The Gilded Lily

Beauty is skin deep. Blood runs deeper. Winter, 1661. In her short life Sadie Appleby has never left rural Westmorland. But one night she is rudely awoken by her older and bolder sister, Ella. She has robbed her employer and is on the run. Together the girls flee their home and head for London, hoping to lose themselves in the teeming city. But the dead man's relatives are in pursuit, and soon a game of cat and mouse ensues amongst the freezing warren that is London in winter. Ella is soon seduced by the glitter and glamour of city life and sets her sights on the flamboyant man-about-town, Jay Whitgift, owner of a beauty parlour for the wives of the London gentry. But nothing in the capital is what it seems, least of all Jay Whitgift. Soon a rift has formed between Ella and Sadie, and the sisters are threatened by a menace more sinister than even the law. Set in a brilliantly realised Restoration London, The Gilded Lily is a novel about beauty and desire, about the stories we tell ourselves, and about how beng a sister can be both a burden and a saving grace. "It's hard to say why you find a novel unputdownable, but I've just spent about 4 hours curled up with the second half, and there was no way I was not going to finish it today!" "The story line, like a meandering river, was full of unexpected twists and turns which enchanted me and made it very hard to put down." "Brilliant. a cracking good read couldn't put it down, exciting from beginning to end the author really brought the characters to life." "I enjoyed this one particularly as it has a different and engaging storyline. It was another book I couldn't put down...read in a day and enjoyed the characters and storline immensely."