The Debutante
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Product Description
Review
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
Product Description
Can the secrets of one woman’s past change another woman’s future?
Cate is a gifted young artist who survives in New York by producing remarkable copies of Old Masters.She arrives in London to stay with her aunt Rachel who owns an auction house, determined to leave the pain of her past behind.
Cate is sent to Devon with Rachel's colleague Jack to value the contents of Endsleigh, the grand Georgian home of a former socialite. But inside, its once elegant interiors are now worn with age and dust.
Then Cate discovers hidden in the back of one of the bookshelves, an old shoebox containing an exquisite pair of silk dancing shoes from the 1930's along with a mysterious collection of objects – a diamond brooch, a photograph of a handsome young sailor, a dance card, and a beautiful pearl and emerald bracelet from Tiffany's.
Unable to solve the questions in her own life, Cate quickly becomes engaged in solving the mystery of the shoe box and begins to unravel the story of Baby Blythe; bright, beautiful and reckless, she was the most famous debutante of her generation.
The clues in the box reveal a tale of a dark, addictive love, a tale that will lead Cate to uncover some secrets of her own.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
This book is about two people, Cate and Jack, struggling to put their unhappy pasts behind them, and immersing themselves in the task of sorting all the antiques etc for auction from an old mansion by the sea after its elderly owner dies. Whilst there they discover that the house was once home to two famous sisters, Irene and Baby Blythe who were debutantes in the 1920s, and Cate finds an old shoebox full of memories. She is fascinated by their story, especially when she discovers that Baby, the wilder of the two, went missing and was never found, and she sets out to discover all she can.
It was a little slow in the beginning but turns into a nice story with a gentle mystery, it's not an exciting thriller but it is a pleasant read and I enjoyed it, and was eager to turn the pages as I got further into it.
It was a little slow in the beginning but turns into a nice story with a gentle mystery, it's not an exciting thriller but it is a pleasant read and I enjoyed it, and was eager to turn the pages as I got further into it.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
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I had a strange sense of deja vu when I read this novel. I thought I'd suddenly time slipped to the early ninties,when this sort of book was all the rage.
The plot ticks all the standard boxes. Conflicted heroine/moody hero/family secrets/designer chic/country house settings/emotional traumas.
See...we've all been here before. The shame is, Tessaro writes really well, but I found myself utterly bored by her characters, & the final plot twist was no surprise at all.
This is an OK read at best. It's very much the sort of holiday book you leave in the hotel for the next person to read. Definately not a keeper for me
The plot ticks all the standard boxes. Conflicted heroine/moody hero/family secrets/designer chic/country house settings/emotional traumas.
See...we've all been here before. The shame is, Tessaro writes really well, but I found myself utterly bored by her characters, & the final plot twist was no surprise at all.
This is an OK read at best. It's very much the sort of holiday book you leave in the hotel for the next person to read. Definately not a keeper for me
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
About a year ago, Amazon recommended a few books for me, based on prior purchases. Leaving aside train manuals and children's books purchased for the rest of the family, I bought them to see whether Amazon had predicted my reading tastes accurately. I am more and more convinced, after reading this, the third of the recommended books, that they were merely trying to shift stock that wasn't selling. This borders on the chick-lit that I abhor.
The central premise is that two damaged characters (one via bereavement, one from being a mistress) are brought together to produce an inventory on a grand country house, and become embroiled in the story of the Mitford-clone sisters who once inhabited it. The 'debutante' of the title is the younger of the two sisters who disappeared and has never been found. Her story is told in a series of flashback letters which the 'mistress' character (called 'Katie' or 'Cate' depending on I know not what) finds in a shoebox in a locked room of the house. The little fronds of plot which spring from this stem do not really develop into anything satisfying. They don't really seem to interweave, and tend to run in parallel. Most of the denouement can be seen from scores of pages' distance.
There is quite a high moral tone to this book. The bereaved character, Jack, had lost his wife in a car crash when she was driving in relation to an assignation with a secret lover. Cate is made to feel wretched for having been the mistress of a married man.
What I found really fascinating was the premise from which this novel had been written, detailed in the author's afterword. This is what saved this book from a solitary star rating. It concerns the locking away of several of the late Queen Mother's relatives who were found to have profound learning disablities. I knew of this slightly, and it has made me want to learn more, especially as she teasingly tells us that one of these ladies is still alive. Now THAT would make a stunning novel!
The central premise is that two damaged characters (one via bereavement, one from being a mistress) are brought together to produce an inventory on a grand country house, and become embroiled in the story of the Mitford-clone sisters who once inhabited it. The 'debutante' of the title is the younger of the two sisters who disappeared and has never been found. Her story is told in a series of flashback letters which the 'mistress' character (called 'Katie' or 'Cate' depending on I know not what) finds in a shoebox in a locked room of the house. The little fronds of plot which spring from this stem do not really develop into anything satisfying. They don't really seem to interweave, and tend to run in parallel. Most of the denouement can be seen from scores of pages' distance.
There is quite a high moral tone to this book. The bereaved character, Jack, had lost his wife in a car crash when she was driving in relation to an assignation with a secret lover. Cate is made to feel wretched for having been the mistress of a married man.
What I found really fascinating was the premise from which this novel had been written, detailed in the author's afterword. This is what saved this book from a solitary star rating. It concerns the locking away of several of the late Queen Mother's relatives who were found to have profound learning disablities. I knew of this slightly, and it has made me want to learn more, especially as she teasingly tells us that one of these ladies is still alive. Now THAT would make a stunning novel!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
the debutante
i picked this up by accident and read it in a day it was lovely the characters are well developed and the setting relaxing i did not want it to end and wanted the characters to... Read more
Published 1 month ago by vanessaws6
Oh dear.
The reviews from newspapers promised an unforgettable read. I found it boring and patchy with underdeveloped characters, a lack of chemistry between the modern-day love interests... Read more
Published 1 month ago by J. D. Litt
Poor characterisation
The characters in the modern period are unbelievable; angst-ridden and irritating. Those in the historical period are like a bad pastiche of the Mitford girls. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Wrenbo
a really nice read...perfect for relaxation!!
The Debutante by Kathleen Tessaro, is a book which I enjoyed. It was a lovely relaxing read with the perfect ending for all the romantics in this world. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Ms P. Wilson
Poor attempt at the 'Country House of Secrets' plot
While the intentions of this book were good, the device of two characters of the present day (drawn very on dimensionally) attempting to uncover a secret of the past, in a... Read more
Published 11 months ago by james-Arundel
Disappointing
Quite disappointed with this book. It was more of a character study, and very lacking in an actual plot. I guess this could be classified as contemporary literature. Read more
Published 12 months ago by K. Alembick
great characters and story but lacked excitement!
When i first started reading the book i had high hopes - especially after reading the first letter to her sister from baby blythe (i enjoyed these letters throughout the book). Read more
Published 12 months ago by G_Chana
Intersting mixture of modern and historical
My wife selected this book to take on holiday, from an author that she hadn't read before.
The style is very similar to Kate Moreton whom she enjoys reading and believes that... Read more
The style is very similar to Kate Moreton whom she enjoys reading and believes that... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Mr BD
Parallel lives past and present.
Cate and Jack, both overcoming failed relationships, are thrown together when they're sent to catalogue items for auction at an old country estate. Read more
Published 20 months ago by RSM
A lovely read
I wasn't at all sure about reading this book. I'd loved Kathleen Tessaro's first book, Elegance, but didn't think her second book was up to much at all. Read more
Published 24 months ago by Nicola
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