The Ashford Affair

by Lauren Willig

First published 2013

Clementine Evans works brutal hours at her Manhattan law firm, chasing a partnership that feels increasingly hollow. Her engagement has collapsed, leaving her alone at thirty-four with a life that looks successful from the outside but feels empty within. Everything changes at her grandmother Addie's ninety-ninth birthday celebration when a family member accidentally reveals hints about buried secrets from the past. Clementine begins digging into her family's history, uncovering a story that stretches across decades and continents. The investigation takes her from the elite social circles of World War I-era Britain to the red earth landscapes of colonial Kenya, revealing hidden truths about her grandmother and the choices that shaped their family. As Clementine pieces together this forgotten history, she must confront what these revelations mean for her own future and whether the life she's been building is the one she actually wants.

Genres: romance, literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century, family-drama

Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking

Tropes: family-secrets, secrets-from-the-past

Setting: Britain, Kenya, Manhattan

Period: World War I, Present Day

358 pages · Hardcover · St. Martin's Press

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