The Debutante
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- €5.99
Publisher Description
Can the secrets of one woman’s past change another woman’s future?
Endsleigh House stands, crumbling and gracious, on the south-west coast of England, its rooms shut up and dusty. But what secrets do they hold?
Cate, an exile from New York, is sent to help value the contents of the once-grand Georgian house. Cataloguing its' contents with Jack – a man with his own dark past, she comes across a hidden shoebox containing an exquisite pair of dancing shoes from the 1930s, along with a mysterious collection of objects: a photograph, a dance card and a Tiffany bracelet.
Returning to London, rather than face the questions lingering in her own life, Cate immerses herself in piecing together the clues contained in the box to uncover a story, that of Irene Blythe and her sister Diana – two of the most famous debutantes of their generation.
The tale that unfolds is one of dark, addictive love, and leads Cate to face up to secrets of her own. Can the secrets of Baby Blythe's past change Cate's own ability to live and love again?
Reviews
Praise for The Debutante:
'It's an elegant and glamorous plot …which means lots of mouth-watering descriptions of decaying stately homes by the sea' Daily Mail
‘The latest from the author of bestseller Elegance. New Yorker Cate immerses herself in the mystery of the Mitford-esque 1920’s London debutante’ Red
‘A shoebox filled with momentos sets artist Cate on a hunt for the truth behind the disappearance of a dazzling 1920’s ‘it’ girl in Kathleen Tessaro’s The Debutante’ Good Housekeeping
‘Tessaro gets her story-weaving wand out with a gloriously rich story of past and present love’ InStyle
‘Reading The Debutante was the most delicious treat. Engrossing, romantic, wise and witty – the perfect read. I could not put it down’ Gillian Greenwood, author of Satisfaction and The Ghost Lover
Praise for Kathleen Tessaro:
‘Ultra-smart and classily edgy, this is the glitz novel brought up to date’ Sunday Times
‘This is a book all women will identify with’ Glamour
About the author
Born in Pittsburgh, Kathleen Tessaro studied drama before emigrating to London. After ten years working as an actress in films, television, and theatre, she left the profession and spent several years working for the English National Opera, while training in the evenings as a drama teacher and voice coach. During this time, she began to write. Working on short stories during her lunch hour, she soon became a regular member of a writers workshop.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A melancholic, multigenerational romance makes the most of a very tangled web. Cate, an artist who abandoned her talent, heart, and self-respect in New York, washes up in London an emotional wreck in desperate need of work. A temporary gig as an antiques appraiser draws her into the mystery of the beautiful Blythe sisters, recently deceased aristocrat Irene and long-missing Diana, both of whom shocked and fascinated London in the 1930s. And while solving the lives and loves of these dazzling debutantes their beguiling life and times are recounted in a decade's worth of letters from Diana to her adored sister Cate and handsome widower Jack pick through their own tortured pasts and discarded loves. Secrets are revealed, wounds are salved, and fears are confronted as Tessaro (The Flirt) nudges this colorful story of scandal, heartbreak, and second chances toward an appropriately sweet conclusion.
