First published 1973
Hero Kinoull runs an antiquarian bookshop in the English town of Beaudesert, conducting a secret affair with Hugh Shafto, curator of the country's premier Rococo art collection. Between one spring equinox and the next autumn, her orderly existence fractures completely. The liaison with Hugh ends abruptly when Hero finds herself captivated by his wife Belle, a woman of direct speech and charitable works. This unexpected attraction leads to something even more surprising: deep feelings for Belle's widowed mother-in-law, Kate Shafto. Kate spends her days cultivating her garden and sailing handcrafted boats across the tiny archipelago she has built in an abandoned gravel pit. As the seasons turn, Hero navigates these shifting desires and discovers new territories of connection that challenge everything she understood about love and herself.
Genres: fiction, romance, literary-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, 21st-century, contemporary-romance
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Beaudesert, England
Period: Spring Equinox, Autumn
191 pages · Hardcover · M. Joseph