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    The Other Daughter: A Novel
    The Other Daughter: A Novel
    The Other Daughter: A Novel
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Other Daughter: A Novel

    Written by Lauren Willig

    Narrated by Nicola Barber

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    From Lauren Willig, author of the New York Times bestselling novel The Ashford Affair, comes The Other Daughter, a tale full of deceit, passion, and revenge.

    Raised in a poor yet genteel household, Rachel Woodley is working in France as a governess when she receives news that her mother has died suddenly. Grief-stricken, she returns to the small town in England where she was raised to clear out the cottage...and finds a cutting from a London society magazine, with a photograph of her supposedly deceased father dated all of three months before. He's an earl, respected and influential, and he is standing with another daughter -- his legitimate daughter. Which makes Rachel...not legitimate. Everything she thought she knew about herself and her past -- even her very name -- is a lie.

    Still reeling from the death of her mother, and furious at this betrayal, Rachel sets herself up in London under a new identity. There she insinuates herself into the party-going crowd of Bright Young Things, with a steely determination to unveil her father's perfidy and bring his -- and her half-sister's -- charmed world crashing down. Very soon, however, Rachel faces two unexpected snags: she finds that she genuinely likes her half-sister, Olivia, whose situation isn't as simple it appears; and that she might just be falling for her sister's fiancé...

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateJul 21, 2015
    ISBN9781427261687
    The Other Daughter: A Novel
    Author

    Lauren Willig

    Lauren Willig is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Band of Sisters and Two Wars and a Wedding, plus four popular historical novels cowritten with Beatriz Williams and Karen White. An alumna of Yale University, she has a graduate degree in history from Harvard and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. She lives in New York City with her husband, two young children, and lots and lots of coffee.

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    Reviews for The Other Daughter

