Despite being overly long and drawn out, it is a great story beautifully written. The sheer joy and excitement of an unexpected and forbidden love. A desire constantly questioned emotionally as real or simply a humiliating delusion. Is this fragile love worth the price of total ruin. Exquisite! ( )

In 1922, a middle class woman and her widowed mother are hard up following the money mismanagement of her deceased father and the death of her two brothers in WWI, so take in a married couple as lodgers. On the face of it, this book appears to be usual Waters' territory, dealing with the burgeoning love affair between the married woman and the daughter of the house. However, there is a massive twist half way through after they consummate their lingering attraction, which I must admit I'd got rather bored with, and the book turns into a crime novel, steering off into very different territory than you expect earlier on. So may not appeal to fans of other Waters' novels. ( )

I got through 167 pages and couldn't go on. There were a few characters I liked, the rest were boring and pretty much one dimensional. Not much happened and the thought of having to read an additional 400 pages was too much ( )

We are introduced to the main characters, a mother and daughter Frances down on their heels, barely able to maintain the stately London house, forced to bring in lodgers, a married couple, Lilian and Leonard. Frances is 28 and calls herself a spinster. She’s had one lesbian affair with an off-beat artist, Christina, that ended when she was unable to fully and openly commit. Having lost her only siblings during the war, she took the conservative road of staying with her elderly mother rather than with Christina.

The lodgers are a class or three below that of the owners, and reading about the difficulties of the blending of two very different couples has its inevitable difficulties. Lilian appears to be unhappy with her husband, but puts on a happy face to the outside world.

For a while nothing much happens. The daughter, Frances and the lodger Lilian embark on a secret lesbian relationship. But other than that, life goes on.There’s a Downton Abbey vibe to the blended household, with the mother bemoaning the impossibility of affording servants, and Frances spending evenings playing boring card games with her mother’s ancient friends.

One evening, instead of playing cards with her mother and her elderly friends Frances “condescends” à la Austen and plays Snakes and Ladders with the lower class paying guests. The husband makes leering jokes about snakes and it is after that, that Frances and Lilly become friends and eventually lovers.

Halfway through the novel the genre, though not the writing style changes. There is a crime, a few Mister Plods, a mystery and to say more would spoil the novel.

Overall it’s a good read. Sarah Waters is such a skilled writer and narrator Juliet Stevenson does a wonderful job on the different London accents. ( )

I enjoyed this book, looked forward to reading it in any spare minute, thought the characters were interesting and the prose lovely, and probably won't be able to tell you the plot in two months (time will tell!). One of THOSE books. I liked it but did not LOVE it. I wasn't sure what to expect from this book as the jacket description was very intentionally vague and was quite surprised on a couple of fronts. In many ways it was a quiet and introspective little period piece (that I expected) but in other ways it was absolutely not. The exploration of gender roles and relationships in this time period was quite fascinating. And the urgency of the final phase of the story and the uncertainty as to the outcome was completely unexpected. If I could I'd give it 3.5 stars. ( )