This book should come with a health warning – you will not be able to get out of bed, nor will you be able to converse with others around you. Reading this book will make you very unsociable, unaware of happenings around you, and you will lose a week of your life – but it’s worth it. Every minute of it!
The Tea Rose is, without a doubt, my absolute favourite book. I first read it years ago while house sitting for my now mother-in-law. She’d jetsetted off to the Mediterranean on a six week cruise – a birthday present from her son, now my husband – dishing out presents like that I wasn’t going to let him get away! Her house was on a farm under the shadows of Mt Pirongia, a beautiful mountain in the heart of the Waikato region of New Zealand. But as beautiful as it was, I quickly found out that country living is not for me. I lasted all of about 26 hours of those six weeks on the farm, before leaving the house sitting duties to husband and returning to my childhood home – in the city!
Yet, I would escape back to the countryside on weekends, and it was one of those days that I spent immersed in The Tea Rose. A captivating historical novel with its beginnings in a Jack the Ripper era of London. A cast of well-developed characters that each has a story of its own, and a perfect mix of danger, intrigue, romance and sorrow. I disappeared for days into the pages of The Tea Rose and several years later, when I’d moved to the magical city of London, I discovered the sequel, The Winter Rose. There went another week of my life!
I'll be sure this is the next book I read. I've not yet finished 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time' by Mark Haddon, which is quite good (totally different theme to this). Have you read it?
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