I am so excited to share my review of Darjeeling Inheritance (The Colonials) by Liz Harris. Thank you to The Coffee Pot Book Club for your invite to take part in the tour.
Darjeeling Inheritance
(The Colonials)
By Liz Harris
After eleven years in school in England, Charlotte Lawrence returns to Sundar, the tea plantation owned by her family, and finds an empty house. She learns that her beloved father died a couple of days earlier and that he left her his estate. She learns also that it was his wish that she marry Andrew McAllister, the good-looking younger son from a neighbouring plantation.
Unwilling to commit to a wedding for which she doesn’t feel ready, Charlotte pleads with Dan Fitzgerald, the assistant manager of Sundar, to teach her how to run the plantation while she gets to know Andrew. Although reluctant as he knew that a woman would never be accepted as manager by the local merchants and workers, Dan agrees.
Charlotte’s chaperone on the journey from England, Ada Eastman, who during the long voyage, has become a friend, has journeyed to Darjeeling to marry Harry Banning, the owner of a neighbouring tea garden.
When Ada marries Harry, she’s determined to be a loyal and faithful wife. And to be a good friend to Charlotte. And nothing, but nothing, was going to stand in the way of that.
I have read a book by Liz Harris before, The Lengthening Shadow (The Linford Series) and although the rest of that series is on my ‘to buy’ list of books (which is incredibly long), I definitely could not pass up the opportunity to read this book when it presented itself. So, I made space for the title on my ‘to read’ list (which is decidedly shorter than the ‘to buy’ list, but also rather long) and found myself counting the number of books I had left before I could read this one.
After spending a miserable eleven years at a boarding school in England, Charlotte Lawrence finally returns to her family’s tea plantation, Sundar, in India to find that her father died suddenly, only two days before she arrived, and that the estate now belongs to her. With such information comes immense shock, and Charlotte struggles to process that her father is gone. It is clear that the estate was left in Charlotte’s name, rather than Charlotte’s mother’s name, as Charlotte’s mother would have simply sold the estate and moved back to England, as she has been longing to do ever since she moved to India. Charlotte shared her father’s passion for the plantation, and he must’ve known that she would do what was necessary to keep the plantation alive and to look after it, to love it, as he had.
But, when Charlotte’s mother gives her an ultimatum, to sell the estate or to marry Andrew McAllister, whose father also owned a tea plantation, Charlotte rebels. She does not want to marry someone she doesn’t know, even if it would guarantee that Sundar would live on. Instead, she turns to Sundar’s assistant manager, Dan Fitzgerald, and asks that he teaches her how to run the estate.
I know very little about the production of tea, even though I drink a lot of it. While I am not sure PG Tips makes their tea as it was made in the 1930s, it was still incredibly interesting. Fun fact: it takes ten thousand lots of two leaves and one bud to create just one pound of tea. At least, it does for the tea they are growing at Sundar! I learnt so much about tea in this book, and, like Charlotte, I was desperate to know more. I loved learning alongside her, and watching over the scenes as Dan shows her the ropes, teaches her about the production of tea, and how all of the different stages worked. Another fact: the leaves produced in autumn have a much more robust flavour!
This book is not without family drama. There are several different dramas, although somehow, they all seem to tie into one, as if they are all a different string and the author is slowly braiding them all together to tie them all up in a lovely knot at the end. The McAllister’s have their own demons, with Mr McAllister’s wife dying from an opium overdose many years previous, and a general uncertainty that the person accused of giving her the drug in the first place was actually the person guilty. The Lawrence’s have their own backstory, and Charlotte’s mother is more than desperate to leave, even going as far as to call her daughter selfish for not wanting to marry someone she doesn’t know. There is another family as well, consisting of Ada and Harry Banning. Ada travelled to India with Charlotte, to marry Harry, and their relationship isn’t all that Ada seems to have been hoping for.
One of my favourite types of evening is, after my small people have gone to bed, my husband and I sit down together, with a hot drink (or an ice cream, it depends on the day). I will read, and he will either sit with his laptop, researching things about cars that he plans to rebuild, even though I have forbidden him to spend money on a car that is BROKEN and DOESN’T WORK and is USELESS, or he will spend the entire evening happily scrolling through Facebook, or will stick on some headphones and watch a movie. I do watch movies with him, but I’m not a big fan of movies that mess with your head, and he loves them. So we do our own thing. I digress. It took me only three evenings to read this book, and all through the day, I would find myself waiting for the evening so I could pick it up again without any interruptions. I also drank copious amounts of tea while reading it, I don’t think I’ve ever drunk so much tea in such a short time frame in my life. It made me want to get a teapot, so I wouldn’t have to get up and reboil the kettle when I had finished a cup, but I would rather spend my money on books instead.
All in all, if you have never read a book by this author, then you are sorely missing out, and should do so immediately. I really enjoyed every second of reading this book, and have added the next book in the series (even though it isn’t out yet) to my ‘to buy’ list.
I get caught up in novels like this and do things related to them like drinking tea. I can have bouts of baking if a book has a food theme too.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you enjoyed Darjeeling Inheritance (The Colonials), I drink a lot of tea too!!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for hosting today's tour stop.
Mary Anne
The Coffee Pot Book Club
Thank you so much for such a lovely review, Bookaholic! I'm so glad that you enjoyed Darjeeling Inheritance, which I loved writing. And a thank you for hosting my book during its tour. Liz x
ReplyDeleteGood luck with getting your husband to behave on the car front. Mine never would, and I have a collection to prove it. I loved your review and the sound of this book. I haven't read this author, so I look forward to reading her work.
ReplyDelete