The Glittering Hour

by Iona Grey

Overview

Award-winning author Iona Grey's next unforgettable historical about true love found and lost and the secrets we keep from one another

Selina Lennox is a Bright Young Thing. Her life is a whirl of parties and drinking, pursued by the press and staying on just the right side of scandal, all while running from the life her parents would choose for her.

Lawrence Weston is a penniless painter who stumbles into Selina's orbit one night and can never let her go even while knowing someone of her stature could never end up with someone of his. Except Selina falls hard for Lawrence, envisioning a life of true happiness. But when tragedy strikes, Selina finds herself choosing what's safe over what's right.

Spanning two decades and a seismic shift in British history as World War II approaches, Iona Grey's The Glittering Hour is an epic novel of passion, heartache and loss.

"An absorbing tale of love, loss, and the ties that bind... A sweeping historical saga that captures the desires and dilemmas of the heart." — Booklist

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250066794
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	12/10/2019
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

IONA GREY is the award-winning author of Letters to the Lost. She has a degree in English Literature and Language from Manchester University, an obsession with history and an enduring fascination with the lives of women in the twentieth century. She lives in rural Cheshire with her husband and three daughters.

Editorial Reviews

09/09/2019

A nine-year-old child pieces together clues to her mother’s wild past in this slow-building but dramatic historical tale of love lost and familial secrets uncovered from Grey (Letters to the Lost). In 1936 England, Alice Carew is sent to live with austere grandparents after her parents leave for Burma. Her only entertainment is her correspondence with her mother, Selina, who sends her clues to a treasure hunt that gradually reveals the story of Selina’s life before Alice was born. In 1925, Selina Lennox was one of the “Bright Young People” whose outrageous behavior often featured in gossip columns. Though Selina’s parents urged her to settle down with staid former soldier Rupert Carew, bohemian artist Lawrence Weston captured her heart. Told in a series of extended flashbacks, their romance is vividly drawn and heart-wrenching. Together, Alice and the reader come to understand that Alice’s origins are not what they seem—but that’s not the only secret the family is keeping. The novel’s final twist is a devastating blow that more than makes up for some plodding plotting during the buildup. This sweeping history is sure to be a tearjerker. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for The Glittering Hour:

* A "Must-Read" for PopSugar! *

* A December Recommend from Book Riot! *

"... a riveting historical epic about the choices that haunt us." - Refinery29

"An absorbing tale of love, loss, and the ties that bind... A sweeping historical saga that captures the desires and dilemmas of the heart." — Booklist

"The Glittering Hour is an exceptional novel about choosing how to live amid powerful grief and true love. For readers looking for a tremendously entertaining, emotionally charged story, look no further. The Glittering Hour is just the ticket." — BookPage

"This sweeping history is sure to be a tearjerker." — Publishers Weekly

"This is a deceptively bittersweet tale, a story of loss and discovery covered in flashes of riches and freedom that obscure its melancholy core . . . a heartbreaking but ultimately positive tone that will hit many emotions. And while it is a love story in Selina’s past that we follow and mourn, it’s the relationship between Alice and her parents that takes center stage at the end." — Historical Novel Society

"Vivid and heartbreaking." - Prima (UK)

"Prepare to be swept away on an all-encompassing journey of love, loss and discovery." - Woman & Home (UK)

"I absolutely adored this sweeping novel" - Good Housekeeping (UK)

"... a stunning novel of love, loss and living life to the full. Beautifully written with attention detail in plot and character, this book went straight to my heart, and took me through an array of emotions. I found this evocative of the period, mesmerising in its story and an absolutely fabulous read that I didn’t want to end." - Bookliterati.com (UK)

“An enchanting, evocative read.” – The Sun (UK)

“Emotionally fraught, evocative and redemptive, The Glittering Hour has been well worth the wait. What a superb novel - Iona Grey really is back with aplomb.” – Fiona Mitchell, author of The Maid’s Room


Praise for Letters to the Lost:

“A wonderful story.” —Rosamunde Pilcher, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Shell Seekers

“Grey's engaging, poignant, and romantic debut treats readers to an absorbing story within a story.” —Library Journal, *Starred Review*

“A captivating tale of love and love lost.” —Booklist

“Letters to the Lost pulsates with life, offering a vibrant love story that transcends time and the heartbreak of war. Settle in somewhere comfortable; you are in for an enthralling read.” —Kate Alcott, New York Times bestselling author of The Dressmaker

“[A] powerful debut, one of those rare books that grabs you from the first page and doesn't let go. It's a heart-wrenching, smile-through-the-tears story of love lost and refound - you won't be able to put it down!” —Lauren Willig, New York Times bestselling author of The English Wife and The Ashford Affair

From the Publisher

2019-09-15
A treasure hunt leads a young girl to discover her mother's darkest secret.

In 1936, 9-year-old Alice has been consigned by her mother, Selina Lennox Carew, to the care of her Lennox grandparents at their ancestral stately home, Blackwood Park. The reason for this custodial arrangement is Selina's trip to Southeast Asia with Alice's cold, distant father, Rupert, who needs to visit his ruby mines in Burma. Alice is kept abreast of her parents' travels through her mother's letters, delivered by longtime family servant Polly. Alice is also directed, by Polly, to discover clues set by her mother, leading the girl on a treasure hunt that helps lift her out of her depression. Alice's Blackwood sojourn alternates with chapters set in 1925, when young Selina, age 22, is setting the London tabloids ablaze with her antics as one of a cadre of Bright Young People, devil-may-care upper-class flappers and their escorts. But everything changes when, on a madcap treasure hunt of her own, Selina meets Lawrence Weston, a struggling portrait painter and aspiring photographer. The two are drawn inexorably into an affair. Selina's choice of a passionless marriage to Rupert over life with her soul mate, Lawrence, is the fateful decision on which the novel turns, and her rationalizations will be a little too pat to satisfy most readers. Nor will readers be long baffled by Alice's hunt—given the 1925 backstory, the solution to the puzzle is obvious almost from the start. But genuine surprises do await, even if they entail punishing Selina, after the manner of post-Code Hollywood melodrama, for her breach of class boundaries, disregard for propriety, and unladylike smoking and drinking. The characters verge on stereotypical although there are no true villains and only the domestics lack flaws, particularly Polly and Mr. Patterson, the gardener who introduces Alice to the redemptive joys of nature. However, Grey's use of sensory detail, enlivening the most mundane of scenes, redeems this novel, too.

Flamboyantly written, if a little too conventionally peopled and plotted.

Kirkus Reviews