The Midnight Rose - Softcover

This is a beautifully written story that captures the imagination * Shropshire Star * Romantic fiction at its most captivating * Lancashire Evening Post * A strong, often nostalgic offering * Daily Express Weekend * Spellbinding storytelling * Choice Magazine * A captivating read from Lucinda Riley. Ideal for a book club * DailyMail.co.uk/Femail * Irish-born Riley is quietly becoming a huge success story * Red * I finished The Midnight Rose on the flight back, and I loved it! What an absolutely fantastic storyteller - I was immediately immersed in the story, and absolutely compelled to keep reading to the very last page. I loved the fabulously Gothic settings in the UK, with the wonderful descriptions of India alongside them . . . And all the appalling injustices of that time towards women, foreigners and people of lower class were masterfully portrayed - with the depiction of the modern world's treatment of celebrities making a really interesting counterpoint. It was just the perfect book to get lost in at an airport - the time flew by! . . . A real treat -- Katherine Webb

Shortlisted for the Epic Novel award in the Romantic Novelists Association Books Awards. Spanning four generations, The Midnight Rose by Lucinda Riley sweeps from the glittering palaces of the great maharajas of India to the majestic stately homes of England, following the extraordinary life of a girl, Anahita Chavan, from 1911 to the present day . . . A lifelong passion. An endless search. In the heyday of the British Raj, eleven-year-old Anahita, from a noble but impoverished family, forms a lifelong friendship with the headstrong Princess Indira, the privileged daughter of rich Indian royalty. Becoming the princess's official companion, Anahita accompanies her friend to England just before the outbreak of the Great War. There, she meets the young Donald Astbury - reluctant heir to the magnificent, remote Astbury Estate - and his scheming mother. Eighty years later, Rebecca Bradley, a young American film star, has the world at her feet. But when her turbulent relationship with her equally famous boyfriend takes an unexpected turn, she's relieved that her latest role, playing a 1920s debutante, will take her away from the glare of publicity to the wilds of Dartmoor in England. Shortly after filming begins at the now-crumbling Astbury Hall, Ari Malik, Anahita's great-grandson, arrives unexpectedly, on a quest for his family's past. What he and Rebecca discover begins to unravel the dark secrets that haunt the Astbury dynasty . . .