The Glittering Hour by Iona Grey

1925. The war is over and a new generation is coming of age, keen to put the trauma of the previous one behind them.
Selina Lennox is a Bright Young Thing whose life is dedicated to the pursuit of pleasure; to parties and drinking and staying just the right side of scandal. Lawrence Weston is a struggling artist, desperate to escape the poverty of his upbringing and make something of himself.
When their worlds collide one summer night,  neither can resist the thrill of the forbidden, the lure of a love affair that they know cannot possibly last.
But there is a dark side to pleasure and a price to be paid for breaking the rules. By the end of that summer everything has changed,
A decade later, nine year old Alice is staying at Beechcroft with her distant grandparents, piecing together clues from her mother's letters to discover the secrets of the past, the truth about the present and hope for the future.

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Pages: 480

Iona Grey wowed readers with her first book Letters to the Lost. I know that I am not the only one who has been eagerly awaiting for her to write a new book. Here it is, The Glittering Hour, I can say without hesitation that it is a complete triumph.
Everything is so beautifully done, the story, the characters, the cover, the title. I could not find fault with any of it.
The story takes place between the first and second world wars. England was facing great changes and in some ways, the higher classes of society were hit harder than others. Their way of life was scrutinised and picked apart in a way it had not been before. Socialite Selina Lennox is part of a group known as The Bright Young Things. Along with best friends, Theo and Flick, Selina is often photographed clutching a bottle of vintage champagne whilst falling out of well-known London establishments. We begin to learn the reasons for Selina's behaviour and it becomes clear that she is desperate to break free from the gilded cage that she was born into.
Selina meets Lawrence Weston one fateful night and the course of their lives is altered forever. Lawrence is from a totally different world, a poor artist and aspiring photographer, he struggles to pay his rent and Selina's glamorous world is alien to him. The connection between Selina and Lawrence is instant. He adores her and very quickly uncovers the person behind the tabloids and public perception. In Lawrence, Selina finds someone who loves her as she is without question. He wants the best for her without any pretence or ulterior motive. They embark on a dangerous relationship they they know cannot last and by the end of that glorious summer they are both undone.
Selina goes on to marry Rupert Carew, a friend of her brothers. He is straight up and down, exactly the respectable type of man that Selina's mother expected her to marry. Swapping one gilded cage for another, Selina welcomes a daughter, Alice who she is completely besotted with. The story continues nine years later, Selina is travelling abroad with Rupert and Alice has been sent to Selina's childhood home, Beechcroft to stay with her grandparents. Alice, as Selina did, finds Beechcroft cold and oppressing and she misses her mother terribly. With the help of Polly who has been a faithful maid and companion to Selina; Alice begins sending and receiving letters from her mother in the Far East. Selina wants Alice to know how she came to be and sends her on a treasure hunt. Each clue provides a piece of the story and reveals Selina's past whilst securing Alice's future.
I loved the treasure hunt idea and it tied the two parts of the story together beautifully. The relationship between Alice and Selina is so well portrayed, the little girl provided love in Selina's life when everything else was lost.
I felt that Iona Grey perfectly summed up the time period within the book.

It was a time of such change with shifting attitudes and approaches to life. Country Estates such as Beechcroft begin to fall into disrepair as so many workers did not return from the war or simply chose not to once they had experienced a different way of life. Selina is desperate for change too but as a woman she is constrained by position and value. Her heart wants Lawrence and she pays the price for not being able to follow her true desires.
I can't write anymore without giving away spoilers so I shall stop. The Glittering Hour by Iona Grey had me sobbing by the last few pages. I was so invested in the characters and their lives that I felt a little lost when I reached the final page. The Glittering Hour has been more than worth the wait, I know that it is a book I will visit again and again.

Many thanks to Simon & Schuster for allowing me to read an advanced copy via Netgalley. 

Book Review: Letters to the Lost by Iona Grey

1943, in the ruins of Blitzed London...
Stella Thorne and Dan Rosinski meet by chance and fall in love by accident. Theirs is a reluctant, unstoppable affair in which all the odds are stacked against them: she is newly married, and he is an American bomber pilot whose chance of survival is just one in five.
He promised to love her forever...
Sixty years later Dan makes one final attempt to find the girl he has never forgotten, and sends a letter to the house where they shared a brief yet perfect happiness. But Stella has gone, and the letter is opened by Jess, a young girl hiding from problems of her own. And as Jess reads Dan's words she is captivated by the story of a love affair that burned so bright and dimmed too soon. Can she help Dan find Stella before it's too late?

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Pages: 546

You have to read this book! With a job, stressed husband and a demanding three year old, it is rare nowadays that I stay up until the early hours reading but I simply had to with this book as it was impossible to put down.
I kept on seeing Letters to the Lost popping up on blogs and in magazines and nobody had a bad word to say about it. I remembered that I had a review copy so decided to see what all the fuss was about.
Iona Grey has written a completely brilliant, beautiful, sweeping love story. The book flits between the early 1940s and 2011 and I loved both time periods.
Stella Thorne married Reverend Charles Thorne in 1942. She had been working as his housekeeper which was a huge opportunity after leaving the Poor School. It soon becomes apparent to Stella that their marriage is not to be full of the love and contentment that she had imagined. Charles only wants to spend time with his friend Peter and their wedding night is a disaster. Days after marrying, Charles reveals that he has signed up for the war and before she knows it, Stella's new husband has gone.
Stella, like many women during the war, struggles on and tries to make the most of it. On a trip to London with her friend Nancy, Stella meets American bomber Dan Rosinski and their attraction is instant. Stella falls in love with him and Dan promises that he will wait for her, no matter what happens in the war and her marriage to Charles.
In 2011, Jess Moran is squatting in a deserted house, hiding from her abusive boyfriend. A letter is delivered from Dan Rosinski  saying that he does not have long left and that he is desperate to find Stella; he has been waiting for her for over 60 years. Jess is intrigued and finds many more letters in the house between Stella and Dan; she is intrigued by their beautiful love story and determined to find out what happened to Stella, why didn't she wait for Dan? Jess is soon helped by Will Holt; he works for a firm placing heirs with lost estates and he comes across Jess when he is searching for Nancy Price who he believed was the owner of the house that Jess is squatting in. Will too becomes determined to find Stella and along the way he realises that he wants to help Jess too. He can see how hard her life has been and he wants more than anything to make her happy. As the story goes back and forth we learn more about Stella and Dan's relationship during the war and the circumstances which led to their estrangement.
Letters to the Lost is a book that will stay with me for a long time and I know that it is one I will re-read. The characters are just perfect; two believable and interesting female leads and two very genuine and lovable male characters.
So much is explored in this book; it was particularly interesting to read more about the position of women during the 1940's. Stella and Dan's relationship would have been very different if carried out now. I loved the mirroring of Will and Jess's relationship and I enjoyed reading about them as much as I did about Stella and Dan.
This book really is fabulous, the writing is beautiful and the plot expertly executed. Iona Grey has delivered an excellent debut and is very clearly one to watch out for.

Many thanks to Simon & Schuster for sending me a review copy.