Review: The Continuation of Swallowcliffe Hall...
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 8, 2012
Grace's Story continues the tale of the servants of Swallowcliffe Hall. It picks up 24 years after 'Polly's Story', in 1914. WWI is raging and all the young men at the hall as well as the rest of England, are being shipped off to France to fight and die for their country.Just as her mother Polly did over two decades earlier, Grace comes of age while working at the beautiful manor. She begins work in the kitchen but is miserable. She knows it's not what she's meant to be doing and longs to work in the stables with her father. It goes completely against convention, but since all the able-bodied young men have gone to war, Grace gets the chance to prove what she can do. She also finds herself falling for a young man far outside of her class. Everyone makes it clear that there is no way she can be with him, especially her mother, but Grace can't help the way she feels.I really liked this installment of the Swallowcliffe story. Grace is a stubborn girl, but she has a good heart. Her mother Polly is extremely set in her ways, which could be frustrating, but Grace isn't afraid to take the reins when she needs to.We also learn there's a darker side to the mighty Vye family. Lord and Lady Vye are aboard the ill-fated Lusitania on their way back from America when it's torpedoed by a German sub. The outcome is a shock to all of Swallowcliffe Hall, but especially to Grace, who learns of a terrible personality flaw in the revered Lord Vye.Overall I really enjoyed this book. The only reason I'm giving it 4 and not 5 stars is because of the ending. 'Polly's Story' ended a little abruptly, but you weren't left with a million questions. 'Grace's Story' on the other hand was EXTREMELY abrupt. I was left with a whole mess of questions. I'm sure most of them will be answered in the final book, 'Isobel's Story' (which I've already started), but that book is set 24 years in the future, in 1938. Learning about something 24 years later doesn't have quite the same effect as when it's in the present. You lose the emotions of the moment...instead of experiencing things with the characters your just being told an abbreviated version. Aside from this small issue though, I really enjoyed this and highly recommend the series to anyone interested in this time period.