First published 2016
Sophia Trenchard arrives at the Duchess of Richmond's ball in Brussels on June 15, 1815. Her father supplies Wellington's army, giving the family access to high society's most exclusive gathering. Tomorrow brings the Battle of Waterloo, and many young officers dancing tonight will die on the battlefield. Something happens to Sophia at this party that will echo through decades. Twenty-five years pass. The Trenchards have climbed the social ladder and moved into Belgravia, London's newest fashionable district. Here the old aristocracy mingles uneasily with families like theirs who have recently acquired wealth. The consequences of that long-ago night in Brussels finally surface in this new world of social ambition and rigid hierarchy. Some people desperately want the past to stay buried, but secrets have a way of demanding recognition.
Genres: romance, literary-fiction, historical, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 19th-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: secrets, social-climbing
Setting: Belgravia, Brussels, London
Period: 1815, 1840s
402 pages · Hardcover · Grand Central Publishing