Without Charity

Frankly, I loved this book, even though it annoyed me to no end! The beginning of the chapters were somewhat tedious and a bit boring, but by the chapter's end I was on the edge of my seat, hardly able to read fast enough. Then the chapters ended with some of the finest cliff-hangers I've ever seen and switched perspectives to either Charity or Sarah. At the end of every chapter I was screaming "No, no! Don't go back to Charity, what happened to Sarah?!" or "What? No don't stop! I want to see what happened with Charity!". It made it impossible to stop reading. This book is wonderful, suspenseful, mysterious, and overall heart-warmingly hopeful. This was the first time I'd ever read a book like this and I most certainly haven't regretted it. The characters were fresh, unique, and they felt like real people to me. Alex and Stephen were amazingly fun and my two favorite characters. Everyone mentioned had a part to play and played it flawlessly. Michelle Paver has outdone herself here.

I have been reading too many romances recently, and decided to switch to a more novelistic romance. WITHOUT CHARITY is a find, and I would definitely read more by this particular author, a former author who now writes children's fiction (The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness). This is a story about an interesting Victorian-era house and estate, about the impact of family secrets over generations, and a historical mystery. Readers who enjoy books about family history research might enjoy this book in particular. Brief summary: WITHOUT CHARITY, Michelle Paver's first novel, is a story about family secrets that cuts between two different time periods and two different generations. Through the lives of an English aristocrat and his possible mistress, and through the life of their descendant, Paver describes how a cross-class romance comes about and affects later generations. Yet that romance is not what it is believed to be by the lord's contemporaries (and neighbors). A historical mystery must be solved before the truths behind the apparent facts come to light. The book is well-written, the plot interesting, and the characters complex and well-detailed. The only problem is that the generation in between is less strongly portrayed (and their actions harder to believe). Setting: The story switches between the Late Victorian and Edwardian era (roughly 1900-1905) and the modern era (mid-1990s by my reckoning), and is set in southern England. Longer review: In the space of two weeks, a thirty-five year old TV producer Sarah Dalton has lost her live-in lover (Dominic Hardy, a divorced barrister) and her job. She has fallen ill with pneumonia and spends the next two months with her mother in Coventry. Her boyfriend's younger brother Alex Hardy offers her a job - researching and producing the history of a house and estate now owned by an American university. The house itself is a bizarre monstrosity created in the High Victorian period (1850s-1860s) by the eccentric grandparents of the last two barons. Sarah accepts the job reluctantly, disliking the idea of producing an "Upstairs Downstairs" (which appears to mean a sepia-tinted view of the British aristocracy) for an American audience. She also fears further contact with Dominic through his brother Alex. However, she accepts the job on the advice of her brother Nick. As she researches the background of Harlaston Hall and its titled occupants, she also starts looking into her own family background. Her father Julian Dalton died when she was 16 or 17, and never spoke of his background because of his Socialist wife. Sarah and Nick grew up knowing almost nothing about their paternal grandparents who died decades before. She knew that her paternal grandmother was somehow connected with the Pearce-Stauntons, the aristocratic Lords Harlaston, of Harlaston Hall. While trying to find out more about her grandmother, she discovers several layers of family secrets. Her search for her missing grandfat