The most magical setting of the book in many ways for the way in which it takes you back to the beginning of Flora’s story and her iconic meeting with the famous Beatrix Potter. With parents up in Scotland, she feels alone but also enchanted and fascinated with Mrs Keppel and life in Portman Square Cumbria Life here is a whirlwind of parties and scandal and poor Flora is unsettled and shocked at what she is brought into. The city really comes to life however in Flora’s story as she goes to live with the very real Mrs Keppel who was a woman in Edwardian society well known for her affair with the King of England! Other figures of note are woven into the novel – the very high flying members of the elite London circles such as Vita Sackville West and her family. It feels and smells real and the shivers of excitement when you realise that Flora has access to all these rare books and the diaries of someone who could very well unlock her future. Īs Star learns more of Flora’s incredible journey, she too goes on a voyage of discovery, finally stepping out of the shadow of her sister and opening herself up to the possibility of love.Īh where the magic is, and where the wonderfully crafted and recreated Arthur Moreston Book store is located. Flora is pulled between passionate love and duty to her family, but finds herself a pawn in a game – the rules of which are only known to others, until a meeting with a mysterious gentleman unveils the answers that Flora has been searching for her whole life. She is happy and secure in her home in the Lake District, living close to her idol, Beatrix Potter, when machinations outside her control lead her to London, and the home of one of Edwardian society’s most notorious players, Alice Keppel. Ī hundred years earlier, headstrong and independent Flora MacNichol vows she will never marry. In desperation, she decides to follow the first clue she has been left, which leads her to an antiquarian bookshop in London, and the start of a whole new world.

He has left each of them a clue to their true heritage, but Star – the most enigmatic of the sisters – is hesitant to step out of the safety of the close relationship she shares with her sister CeCe. Star D’Aplièse is at a crossroads in her life after the sudden death of her beloved father – the elusive billionaire, named Pa Salt by his six daughters, all adopted by him from the four corners of the world.

The shadow sister