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    The Debutante: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Debutante: A Novel
    Unavailable
    The Debutante: A Novel
    Ebook386 pages5 hours

    The Debutante: A Novel

    By Kathleen Tessaro

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A brilliant, unforgettable novel by the New York Times bestselling author of The Perfume Collector.

    Can the secrets of one woman's past change another woman's future?

    Cate Albion is a gifted young artist at a crossroads in her life. Looking to escape New York for the summer, she takes a job in her aunt's London auction house and is soon sent on assignment to the English countryside to value the contents of Endsleigh House, the once gracious but now crumbling estate of a former Jazz Age socialite. There, hidden in the back of a dusty bookshelf, Cate discovers an old shoebox, and inside, a peculiar assortment of objects, including an exquisite pair of 1930s dancing shoes; a faded photograph of a handsome young sailor, and a rare Tiffany pearl and emerald bracelet.

    Intrigued, Cate sets out to learn more about the box and its contents, and becomes immersed in the mystery of its owner, Diana “Baby” Blythe, the younger of the infamous, glamorous Blythe sisters. Bright, beautiful, and reckless, Baby was the most famous debutante of her generation . . . until she suddenly disappeared entirely from view.

    As a shocking tale of love and betrayal begins to unravel, Cate finds herself being drawn deeper into Baby's tragic life story—one that will force Cate to confront some dark truths about her own choices.

     

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 5, 2010
    ISBN9780062014313
    Unavailable
    The Debutante: A Novel
    Author

    Kathleen Tessaro

    Kathleen Tessaro is the author of Elegance, Innocence, The Flirt, The Debutante, The Perfume Collector, and Rare Objects. She lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with her husband and son.

    Read more from Kathleen Tessaro

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    Reviews for The Debutante

