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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Charming Early Pilcher, May 14, 2004
I don't think that Rosamunde Pilcher could write a bad book, but this, one of her earliest, is one of her best. It has all the wonderful Pilcher elements: the stately old home gone slightly shabby; the wonderfully individual characters (in this case, in Scotland rather than Pilcher's often-used Cornwall venue); the stalwart hero/heroines bearing secret grief in silence. Our heroine, Flora, suddenly finds at age 22 that she has an identical twin from whom she was separated at birth. That twin, Rose, is everything that Flora is not--and does not wish to be. But before Flora can find this out, she is drawn into a ridiculous and dangerous scheme. She will impersonate Rose, who has jilted her perfectly nice fiance Antony, in front of Antony's dying grandmother, Tuppy. Thus begins a fraught journey to the aforementioned crumbling estate in Scotland, a love-at-first-sight meeting with the grandmother, and a week-long charade that brings Flora close to permanent disaster, and changes everyone around her. Of course the reader prays for a happy ending and a nice, bracing cup of hot tea. Simply a gem. If this is a Pilcher you have missed, give yourself a treat and curl up with it at the first opportunity.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Lovely romantic story!, September 12, 2000
I have long maintained that reading a book by Rosamunde Pilcher is like coming home from work and putting on ones' robe and slippers. Both experiences are so warm, inviting and ultimately comfortable. And once again while reading Under Gemini, I had that old feeling that I was being enveloped not only with the wonderful characters but also with the locales that Pilcher describes so well. Trying to put her life back into order, Rose is startled, while dining one evening in London, to see her face looking back at her. Realizing that she has a long lost twin Flora, Rose must at first adjust to the idea of a twin and the circumstances concerning their separation. Then when Flora suggests that Rose spend a few days in her apartment and Flora then must leave for Greece, Rose comes face to face with a man who thinks she is actually Flora. But Flora doesn't reckon with the fact that this man has given her twin a ring and now expects her to accompany him to see his sick grandmother in Scotland. His grandmother who met Flora five years ago wishes to see the more grown up Flora now in case she dies. Having nowhere to live and no job at the moment, Flora decides to go with the young man but has second thoughts when she meets his grandmother and other family members. The rest of the story moves along pleasantly. A real romance is in store for Rose, all loose ends are tied up in the end a la Pilcher style and there is a happy ending. This is a sweet book with lovely characters during a simpler time. Written before Pilcher's best selling books, earlier titles like Under Gemini showed the earmarks of Pilcher's grander books like The Shell Seekers and Coming Home. Lucky for me that while I have read most of Pilcher's titles, I still have saved some of them and now can look forwrd to reading them along with her newest title Winter Solstice.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Cozy as a Cup of Tea, January 17, 2003
Improbability, coincidence and pure fate take center stage as identical twins separated at birth come upon their mirror image quite accidentally while in a London restaurant. After a night spent puzzling through the bizarre circumstances of their lives, jet-setting sister Rose takes off to Greece -- leaving her much more down-to-earth twin Flora to deal with a recently dumped fiancé. Somehow Flora is convinced to accompany the fiancé to Scotland to comfort a grandmother who is supposedly dying. The drama mounts, as does the dishonesty, and Flora finds herself living a life she never imagined. When the house of cards begins to collapse, will the friendships survive the betrayal? And, has the right sister fallen for the wrong man? A bit of a relic, but cozy as a cup of tea on a cold and windy Scottish coast.
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