Midnight Rose
A spellbinding tale of family secrets, sacrifice and the everlasting power of love, set across multiple time periods and around the world. From Lucinda Riley, the internationally bestselling author of the Seven Sisters series.
'Captivating . . . Ideal for a book club' – Daily Mail
India, 1911. Anahita Chavan, from a noble but impoverished family, forms a lifelong friendship with the headstrong Princess Indira, the privileged daughter of Indian royalty. Becoming the princess's official companion, Anahita accompanies her friend to England just before the outbreak of the Great War. There, she meets Donald Astbury – reluctant heir to the magnificent Astbury Estate – and his scheming mother.
Eighty years later. Rebecca Bradley, a young American film star, has the world at her feet. But, when her turbulent relationship takes an unexpected turn, she's relieved that her latest role, playing a 1920s debutante, will take her away from the glare of publicity to the wilds of Dartmoor, England. Shortly after filming begins at the now-crumbling Astbury Hall, Ari Malik, Anahita's great-grandson, arrives unexpectedly, on a quest to explore his family's past.
As Rebecca and Ari begin to unravel the dark secrets that haunt the Astbury dynasty, what they discover will change everything . . .
Five-star reader reviews:
‘Wow! What a wonderful story, recommend it to take you away into another world (or two)’
‘I was completely drawn into the story with its twists and turns and wonderful descriptions of life in India as well as Devon’
‘This is a book that reveals itself slowly to the reader. It is a story of love and loss and everything in between, but those words alone are not enough to describe how utterly mesmerising this book is’
‘Once again she weaves magic through her writing and transports the reader through decades and emotions’
Lucinda Riley was born in 1965 in Ireland and, after an early career as an actress in film, theatre and television, wrote her first novel aged twenty-four. Her books have been translated into thirty-seven languages and continue to strike an emotional chord with cultures all around the world. The Seven Sisters series specifically has become a global phenomenon, creating its own genre.
Her books have been nominated for numerous awards, including the Italian Bancarella Prize, the Lovely Books Award in Germany and the Romantic Novel of the Year Award. In 2020, she received the Dutch Platinum Award for sales over 300,000 copies for a single novel in one year – a prize last won by J. K. Rowling for Harry Potter.
In collaboration with her son Harry Whittaker, she also devised and wrote the Guardian Angels series of books for children.
Though she brought up her four children mostly in Norfolk, England, she fulfilled her dream in 2015 of buying a remote farmhouse in West Cork, Ireland, which she always felt was her spiritual home, and this was where her last five books were written.
Lucinda was diagnosed with cancer in 2017 and died on 11 June 2021, surrounded by her family.