Previously published in paperback under the name Donna Baker.
Cumbria, 1901: aged twenty-one, Joanna has never seen England before. Now her father's death has sent her home from India, back to a country and family she has never known. As she prepares to meet relations of her father for the first time, she must also ready herself to claim her inheritance - and house and working mines in this new land.
But Joanna has brought with her another inheritnace - a knowledge and affinity with the customs and traditions of India, the nation which raised her. And the dreams she has now are not just visions of her past...but they might just become guidance for her future.
As she grows to understand the stories behind the tragic loves and marriages in her family's past she wonders if she will be the one to break the pattern. But answering this question will test her to the limit.
Donna Thomson was born in Gosport, near Portsmouth Harbour, England, UK. Growing up during the terrifying years of the Blitz in a two-up, two-down terraced house, the youngest of four, she aspired to be a writer from an early age.
As a young woman she worked in the Civil Service and moved to Devon to be near her sailor husband. They had a son and a daughter. When the marriage ended, she and her two children moved to the Midlands, where she happily married again to her second husband. After living in the Lake District for twelve years, she finally moved back to Devon, and now lives in a village on the edge of Dartmoor. She lost her son Philip in 2008, and has two grandchildren. A keen walker and animal-lover, she now has a dog and three ginger cats to keep her busy, along with a wide range of hobbies she enjoys.
She started signing her romance novels as Donna Baker and Nicola West, now she also writes as Lilian Harry (inspired by the first names of her grandparents). Among her works are historical novels, romances and even two books giving advice on how to write short stories and novels.
3.5 stars. Would have been 4 stars but I just found it too long. I enjoyed the story very much but, just past halfway, I started skipping landscape and interiors' descriptions.