I’m a fan of author Sarah Jio’s. I adored The Violets of March and Goodnight June. I also like Blackberry Winter, but that novel had
its drawbacks. And as sorry as I am to have to say this so does The Last Camellia.
One of the things that I like about
Jio is that most of her stories have dualing timelines, and this one is no
exception. In 2000, Addison Sinclair’s ugly past is rearing its head. She grew
up tormented in a foster home by a boy who also lived there. Now he is out of
prison and stalking Addison. Luckily for her, her in-laws have purchased an old
estate in England. She convinces her husband that Livingston Manor would be the
perfect place for him to do research for his new novel. It didn’t take much
convincing and within a week the couple is taking up residence at his parents’
new pet project.
The
manor is daunting. It’s huge, with wings and suites. It also comes with a staff
who seems to have been there since the before World War II, especially the
housekeeper, Mrs. Dilloway, who reminded me of Mrs. Danvers from Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca.
Addison, a botanist, is enchanted with the orchard, especially the camellia
trees. When she stumbles upon the late Lady Anna’s old gardening notebooks,
questions begin to rise.
In the dualing time line, Flora, and amateur
botanist, leaves America for England in 1940 under false pretenses. She goes to
Livingstone Manor as a nanny, but in actuality she is searching for the
Middlebury Pink, a famed camellia that is virtually extinct. An international
ring of flower thieves has convinced her to go look for the tree. The thieves threaten
her parents if she doesn’t cooperate.
The
story moves quickly and easily. In the beginning, it was unputdownable. But as
the plot progressed, more and more questions were brought up than were
answered. By the time I finished, I was ready to throw the book across the
room. It was almost Jio got bored, didn’t want to make the novel any longer, or
was on a tight deadline. There are so many unanswered plot points.
Since
I have loved, half hated The Last
Camellia, it gets 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.
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