I cannot believe how much I enjoyed this book.  Phillippa Gregory is most known for her novels based on the women of the royal family, i.e. The Other Boleyn Girl.  I read The Boleyn Inheritance, and though I enjoyed her writing style, those stories just don’t have quite as much excitement as I like.  So I was stoked when I saw that she’d written a novel based in the 20s, my favorite time period. 

About thirty pages into the book, I was totally hooked.  This book centers around Lily, a young girl who just wants to be a singer, and Stephen, a returned soldier from WWI with a bad case of shell-shock (which he denies).  The story is about their lives together, and all the difficulties they face in the aftermath of WWI.  Gregory is a great storyteller, and there are some scenes in this book that make your heart MELT.  There are also scenes that make you totally frustrated.  And that’s why it’s so great. 

Not once was I bored with this book.  It’s a little ‘R’ Rated at times, but boy was it worth it!  Every scene developed those characters so much so that at the end, you’re squirming in your seat, hoping that it will end the way you want it to. 

I was completely surprised by this book and am so excited that it was so good.  There’s nothing better than tearing through the last 50 pages of a book because you just can’t WAIT to find out what happens!