ROMANCE

The Last Camelia

Plume: Penguin Group (USA). Jun. 2013. 320p. ISBN 9780452298392. pap. $15. F
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In an effort to stave off poverty and men intent on doing her family harm, amateur botanist Flora Lewis in 1940 boards a ship leaving New York on its way to London. Her destination is the English countryside, where she is to take on the role of nanny to the family at Livingston Manor in order to conceal her real purpose: locating and stealing a rare, priceless camellia known as the Middlebury Pink. However, her growing fondness for the children in her charge and her blossoming romance with one of the manor's inhabitants are only two of the distractions that Flora must contend with if she is to resist being sidetracked from her goal. In the present day, garden designer Addison Sinclair has been running from trouble for much of her life, and while she leaves New York under different circumstances, her destination is the same as Flora's. She and her husband, Rex, sense—as did Flora—that there is a mystery at Livingston Manor waiting to be uncovered, but her secrets may catch up with her before she can solve the puzzle.
VERDICT In her fourth novel (after Blackberry Winter), Jio tells the story of two women living in different times who are equally captivated by the mystery surrounding a manor in the English moors. Abrupt breaks and rough transitions aside, Jio's decision to employ dual first-person narratives to reveal the dual plot is a sound one, though this reviewer would have been more interested to see contrasting narrative viewpoints between the two story lines. Particularly for Flora's character, a third-person narrative might have been more effective in creating a sense of the climate during a time fraught with much worry.
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