First published 2024
Sylvie Peacock stands at the altar of Mumberton Castle, ready to marry Simon Rampling, a wealthy and mysterious man from Northern England. The widowed librarian believes she has found love again after years of grief spent buried in books. Her sisters arrive with their own agendas. Cleo, a successful criminal defense lawyer, carries investigative files and deep suspicions about Simon's true identity. She tells herself she's protecting Sylvie from another heartbreak, but her motives run deeper. Emma hides her own deceptions. She cannot afford this expensive trip and dare not tell her husband and sons the real reason she came. Once she dreamed of creating her own line of perfumes, but now her tendency toward silence threatens to destroy her family. When their toxic mother appears unexpectedly, the three women slip back into childhood survival patterns. The weekend unfolds in the castle's grand halls, complete with floor to ceiling libraries, falconry lessons, and medieval feasts. The sisters must decide whether to continue their decades of lies or find the courage to choose differently.
Genres: literary-fiction, mystery, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Mumberton Castle, Northern England
Period: contemporary
304 pages · Hardcover · Ballantine Books