    4/5

    33 ratings18 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I loved this book!
      The story was wonderful and the narration was perfect!
      Highly recommend!
    • 5/5
      The author of the fabulous Pink Carnation Napoleonic War spy series has once more written a stand alone book. This one is set in the 1920s and features Rachel Woodley whose beloved father, a botanist, died abroad when she was four. She and her mother moved to a cottage in a small English town and her mother supported them by teaching piano. Once Rachel was old enough, she took jobs as a governess in France. She's now twenty-seven and one night finally receives the telegram from home that has been lying around for days that says her mother has the Spanish Influenza. Rachel's best friend's husband is the town doctor, and she knows he will do what he can for her, but she knows he probably has lots of other patients and her mother is all she has left in this world. She asks her boss, Madame, if she can take a week off to see to her mother and when she says no, Rachel quits.When she arrives home, Alice tells her that not only has her mother died, but they buried her yesterday. She was never able to say goodbye to her. To top it off, the man who rented the cottage to her mother is kicking her out. While grieving her mother in her room, she discovers a gossip magazine picture of Edward, Earl of Ardlemore, escorting his affianced daughter out on the town. The man is the spitting image of her father, right down to the tiny scar on the chin. She compares the picture to the ones her mother had of him and the resemblance is remarkable. She knows it could not have been him because her mother would never have had an affair with a man without being married to him.Rachel goes to see her cousin David, a scholar in Oxford, who has looked after the two of them over the years. She shows him the picture and demands an explanation. David is forced to tell her that the man is indeed her father. He did not die. It seems to her that he left them to marry an heiress and go on to have two children, Olivia and then Jicksy, and that she is a bastard. Rachel is furious and wants revenge and an explanation and what else she is not really sure of. As she is leaving David's office, a man comes in. It is Simon Montfort, who is related to her father's family in a very distant way. The family tree is rather huge and goes back to the Norman invasion. He is on the outs with the family now, and his father has refused to have anything to do with him after his rather wild mother ran off with an Italian. His mother is in America with a daughter she had with husband number four. Simon works as a "gossip columnist" for a local rag.He hatches a plan for Rachel to get her revenge and for him to get one over on the "Bright Young Things" and the family by introducing a "distant cousin" from France, who is fashionable, but not so fast that she won't be able to get an invitation to visit with Olivia and get an invitation to the country home where Jicksy's twenty-first birthday will be held and she can confront her father. Vera Merton is now born, with a short, cute haircut and clothes borrowed from his sister, she moves into his mother's place in town. Slowly he begins to introduce her to the fringes of society, where she charms many by mainly just saying what she thinks, which they find incredibly witty and she becomes wildly popular, especially with Simon's cousin, Cece, and Olivia's fiancé, who is a representative in the government, and on the rise.Rachel discovers that she cannot hate Olivia, as much as she wants to, especially when she sees how badly Olivia life is in reality. Simon warns Rachel that there are rules and mores in society and that she cannot afford to mess up. She tells him she knows which fork to use, but finds out later, that what he meant was something much deeper. These people have known each other all their lives and know their intimate secrets. Things that Rachel does not know, such as a secret Simon has been keeping from her that she believes is the reason he really wanted to embark on this scheme.Rachel finds herself shocked at how easily she is slipping into the decadent life and shedding her "bourgeois" self and fitting in with these people. After glimpsing at her father, she's not sure what she wants from him: to sweep her up in his arms and welcome her to the family, give her the truth about what happened, apologize, or pay for what he did.Simon is extremely witty, which hides a tortured soul that he wants no one to know about. He and Rachel banter back and forth like two people from an Oscar Wilde play. The dialogue in this book is fabulous and the story is very original and captivating. There are many secrets and you will have to get to the end of the book before you find out about all of them. Willig, as usual, keeps you on the edge of your seat, as Rachel as Vera, whirls through society, nearly losing herself in the process and learning more about life than she expected to ever learn.QuotesHistory did strange things when one played with it.--Lauren Willig (The Other Daughter p 13)There was something about dawn, about the right sort of dawn, that made all the frights of the night seem so much nonsense.---Lauren Willig (The Other Daughter p 14)If I waited to be invited, I would never go anywhere at all.--Lauren Willig (The Other Daughter p 47)Life is a cheap trick.--Lauren Willig (The Other Daughter p 59)No sin is original, no matter what the Bright Young Things may hope. We’re all merely playing to a theme.--Lauren Willig (The Other Daughter p 72)‘Let me guess’ said Rachel, a little too loudly. ‘You’re writing a novel.’Simon glanced down at her. ‘And stain these precious fingers with ink? I don’t like getting my hands dirty.’‘Fine words from a gossip columnist.’ Rachel taunted.‘Ah, but there’s the difference. I expose the weakness of others. Not my own…One can’t write a novel without stripping one’s soul. Really when you think of it, the entire endeavor is quite indecent.’--Lauren Willig (The Other Daughter p 82)Oh, we’re all complicit…The whole rotten lot of us. But if Roman is burning, why not light a cigarette in the flames.--Lauren Willig (The Other Daughter p 83)I’m no madder than anyone else I know, which isn’t saying terribly much.--Lauren Willig (The Other Daughter p 83)Why should one chronicle life when one can live it?--Lauren Willig (The Other Daughter p 92)We’re all liars, my sweet. Some of us are simply better at it than others.--Lauren Willig (The Other Daughter p 93)‘For centuries, we have grappled with the baser parts of our nature.’‘Maybe you do…I like to cosset mine and take it out for tea.--Lauren Willig (The Other Daughter p 110)War is a gutter game, not a gentleman’s sport.--Lauren Willig (The Other Daughter p 111)An opinion is a dangerous thing to have.--Lauren Willig (The Other Daughter p 116)
