The Finishing Touches [Paperback]

Hester Browne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 23, 2010

A fading English finishing school gets a twenty-first-century makeover in this "modern-day fairy tale" (Romantic Times) from New York Times bestselling author Hester Browne, whose sparkling novels are "charming and feel-good" (Cosmopolitan).Twenty-seven years ago, an infant turned up on the doorstep of London’s esteemed Phillimore Academy for Young Ladies. Now, Betsy Phillimore returns to the place where she was lovingly raised by Lord and Lady Phillimore, only to find the Academy in disrepair and Lord P. desperate to save his legacy. Enter Betsy with a savvy business plan to replace dusty protocol with the essentials girls need today: cell phone etiquette, eating sushi properly, handling credit cards, choosing the perfect little black dress, negotiating a pre-nup, and other lessons in independent living. But returning to London also means crossing paths with her sexy girlhood crush . . . and stirring up the mystery of who her parents are and why they abandoned her. Will the puzzle pieces of her past fall into place while Betsy races to save the only home she’s ever known?

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A delicious, entertaining book!" -- Sophie Kinsella

About the Author

Hester Browne is the New York Times bestselling author of The Little Lady Agency, Little Lady, Big Apple, The Little Lady Agency and the Prince, and The Finishing Touches. Born in England, she studied English at Trinity College, Cambridge. A devotee of Scottish reeling, vintage-clothes hunting, and cryptic crosswords, she lives in London and Herefordshire with her Basset hound Violet. Visit her at www.simonandschuster.com/hesterbrowne.

Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Gallery Books; Reprint edition (March 23, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416540083
• ISBN-13: 978-1416540083
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #316,945 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It's all very nice, but there's not much going on..., July 9, 2009

By 

cmp (Merrimack, NH USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Finishing Touches (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

I really wanted to love this book. I love Brit chick lit - set a story in London and you've got my interest immediately. And there is nothing horrible about this book, but there's just not very much going on at all.

Betsy is sweet. Bone-deep sweet. It's easy to like her, but there's just not much more there. She's not terribly funny, she's not tragic, she's not even really struggling financially or anything interesting. There are hints that her personality changed some at 18, but it sounds like she went from being much more fun to pretty boring, and since the book is set in the "now", well...

In fact, NONE of the characters have an edge of any sort. The best friend is a little flaky, but not ridiculous. The 18 year old girls at the finishing school might act edgy, but are really sweet underneath. There is no villain - or, if there are supposed to be, in the current headmistress or a former pupil/femme fatale - they are so mild as to not cause any real worries.

Betsy's search for her birth parents is lukewarm at best. I think she's right about her "new classes" (I'm trying not to give anything away that's not in the blurb on amazon.com here) but even that doesn't lead to a ton of conflict.

There's a bit of a romance, but it's nothing torrid, depressing, or funny.

The dialogue is well-written, the settings are well-drawn, the characters are easy to picture, the writer's grasp of grammar and good writing style are there - which is worth the 3 stars to me - but there's just not enough plot or emotion going on. I don't normally love what I'd call "book club books" full of depression, or at the least self-conflict, but I would have still preferred that to this. I don't know even how I'd describe this book. It's not exactly a romance, it's not very comedic, it's not deep... I don't know what it is. I found myself putting this book down after every chapter, frankly because I was just getting bored with it.

As I said, it's perfectly pleasant, but it's nothing but a beach read. Even for that, it's lacking drama or any other full-scale emotion to draw you in. It's just missing that "wow" factor for a great book.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars As delicious and flavourful as marmalade from Harrod's, June 29, 2009

By 

Elizabeth G. Melillo "gloriana" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Finishing Touches (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

Not, mind you, that I ever was able to do more in Harrod's than visit the expensive toilet - but, since the abandoned baby of the first page is left in a Harrod's marmalade box, I thought it an appropriate reference. :) The wit and cleverness of this delightful book made it a treat I gobbled down quickly, with laughter, wistfulness at times, and occasionally deep compassion.

Hester Browne's gift for expression is superb. The descriptions are subtle but exceedingly humorous. There also is an underlying fact, which would have affected the upper classes even more than most, that London has changed immensely in the past twenty years, and that, even at the time of the 'marmalade box baby,' the customs described were preserved by few. Images of women in 1980 learning Victorian customs about how to accept and decline marriage proposals and dine with royalty are a hilarious contrast to their counterparts just two decades later.

Incidentally, some of the advice from the finishing school is not a bad idea at any age.

The book is a cut above what normally falls into the 'chick lit' category. It has an underlying, subtle wisdom that rises it above the usual fare. Few authors in that genre have Hester's ability with the language - and of capturing much of human nature, warmth, weakness, and hope in the process.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun, October 15, 2009

By 

BostonJen "jensch" (Norton, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Finishing Touches (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

I really enjoyed this story; it captured me right from the beginning, but that may be just because I really wish I had been dropped off at a finishing school as a baby. I love the ladylike advice strewn through the story. This is my first Hester Brown book, but it will not be my last. She has a nice flowing tone to her writing. Great for relaxing on the couch!