-day England, American actress Rebecca Bradley has snagged the first serious role of her career, playing a 1920s debutante living on a beautiful Dartmoor estate. As filming begins, the manor receives an unexpected visitor, Ari Malik, Anahita's great-grandson, who is on a quest to learn about Anni's past. Riley, the best-selling author of The Orchid House (2011), has once again written an extraordinary story, a complex, deeply engaging tale filled with fascinating characters whose slowly revealed secrets carry readers to the very end. Spanning four generations and moving from the great palaces of India to the stately country home of an English lord, this is a sweeping tale of love lost and found.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)