    • 4/5
      Wonderful entertainment for summer reading — an engaging story that avoids storytelling cliches while exploiting those of the upper class in England. I recommend it.
    • 5/5
      I LOVED this book. The characters are wonderful, relate-able people and even now, 6 months after finishing, I continue to think about it. I know that this is meant as a stand-alone, but I truly feel these are the best characters that Lauren has written since the Pink books began. I truly hope at some point I get an additional novella or something. Any fan of historical fiction or chick-lit needs to read this one.
    • 4/5
      Unexpected!Set between the wars 'The Other Daughter' occasionally brought a near tear to my eye. Certainly far more going on here than at first glance.After her mother's death, Rachel Woodley finds out that her father is not dead as she has been told all her life. Neither is he a botanist. Far from it. He is an Earl with a family. That makes Rachel illegitimate. Rachael is determined to confront him, to find out where the loving man she'd supposed dead had gone to.But should Rachel in the guise of her alter ego Vera Merton, 'Walk away...leave her father to his other life. Pretend that she and her mother had never existed?'Gossip journalist Simon Montfort (and cousin of some sort it seems) offers her his assistance. But what are his motives? Does Rachel have what it takes to blaze her way through the razz-m-tazz of the bright young society things, into the home of her father?And what of Rachel's Uncle David? He after all is her father's brother. Secrets within secrets are waiting to be exposed. A rewarding and different read.A NetGalley ARC
    • 5/5
      It sucked me right in. Hoping that Olivia gets her own story. I want to know what happens to her too.
    • 4/5
      3.5 starsWhat I most enjoyed about this book was that it takes place during the Roaring Twenties. The plot is quiet fun and interesting. Rachel is raised by her mother and becomes a governess to support herself. After her mother dies, she discovers that her real father is alive and is an earl.With the help of a new found friend, she masquerades as Vera Merton and submerges herself into the rich, party-going life of the "Bright young things." It is here she meets her half-sister and discovers that things may not seem they way she thought first thought. This story has a bit of revenge, deceit, and a dash of romance. I loved the way the author captured to lingo and talk of the party-going crowd of the rich and famous who seemed to have nothing but time on their hands with never a thought of the working class. Fun to read. I received an e-book via Netgalley.com.
    • 3/5
      Despite an annoyingly self-obsessed heroine, still a decent holiday read.
    • 2/5
      Historical bit of fluff. Fun, but didn't learn much.
    • 4/5
      The dialogue in this book is brilliant, witty, and sharp. The plot initially seems rather predictable, but takes several unexpected turns as it develops. And if I suspected where it landed in the end, it may have been largely due to another book I read recently which involves similar elements. In any case, this story is a delight.
    • 5/5
      This was a great listen to Audio book. It had everything, roaring 20's England, aristocrats, family secrets and a good love story. Rachel, the daughter of a single working mother and governess to an aristocratic family in France is telegrammed that her mother is very ill. Being denied a temporary leave, she is discharged when she insists on going to her mother. A day journey back to their home in a little village in England, she is too late, her mother has died. Losing her mother and finding out that their home is being rented to someone else, Rachel is very distraught. Crying on her mother's bed, she discovers a folded paper from the "Tattler", a photo that resembles her long deceased father, an earl with his daughter. So similar to her father, down to the scar on his chin. Rachel's world comes tumbling down around her. Her father, a botantist died when she was only 4yrs old - she never saw his body, as he was on assignment in a far way land... only did he really die, or had he left her and her mother? Was she an illegitimate child of a mistress and Earl union? Rachel set's off to Oxford to find answers from her only relative, Cousin David and is shocked and horrified that he knew and hid the truth from her all these years. Encountering a gossip journalist in her cousin's office, she learns that this obnoxious man also has some motive to help her, and not for a juicy story. Rachel makes a decision to go to London and confront the Earl. Along the way, there are many twists and turns as she learns the truth. Great twists, filled with family secrets and unexpected love. Definitely a good read!
    • 3/5
      The Other Daughter by Lauren Willig is an historical romance novel set in 1927. Rachel Woodley is a governess for the three children of the Comtes de Brillac in France. She receives a telegram (four days after it was sent because of a horrible valet) that her mother is ill with the influenza and she needs to return home immediately. Since her boss refuses to let her leave (can you imagine), Rachel is forced to quit her job and head home immediately. Unfortunately, she is too late. Her mother passed away and was buried the day before (that is just rude)! In her mother’s room Rachel discovers a picture of man that looks like her father on the cover of the Tatler (gossip rag). Rachel had been told that her father passed away twenty-three years previously when she was four years old. Is this man really her father? It states his name is Edward Standish, Earl of Ardmore. Rachel thought her father was Edward Woodley, a botanist.Rachel goes to her Cousin David for