Customer Reviews

Gilding the Lily

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I really enjoyed this novel. Despite the four hundred some pages, I devoured it in two days.

Sarah and Lily come from a very tense household. Sarah gets herself pregnant and marries Ralph, unknowingly going from the frying pan into the fire. Sarah doesn't realize that Ralph has a cruel, dark side. On top of that, he has a thing for her sister, Lily. Lily wards off his advances not realizing Ralph's determination to get revenge on her. She takes up with his brother John. Meanwhile, family scandal abounds, suffragettes are wreaking havoc in England, her da divorces her mom, and Sarah is dealing with spousal abuse at the hands of Ralph.

Something bad happens and it is bad enough to make Lily leave John despite her strong feelings of love for him. She then boards the Titanic. We all know what happens then. The ship sinks, but is Lily one of the fortunate ones? If, perchance, Lily does get her arse on a lifeboat, will enough sense be shocked into her to go back to her beloved John? Would John even have her back? What would the cruel, conniving Ralph do?

Also of note is a lady friend of Lily's named Ellen. She plays a major role towards the end and has her own traumatic tale told throughout.

The scene in which the Titanic sinks literally gave me goosbumps. However, the Titanic doesn't enter the novel until page 307. As I was most excited about the Titanic aspect (partly due to the back summary mentioning it as well as the picture on the front) I am left feeling just a bit cheated. Despite the advertising, the Titanic doesn't play as big of a role as I had hoped. Still a good story tho.