My lovely husband bought this book for me because I kept forgetting to pick up something new to read. It sounded compelling enough from the back page, and was easy to get into. Unfortunately, it wasn't a great book. The story begins with a mystery in 1913 - a little girl is found alone on a pier in Australia after a ship from England has arrived and unloaded. She doesn't know her name and no one claims her, so the harbour master and his wife take her in and they raise her as their own. They name the girl Nell, and when she is 21 her father spills the beans and tells her that she is not their biological daughter. The story jumps back and forth between 1913, 1975, and 2005 as the mystery of Nell's provenance is revealed through her own travels to England and then her granddaughters efforts after Nell's death. Although it was fun to read about England circa 1913, there was nothing especially interesting or compelling about the storyline or any of the characters other than wanting to know whose Nell's parents were and why she had been given up. If I had to find one word to describe it, I'd use 'blah'.
MY RATING: 4/10.
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