Melissa "Dog/Wolf Lover" Martin's Reading & Ramblings: The Tea Planter's Wife by Dinah Jefferies

Saturday, September 17, 2016

The Tea Planter's Wife by Dinah Jefferies

Nineteen-year-old Gwendolyn Hooper is newly married to a rich and charming widower, eager to join him on his tea plantation, determined to be the perfect wife and mother. But life in Ceylon is not what Gwen expected. The plantation workers are resentful, the neighbours treacherous. And there are clues to the past - a dusty trunk of dresses, an overgrown gravestone in the grounds - that her husband refuses to discuss. Just as Gwen finds her feet, disaster strikes. She faces a terrible choice, hiding the truth from almost everyone, but a secret this big can't stay buried forever . . . @goodreads

MY REVIEW:

3 STARS

I thought this book was okay. It wasn't great and it wasn't bad. But that is just my opinion, others love it and others don't love it and it's all good.

There is a little prologue in the front of the book that had me wondering for a good while. But there comes a time when secrets come out that I finally figured out who the person was and what it was about. It was actually sad.

This story is about 19 year-old Gwendolyn (Gwen) and she marries a wonderful tea planter named Laurence. They meet in London but she soon marries him and moves to Ceylon to his tea plantation. He ends up with two of them and a third on the way.

Laurence has a ton of workers and people that help with the house. It takes a little bit for Gwen to get used to everything. One of the servants named Naveena was very good to her and I liked that character. It turns out there are some secrets about her too.

Let me just go ahead and say there are about a ton of secrets in this book. It's like a mystery trying to figure everything out. I had a big idea of one thing when Gwen has her twins about a year later. I won't go into that though. I will say it is another very, very sad story in the book.

When Laurence and Gwen do get to their home, Laurence starts acting all weird. He pretty much acts bizarre through the whole book.

And, OMG, his freaking sister, Verity! I wanted to drop-kick her off the roof! She was a horrible person. She was constantly up in their faces and in their home. Even when she found home for herself with her husband, she was still up in their business all of the time. But, Laurence didn't do much about it even when Gwen complained. Verity also wanted Laurence to keep giving her money. It isn't any wonder Laurence was bizarre about things. But, he actually did have some things in the past that haunted him, more so on the plantation. His late wife died there, but I'm not going to tell you what all happened there but it's a lot of sadness.

I liked Gwen's cousin Fran and Mr. Ravasinghe. They were very nice people and ended up getting married even though it was frowned upon because she was English and he was Sinhalese. But they didn't care and I don't care so there.

Like I said before, I thought the book was good, but nothing really special. I do think a lot more people will like the book more than me and that's great. I will tell you that it made me want to drink some tea!