It’s 9:05 am, Saturday morning. The library has just opened and I’m cruising by the Rapid Read (7 days loan, no holds) section and what do I spy with my little hazel eyes? A lovely new Lauren Willig book called The Ashford Affair. So into the library bag it goes!

The Ashford Affair tells the stories of New Yorker lawyer Clementine and her beloved grandmother Addie. Until her grandmother’s 99th birthday party, Clementine had no idea the secrets Addie was hiding. As Clementine learns more about her family including a mysterious death in African savannah, we see Addie’s story starting as a 6-year-old orphan taken in by her late father’s half-brother, the Earl of Ashford. The frightened Addie is befriended by her cousin, Bea and the two girls vow to be more than sisters to each other. But just how far does this bond last as they grow up and betrayal enters the picture. (Side note: my clever lizard brain was all “NO! You mean BEA-trayal!” Too true lizard brain, too true). Clementine’s story is interesting but it’s the story of Addie and Bea that captives you. You know Clementine will find happiness as her life starts to implode. But will Addie and Bea?

The Ashford Affair is one of those books where if you have the proper background reading, the story springs into 3-D. I’ve been reading Elsa Lanchester’s autobiography and there is a bit in The Ashford Affair where Addie and Bea are night-clubbing and my lizard brain was convinced the cousins ended up at Lanchester’s infamous Cave of Harmony at one point. And when Addie arrives in Kenya and Bea is blithely pointing out “oh there’s Alice de Janze” and “dinner at Dina’s”, the person whose read about the Happy Valley set just knows everything they need to about Bea’s character and that scandal is ahead.

And this is going to sound crazy but I meant it in the very best way. Lauren Willig’s The Ashford Affair reminds me of Kathleen Tessaro’s The Debutante and The Perfume Collector to the point that I forget who the author was with its careful blend of life between the wars and our modern times. It’s always a lovely surprise to have an author be able to move beyond their comfort zone (Willig’s best-selling Napoleonic-era spy series). Another lovely surprise is reading the Acknowledgements and finding out Frances Osborne’s The Bolter, a biography of the infamous (and Happy Valley resident) Lady Idina Gordon, inspired The Ashford Affair.

It could be easy to dismiss The Ashford Affair as just another chick-lit book about hidden family secrets pretending to be literature. But Lauren Willig’s careful research and deft hand raise The Ashford Affair above the regular chick-lit genre. And will inspire you to read more about the times and the people Addie and Bea encountered.