This is the story of three women venturing to India in the 1920s, each with her own hopes and dreams, her own fears. While it is pleasant enough - ideal as a holiday read perhaps - it hardly excites or lingers in the memory. The writing is sufficiently fluid not to jar, but there is little to entice the reader back to seek deeper insight, nothing particularly thought-provoking, no phrase or paragraph so poetic that it must be read and re-read for the sheer pleasure of the language.
Nineteen-year-old Rose is travelling to India to marry Jack Chandler, an army officer she barely knew before he proposed and whose regiment sailed to India shortly after their engagement. By the time Rose approaches Bombay she can hardly remember what he was like and is nervous of meeting him again. Her best friend Tor (unusually, short for Victoria), who cannot wait to be free of her overbearing mother, is to be Rose's bridesmaid and hopes to find a husband of her own. Viva, the young woman employed as their chaperone, has her own hang-ups about India where she lived as a child before losing both her parents and her sister.
Overall, the story is interesting if somewhat bland and there are sections missing that cry out to be told. One such is Rose's wedding. The voyage to India, which dominates the early chapters, is a build-up to the forthcoming marriage, full of Rose's fears and feelings, with a couple of chapters on Jack's perceptions. But the wedding itself is passed over in the briefest description from Tor's viewpoint, without our ever knowing how the bride herself viewed the day.
Of the girls' stories, it was Viva's that came most alive and was most fully developed. Tor's story achieved a satisfying roundness, but Rose's seemed to fizzle out as if unfinished, leaving questions unanswered. There were hints but nothing more. Maybe this was deliberate, but for me it left a sense of incompleteness, as if the author had forgotten to add the finishing touches to Rose's viewpoint.
For all that the book is enjoyable, so long as you treat it as a light read and don't expect too much. Recommended for holiday or bedtime reading, or whenever you don't want to be too challenged!