First published 1992
Edith Hope arrives at the Hotel du Lac carrying the weight of recent embarrassment. The romantic novelist has fled England after refusing a marriage that would have satisfied social expectations but betrayed her principles. At the elegant Swiss retreat, she encounters pampered guests and minor aristocrats who live by different rules than her own. Edith writes fiction about love but remains determinedly single, clinging to ideals that have already cost her reputation and standing among friends. Then she meets Mr Neville, a man who presents her with a new possibility. He offers what appears to be an escape route from the loneliness and social exile that define her current existence. Edith must decide whether to abandon the romantic dreams that have guided her life or continue down a path that promises continued isolation. Her choice will determine whether she can find a place in a world that punishes women for wanting something beyond conventional arrangements.
Genres: fiction, romance, literary-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, contemporary-romance
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, second-chance, social-commentary
Setting: England, Hotel du Lac, Switzerland
Period: 20th-century
144 pages · Paperback · Flamingo