Unjustly sacked as a lady's maid, Liza returns to Britain penniless. But then she meets rich, spoiled Cecily Spencer, who persuades her to swap identities for a month. Encountering the rich life, she falls in love—but will she lose everything if he finds out who she really is?
Irene Carr impresses me as a writer. I had just finished reading my first book by Carr - Katie's Men - and I followed it immediately with this one. A bit disappointing as it was such a similar plot. (
This book starts with Liza, an unemployed maid, meeting Cecily, a spoiled rich girl. Cecily wants Liza to take her place for a month. Liza is not too keen but circumstances make it a hard offer to refuse. Then the book goes back 21 years and starts with the birth of each girl. nearly 40% of the book is spent on the back story of each girl and many other characters. Some of it is interesting but it seems like overkill.
The writing is in the omniscient voice and very expository. So much so that sometimes it felt more like a lesson. We learn a lot about the duties of household servants. There are more words spent on explaining how coal is loaded on a ship than on Liza's explanation to her love interest. I did not need to count words on this because this all important final love scene is simply not described. No words of love between them are ever written. And this causes the end result to be unfulfilling.
This is a very enjoyable book. The author was able to seamlessly the different characters and their stories into a a very good tale. I highly recommend it.