answers. Turns out that Cousin David is related to her father, not her mother. Rachel’s father is very much alive. Edward was the second son of the Earl and grew up with Katherine and David. Edward and Katherine fell in love. When Edward’s elder brother (Marcus) died, Edward had to step up. In order to save the estate (Edward’s father did not manage it well), Edward needed to marry an heiress. So one night Katherine took Rachel and disappeared (but what was Edward told). Rachel is offered an opportunity to get into society and meet her father. Turns out she has a half-sister and half-brother as well. Simon Montfort is a gossip columnist for the Daily Yell. He offers to help Rachel. He gives her a new name (Vera Merton) with a backstory that she is a distant cousin (he has a lot of cousins) that has been taking care of her mother in France. Simon gets her a wardrobe (from his sister who is in America), a flat to stay in (his mothers who is also in America), and a new hair style (flapper look). Simon then starts taking her out to parties. Rachel decides she wants to get revenge on her father. Rachel believes that he has ignored her the past twenty-three years. Will Rachel be happy when she finally gets answers? Rachel meets her half-sister, Olivia and her fiancé, John Trevannion (a politician). Olivia is very quiet and under the thumb of her domineering mother (she is an awful woman). Rachel is setting herself up for disappointment. She is getting a chance to see how the other half lives. How she would have lived if things had turned out differently for her parents. Rachel also gets a chance at love if she decides to pursue it. I liked The Other Daughter, but did not love it. It was a very cliché novel. I knew what was going to happen, but I kept hoping for a twist (I was disappointed). The writing is in a nice, conversational style which makes The Other Daughter easy to read. I give The Other Daughter 3 out of 5 stars. I received a complimentary copy of The Other Daughter from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The review and opinions expressed are my own.
    • 4/5
      The Other Daughter by Lauren WilligSt. Martin's Press, 2015Fiction (Historical/Romance); 304 pgsSome of you may have heard the story about how I ended up with a copy of this book. It was a birthday gift from my daughter who was very clear in her instructions to my husband about what she wanted to get me: A "real" book ("real" meaning a paper copy and not an e-book) with no pictures and something blue. My husband wisely checked out my Amazon wish list before settling on Lauren Willig's The Other Daughter.The Other Daughter, set in the Jazz Era, is the story of Rachel Woodley who has made her life as a nanny to a wealthy family in France. When she learns of her mother's illness, she rushes home to England to see her. A newspaper clipping among her mother's things reveal that Rachel's father, who she had long thought dead, may actually be alive--and not only that, but that he isn't who she always thought he was. He in fact is an Earl and quite well respected in the political community. He has another family, including a daughter. As she grieves for her beloved mother and tries to make sense out of her recent revelation that she may be an illegitimate child, Rachel travels to London. There, along with the help of a gossip columnist with a motive all his own, Rachel takes on the persona of Vera, and insinuates herself into the high society of London with the hopes of learning more about her father and his family and to confront him about the lie that was her childhood.This was such a delicious read! I admit to not agreeing with Rachel at every turn, but I liked her just the same. She clearly isn't always thinking straight, caught up in her grief, anger and confusion. She finds herself all too easily fitting into the fast life of high society, and yet there's a part of her that knows she does not quite belong. Rachel lives in a time when being born out of wedlock carries a huge stigma--the scandal of her existence could put a big black mark against her father.I loved the setting, the atmosphere, and the people. For all the drinking and partying, there are also close bonds, secrets and hardships. It gets harder for Rachel to deceive her new friends--for they truly do become her friends. Each of the characters are more than at first they may seem, with their own backstories. Simon, the journalist, intrigued me in particular--I wasn't sure, like Rachel, whether to trust him or not.While I enjoyed this book quite a bit, there were aspects of it that left me wanting. As I mentioned previously, I didn't always agree with Rachel's choices and there were a couple instances when I was left scratching my head. As for Simon, I did not fully buy into his initial motive for helping Rachel become Vera--I am not sure why exactly, but the pieces just didn't fit as nicely together as other parts of the story.I especially liked how everything played out, how not everything was perfectly wrapped up, and yet seemed just right for the characters, especially Rachel. Rachel's lies do have an impact on those around her, not to mention putting her in some very rough spots. This isn't a fairy tale in which the heroine is embraced despite everything. The weight she feels and the reaction of those around her--the consequences on her action--feel realistic. And it made me love the book even more.The Other Daughter has the feel of being a light read and yet it tackles some rather heavy issues. There are comic moments and rather tearful ones. There is plenty of drama and a bit of romance with a hint of mystery. I quite enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more by Lauren Willig in the future.
    • 4/5
      This time period is a favorite. Ive been binging on Downton Abbey so the cover caught my eye right off the bat. I havent read Lauren Willig before (crazy, right?) leaving me with no comparison from her back titles. I am impressed and will definitely explore her earlier works.The Other Daughter (I keep calling it The Other Sister...*pardon my mnemonic brain hiccup*) unfolds with a sad event, a family secret, hints of Pygmaleonesque romance, revenge, and loyalty: the perfect recipe for historical fiction. I would have appreciated more romance to the story even when the romance took an idyllic back seat. The secondary characters were easily likeable. I would have loved to dive deeper in their characters.If you like your historical fiction well-written with a dash of romance, and secrets upon secrets, you will enjoy this book immensely.Many thanks to NetGalley and the lovely people at St Martin's Press for the opportunity to read in exchange for an honest review.
