When Charlotte Lawrence returns home to her father’s tea plantation, Sundar, after eleven years at boarding school in England, she expects a warm welcome, full of hugs, smiles, and people desperate to welcome her home. Instead, when she arrives, she stands on an empty doorstep, with silence surrounding her. It doesn’t take long for the welcome she imagined to be tarnished when she learns that her father died not two days ago.
Full of grief that she will never again talk to her father, Charlotte slowly learns what situation she now finds herself in. Her father changed his will not long ago, leaving the estate in her name instead of his wife’s. With the disbelief that she now owns the place she loves so much, Charlotte is dealt another blow – her two options are either to sell the estate or to marry Andrew McAllister, the son of Douglas McAllister, who owns the plantation next to Sundar. Charlotte’s father and Douglas McAllister had been talking about the union, without telling Charlotte – such a marriage would unite the two plantations, and together, they could weather any storm that came their way.
But Charlotte has just spent eleven years of her life at a school she hated, feeling trapped and counting down the minutes until she could be home and feel free again. Rushing into a marriage with someone she doesn’t know would simply trap her again, and she is not keen to do so, even if it was her father’s wish. Instead, Charlotte has come up with another option – she can learn how to manage the estate herself.
I absolutely adored Charlotte. She has a mind of her own and she does not let others push her around, even if some may try to. She can be naive, and several of the other characters call her so, but she is also incredibly stubborn. If she knows what she wants, she will work as hard as is necessary to achieve her goals. When the idea comes to her mind to run the plantation herself, she goes to Dan Fitzgerald, the estate’s assistant manager, and asks that he teaches her all he knows. He may have reservations about the idea and doubts that the workers would listen to her, let alone the necessary merchants, but Dan agrees to teach her, and he does not sugarcoat the work, nor does he treat her as incapable of doing it, just because she is a woman. As he shows her the different stages of tea production, often getting her out of bed much earlier than she would like, Dan proves that he is dependable, as well as incredibly kind. He goes out of his way to help Charlotte, and I found myself falling more and more in love with him as I read.
This is a novel of drama and intrigue, and there are several characters who, in particular, help to increase those aspects of this novel. Ada Eastman chaperoned Charlotte on the journey back from England, and they became fast friends. But Ada has a past that she would rather keep hidden, and while her marriage to Harry Banning gives her the safety of a married woman, Harry does not satisfy her. I was not the biggest fan of Ada and found myself increasingly disliking her, and for good reason. I will not tell you that reason, though, you must read the book and find out yourself!
Andrew and Charlotte’s marriage may already have been decided for them, but it is not yet set in stone. As Charlotte starts to get to know Andrew, learning more about the man she has been told to marry, she finds that she is not entirely opposed to the idea. As we learn more about Andrew when Charlotte is not around, however, I started to dislike him as well. He doesn’t think of Charlotte as a person of her own mind, but rather as someone he can pretend around, and make her fall in love with him, while he continues doing whatever he wants. Andrew does have a redemption arc, but I had already made up my mind enough about him to properly appreciate this.
Although not entirely at the forefront of this novel, the process of tea production is described in great detail, and it is clear that the author knows everything and anything there is to know about this subject. I think I am rather like Charlotte, desperate to know it all, and if I had the opportunity to learn about the estate as she did, I would certainly take it. I could understand her frustration when people around her didn’t care about the things she was talking about, and I would love to sit down with her and let her tell me all about the tea leaves, and how to know which ones are the perfect ones to pick.
I have read a book by Liz Harris before, and I said in my review that her writing is so absolutely brilliant that I would happily buy and read her books. After reading this book, my views have not changed in the slightest, although there is a slight issue of finding the time to read more books! This novel is an absolute masterpiece, and I cannot wait to read book 2 in the series. I will be counting down the weeks!
Born in London, Liz Harris graduated from university with a Law degree, and then moved to California, where she led a varied life, from waitressing on Sunset Strip to working as secretary to the CEO of a large Japanese trading company.
Six years later, she returned to London and completed a degree in English, after which she taught secondary school pupils, first in Berkshire, and then in Cheshire.
In addition to the ten novels she’s had published, she’s had several short stories in anthologies and magazines.
Liz now lives in Oxfordshire. An active member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and the Historical Novel Society, her interests are travel, the theatre, reading and cryptic crosswords. To find out more about Liz, visit her website at: www.lizharrisauthor.com
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I am so glad you enjoyed Darjeeling Inheritance. Thank you so much for your fabulous review!!
ReplyDeleteMary Anne
The Coffee Pot Book Club
What a truly fabulous review, Beatrice. Thank you so much for the review, and for hosting this leg of the book tour for Darjeeling Inheritance. Liz x
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, I really enjoyed reading it!
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