    3.5/5

    62 ratings12 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Overall I enjoyed this book. I'm a sucker for chick lit books set in England. However, at the end of it, I wanted more. I wanted more closure to the historical story than what I ultimately got.
    • 4/5
      Deeply absorbing
    • 4/5
      Overall I enjoyed this book. I'm a sucker for chick lit books set in England. However, at the end of it, I wanted more. I wanted more closure to the historical story than what I ultimately got.
    • 3/5
      KT is a good story teller. I prefer story endings with all the loose ends tied up. I wish KT had done a better job.
    • 4/5
      A widowed antique dealer and a young artist are brought together over the sale of a country house and the secrets of two enigmatic sisters. The blurb, once again, tempted me into downloading this novel, while the mystery of the beautiful Blythe sisters (who smack of the Mitfords) kept me reading. Jack and Cate's angst and attraction added nothing to the mix, the pair of them thrown together on the rebound. Cate's amateur detection, alongside 'Baby' Blythe's letters from the past, could have carried the story quite successfully without the need to pair Cate off with Jack. The ending also confused me, with the old woman in the home, but I might have stopped paying attention by that point. An atmospheric sense of history and credible, if none too likeable characters, but I would preferred to read more about the Blythe sisters than Cate and Jack.
    • 3/5
      Disappointing - as often it is when I enjoy one book by the author and then try to read earlier books that she/he wrote.
    • 4/5
      Description from Fantastic Fiction:Endsleigh House stands, crumbling and gracious, on the south-west coast of England, its rooms shut up and dusty. But what secrets do they hold? Cate, an exile from New York, is sent to help value the contents of the once-grand Georgian house. Cataloguing its' contents with Jack - a man with his own dark past, she comes across a hidden shoebox containing an exquisite pair of dancing shoes from the 1930s, along with a mysterious collection of objects: a photograph, a dance card and a Tiffany bracelet.Returning to London, rather than face the questions lingering in her own life, Cate immerses herself in piecing together the clues contained in the box to uncover a story, that of Irene Blythe and her sister Diana - two of the most famous debutantes of their generation.The tale that unfolds is one of dark, addictive love, and leads Cate to face up to secrets of her own. Can the secrets of Baby Blythe's past change Cate's own ability to live and love again?My Thoughts:This is what I would call a comfort book. A heartwarming story that is perfect to curl up with.The story is told in the present with snippets to the past told in the form of letters. I found that there was enough in the book to hold my interest to the end and I wanted to turn the pages to see what was going to happen. I did find the ending quite sweet and one could say a little predictable but in this type of book I wouldn’t have wanted an ending any other way.A pleasant, enjoyable read which I would recommend if you want something not too taxing.
    • 4/5
       I really enjoyed this book, which surprised me because after reading the first two chapters, I was a little wary of a story set in England but written by an author who is not ‘a native’. I sometimes find authors that are not born in the country their story is set in, often make numerous mistakes that can ruin the tale. However I soon forgave Tessaro for the tiny omissions in the first couple of chapters as the rest of the book was fantastic and she had clearly done more than enough home work. I was drawn to this book because I love historical fiction, but when I realised it is mostly set in Devon, close to where I live (less than 30 minutes drive away actually) I had to buy it. The description of the area, both past and present was fantastic and very accurate. In fact at one point, a photographer was mentioned as being in business during the 1920/30’s at a certain building in Union Street, Plymouth. I looked up this photographer online and the business did exist exactly at the address noted in the book – a building I have walked past many times without even realising what its history was. It’s little facts like this that make the story all the more enjoyable and real. Although one little niggle – why did the characters always stay at Lyme Regis, another county and a couple of hours drive away? They could have easily stayed at a closer more believable location! As to the characters, although I enjoyed the love story developing between Cate and Jack, it was the hidden story of the Blythe sisters that drew me in and made me want to unravel the secrets of their lives. You have the elder, sensible sister who is well-behaved and deeply religious. She marries well and has to uphold her husband’s important reputation. Then there is the younger sister, the wild, outrageous flapper who loves to party and has no intention of settling down or worrying about how she is perceived by the ‘well to do’ crowd. The fact that part of the Blythe sisters story is told via letters, mostly one-sided, also helps to add to the mystery and suspense of this tale and I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it – especially the slightly unusual ending!Favourite Lines: “I saw Malcolm for lunch……In the end I gave up trying to get a word in edgeways and amused myself instead by thinking of various ways I could kill him using only the objects found on the table…….I’m partuculalry proud of asphyxiation through excessive amounts of mint jelly, dowsing them in brandy then setting them on fire, and the forceful ramming of a napkin down the throat…..I may not have come up with anything wicked to do with a spoon yet but it’s only a matter of time….” (Page 196-7).
    • 4/5
      I truly love stories that have alternating sub-stories taking place within them. And The Debutante is the perfect example of that. With Cate's tale taking place in the present and Baby's story taking place in the past - I loved how both interwove and came together. When Cate is asked by her aunt to assist Jack in cataloguing the contents of Endsleigh House for an upcoming auction - she didn't expect to find a box full of treasures and a mystery that was just too irresistible to pass.Although at first I had some trouble getting into the story - I even put it down for a while, when I picked the book back up I was taken by surprise by how wonderful this story really was. I enjoyed reading of Cate and Jack and how they both begin to accept their pasts and eventually heal using one another for support. But I must confess that my favorite parts were the letters between the Blythe sisters. I could not help but find myself captivated by that treasure box myself. I wanted to know what happened to the missing debutante. I loved the mystery elements of the story and more than once I thought I had it figured out before I was thrown for a loop and had to start the guessing game again.I found Ms. Tessaro's writing enjoyable and her descriptions of London (past and present) were a treat. I especially loved reading of the run-down Endsleigh - as well as the glimpses of its former glory you get from the letters.This was a bittersweet, charming, and mysterious story that, although it had its ups and downs, in the end I found it very enjoyable.
    • 4/5
      This book was delicious. It had a bitter bite here or there (due to my somewhat prudish nature when it comes to certain words) but overall.. such a delicious story.This is the recipe for a delicious story.One part modern romance.One part mysterious débutante.One part old, sad home.One part insanity.Mix all those up together, put a beautiful pink cover on the book and you have the makings of a fun, interesting, sad, heart-warming, intriguing story.What I loved most about The Débutante by Kathleen Tussaro is the insight we're given into the Sisters Blythe, insight that Cate herself is not given as she follows the small leads she has from snooping around. There are short breaks in the story and these breaks are filled with letters written from one sister to the other - and oh, the drama. Letter writing is a form of communication which is so fascinating - for the stories it told and the stories.. it didn't tell (but can be carefully gleaned from between the lines).I just shivered, the story was that perfect.Now, the bitter bite. I can handle some words, but there were some pretty foul words in this story that marred it's beauty, otherwise. Those words were like a nasty jolt to me, as I was dreamily absorbed in reading when they came about. That might be just because I'm a bit of a prude.. but honestly, I think the book would have been much better without them included.
    • 5/5
      I wasn't at all sure about reading this book. I'd loved Kathleen Tessaro's first book, Elegance, but didn't think her second book was up to much at all. I'm glad to say that The Debutante is a return to form for this author.It has all the aspects I love in a novel: two linked stories, set in two different times, a mystery and a love story. Cate, a troubled woman who has returned from a turbulent stay in New York, and Jack, a man who is trying to cope with his grief, are sent to make an inventory of items in a grand house in Devon. Cate discovers a shoebox containing some random objects which she sets out to find out more about. Interlinked with this story is the story from the past of the Blythe sisters, debutantes from the 1930s.I loved how both stories (the Blythe one is only told in letter form) intertwined and how the stories unfolded. And near the end there was a moment when a key part of the story dawned on me and I had to stop reading for a minute to take stock of what it meant for the characters.This is a really lovely read and I enjoyed every second I spent reading it. Kathleen Tessaro would do well to stick to this kind of book, as she really does it well. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      This is an elegant piece of escapist fiction which strives to capture the essence of pre-war London society through the letters of Diana Blythe, a socialite who disappeared in 1941, to her sister, Irene. The sisters are clearly modelled on the Mitford's, Lady Diana Cooper and their ilk and the letters are full of the breezy clichés that interspersed their contemporary correspondence. The letters break up the modern day narrative as Jack and Cate, both bruised by love, value the contents Irene's home, Ensleigh House, for auction. Like Tessaro's other novels this may look like fairly standard chick lit fare, but actually is so much more, as the story is based on an ugly truth at the heart of British society which raises this book above the average.