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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
I received this book as a ARC after winning a copy from Deanna Raybourn's website. I am so glad I was able to read it.
Delilah Drummond is sent to Kenya by her family to wait out a scandal that she has caused in Paris. She doesn't want to go but isn't given much choice. She lives a life that she choses and asks for forgiveness from no one. She and her cousing Dora head off to Kenya so she can avoid the scandal and continue to receive money from her grandfather. She had no idea what awaits her. She mets Ryder White when she and Dora get off the train. Needless to say it was not a friendly first meeting. She is continually at odds with him from the start.
Delilah meet her neighbors and spends time with them. She knows several of them from previous social engagements in the past. She starts a casual affair with a painter that she knew previously. She discovers that not everyone believes in freedom and rights like she does. She and Ryder are in agreement that the tribes should be treated with respect. She also finds that he challenges her to be a better person. She doesn't want to fall in love with him or Africa but she does gradually.
There is a lot to this book and I loved every minute of it. I don't read a lot of books set in colonial Africa or the 1920s. I enjoyed every aspect of this one. She did a good job a keeping my interests and making me invested in the characters and their lives.
Please read the prequel Far in the Wilds before reading this one. It gives you the background on Ryder and allows you to get a glimpse of what makes him tick.
Delilah Drummond is sent to Kenya by her family to wait out a scandal that she has caused in Paris. She doesn't want to go but isn't given much choice. She lives a life that she choses and asks for forgiveness from no one. She and her cousing Dora head off to Kenya so she can avoid the scandal and continue to receive money from her grandfather. She had no idea what awaits her. She mets Ryder White when she and Dora get off the train. Needless to say it was not a friendly first meeting. She is continually at odds with him from the start.
Delilah meet her neighbors and spends time with them. She knows several of them from previous social engagements in the past. She starts a casual affair with a painter that she knew previously. She discovers that not everyone believes in freedom and rights like she does. She and Ryder are in agreement that the tribes should be treated with respect. She also finds that he challenges her to be a better person. She doesn't want to fall in love with him or Africa but she does gradually.
There is a lot to this book and I loved every minute of it. I don't read a lot of books set in colonial Africa or the 1920s. I enjoyed every aspect of this one. She did a good job a keeping my interests and making me invested in the characters and their lives.
Please read the prequel Far in the Wilds before reading this one. It gives you the background on Ryder and allows you to get a glimpse of what makes him tick.
This was an utterly delightful read. Deanna Raybourn has a marvelous talent for painting a scene and I felt as though I were with her main character, Delilah, taking in Africa for the first time.
I thought the characters, even if I didn't like some of them, were rich and well written and I wished that I could have had more time with them.
I thought the characters, even if I didn't like some of them, were rich and well written and I wished that I could have had more time with them.
3.5 stars
ARC received from NetGalley
I chose to read this title because the time and setting interested me. The story begins shortly before the marriage of Prince Albert and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon - the early 1920s, right where we'd be currently in Downton Abbey. Only Delilah Drummond hardly resembles the titled ladies of that show - she's unapologetic and comes off as vain, yet is capable of compassion when the situation calls for it. Delilah volunteers to a temporary exile to Africa in order to let her latest scandal fade, and soon discovers the exotic continent calls to her...and she's willing to listen.
Without spoiling the story, I'll say that the story combines moments of tense romance with suspense - this isn't a romance in the traditional sense, and if you're expecting such you'll be disappointed by Delilah's behavior. I'll admit there were times I thought she needed a swift kick in the rear, but if you keep with the story you'll succumb to her charm. Her match, the adventurous Ryder White, is the other well-developed character in the story, and they shine in the foreground of a supporting cast of British residents. It's a vivid book and worth reading if you enjoy early 20th century set fiction.
ARC received from NetGalley
I chose to read this title because the time and setting interested me. The story begins shortly before the marriage of Prince Albert and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon - the early 1920s, right where we'd be currently in Downton Abbey. Only Delilah Drummond hardly resembles the titled ladies of that show - she's unapologetic and comes off as vain, yet is capable of compassion when the situation calls for it. Delilah volunteers to a temporary exile to Africa in order to let her latest scandal fade, and soon discovers the exotic continent calls to her...and she's willing to listen.
Without spoiling the story, I'll say that the story combines moments of tense romance with suspense - this isn't a romance in the traditional sense, and if you're expecting such you'll be disappointed by Delilah's behavior. I'll admit there were times I thought she needed a swift kick in the rear, but if you keep with the story you'll succumb to her charm. Her match, the adventurous Ryder White, is the other well-developed character in the story, and they shine in the foreground of a supporting cast of British residents. It's a vivid book and worth reading if you enjoy early 20th century set fiction.
Meh without even mediocre sex to save it. The heroine has plenty of sex but it’s all done in fade to black and my eyes got real familiar with the contours of the back of my skull.