    • 3/5
      Rachel Woodley is a somewhat shy and unassuming young woman working as a nursery governess in France. When she receives a telegram five days late about her mother being ill, she finally stands up for herself and quits her job to return to England. Upon her return home she finds out that not only has her mother died, but she's missed the funeral. To add insult to injury, she then finds out her presumably deceased father is still alive with another daughter. What follows is Rachel's quest to find out more about her father and his other family in Lauren Willig's latest, The Other Daughter.Once Rachel learns the truth about her father, she has the opportunity to change her life view from behind the stairs as a nursery governess, to that of an estranged cousin to Simon Montfort. With Simon's assistance, Rachel soon becomes Vera Merton and enters the world of her half-sister, Lady Olivia Standish. The only person in this upper-crust world that Rachel/Vera seems to have anything in common with is Olivia's fiancé, John Trevannion. The longer Rachel stays in her role as Vera, the more she realizes that her search for the truth just might end up hurting one of the people she's come to admire, her half-sister.I found The Other Daughter to be a fast-paced, enjoyable, and engrossing read. The story is set in the mid-1920s after WWI. Ms. Willig mentions some of the problems of British society at the time, lack of jobs, lack of sufficient pay, and the ongoing psychological trauma for those that fought in the war, but none are discussed in great detail. I enjoyed Rachel's role as Vera Merton and was somewhat surprised by how well she adapted from the shy, unassuming young woman from the country to a popular and witty Bright Young Thing in the city. The Other Daughter provides tons of drama: daughters beholden to their mothers, sons beholden to their families and estates, etc. There aren't any bad guys in The Other Daughter, just plenty of interesting characters and situations making for a good read. If you enjoy reading historical fiction or family drama, then you'll want to add The Other Daughter to your reading list.
    • 3/5
      Rachel, a young Englishwoman, is trying to make ends meet as a governess in France, She is called home when her mother dies and discovers that she is not who she thought she was. She takes up a disguise in order to meet the man who she believes deserted her and her mother. Everything backfires but, of course, it all works out in the end. A pleasant, undemanding diversion with some interesting twists. A little bit better than the other book I read by this author (That Summer). Library book
    • 3/5
      Found on a book exchange shelf where I was leaving a BookCrossing book. A quick tale of the abandoned daughter of an earl, and her plot to reinstate herself in her father's world.
    • 4/5
      Rachel Woodley has been a nursery governess in France for seven years when she receives a telegram that her beloved mother is dying. Her employer won’t give her time off to go back to England, so she quits, and hurries to her mother’s house, but she is too late. Moreover, her landlord is now evicting her, as her mother was behind in the rent. When cleaning out her mother’s things, Rachel gets yet another unpleasant and unexpected surprise: she finds, under her mother’s pillow, a newspaper picture from just five months previously - December, 1926, of a man who is clearly her father. But her mother always had told her her father died twenty-three years ago, when Rachel was four.Moreover, this man is not identified as Edward Woodley, botanist, who she believed her father to be, but Edward Standish, Earl of Ardmore, shown with his daughter Olivia on his arm. She races up to Oxford to see her cousin David, who has always been a doting godfather, to find out what he knows about the truth. David astonishes her by admitting Edward Standish is her father. He confessed that her mother thought his leaving would be easier for her if she believed he had died. Upset, she turns to leave, and runs into Simon Montfort, a former tutee of David’s, who had overheard what happened. As he shows her out, he explains he has connections and can help her meet her father. He offers to introduce her to the Standish’s social set as a Vera Merton, a distant cousin of his. He further arranges to house her at his mother’s empty flat and bring her socially appropriate clothes belonging to his (also absent) sister. He even sets up an appointment for her at a salon so she can get a hairdo more suitable to a society lady than a governess.While even Rachel references the story of "Pygmalion," there are more complications to the story than George Bernard Shaw’s play. The Great War has ended, but hostilities still loom on the horizon and occupy the thoughts of many of the characters. Everyone in the social set to which “Vera” gains entry accepts her readily, but they all have shared histories and secrets to which she is not privy. And what Rachel thinks she now knows is only the tip of the iceberg. Her world is indeed upended, but not at all in the way she (or we) anticipated.Discussion: This turned out to be a good story, not as predictable as it seemed it might be in the beginning. The author manages to limn Rachel as naive and judgmental without making her unlikeable, and is adept at evoking the appearance of superficial decadence of the monied set:"Cece dragged in deeply on her cigarette, trailing ash and ennui.”I liked too how she had her characters query the nature of memory and of truth. Rachel’s insights about her recollections from her early childhood were especially appealing:"Life, at four, had been a sea of knees and ankles, chair legs and the undersides of tables. She wished, desperately, that she had paid more attention, that she had lifted her head and looked up.”Evaluation: The further I read, the more I got pulled into the story. It turned out to be an entertaining and engrossing book.