Summerset Abbey: Spring Awakening

T. J. Brown

Aug 2013 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

The thrilling conclusion to the evocative Summerset Abbey series, featuring two sisters and their maid as they navigate an uncertain world in the midst of World War I.

The laughter of summer lawn parties fades for the men and women of Summerset Abbey, as the rumble of cannon-fire sweeps across Europe. In a changing world, they soon find that only one thing is certain: none of them will ever be the same.

Rowena Buxton
The female pilot’s upcoming wedding to Sebastian Billingsly is the talk of soci­ety. Rowena loves her kind, handsome fiancé, but memories of a dangerously passionate affair with a dashing flier still stir her heart. . . . Accepting a daring mission transporting British planes, she encounters the man whose touch sent her reeling—and whose return into her life may have disastrous consequences for her and Sebastian’s future.

Victoria Buxton
The defiant suffragette raises eyebrows once again by living on her own in London as a lady bachelor. Kit Kittredge is the one man who understands and adores Victoria’s fiery spirit—but she rebuffs her best friend’s offer of marriage time and again, choosing to join the war effort as a volunteer nurse. And on the battlefields of France, she will learn the true meaning of love and sacrifice.

Prudence Tate
After a stinging betrayal at Summerset Abbey, Prudence has found love and contentment in working-class Camden Town as Mrs. Andrew Wilkes. But when Andrew enlists, everything that Pru cherishes is at risk—and she crosses a line attempting to protect him. Has she irreparably damaged their loving bond of trust?

Ratings and reviews

I have read all three of these books. The description of this book sites how "...fans of Downton Abbey will love this book" but it is not the case with this reader. I like Downton Abbey but that wasn't the reason I started reading this and the following books. The writing is so bland and the stories tedious. The 3 female leads are described as very, very close; two sisters and one daughter of the nanny/governess who grows up with the sisters so is treated like a third sister. But you never believe their "closeness" and love of each other because their lifestyles are separated from the very beginning of the first book. The author continues to reflect on how much they love each other and how they'd do anything for each other, but you have to take her word for it because they treat each other, throughout all three books, horribly. Even in the very end, there's no real feeling that they care too much for each other. In fact throughout all three books, they're rarely in each other's company. I stayed with this series only because I figured that the author was putting the reader through so much angst, drama, turmoil and one awful, depressing incident after another, that in the end I'd get major pay off. Not so much. No one gets their just desserts, all of the characters who deserve a good telling off get off scot-free. And if that wasn't bad enough, the story just sort of ends. I got no closure, no pay-off, no satisfaction. And poor Prudence (spoiler), who has a horrible existence at the hands of her Uncle and Aunt and with no help from the sisters who supposedly love her, doesn't get any reward for having endured her hardship. There's one shining moment when an aristocrat who falls in love with her and may take her away from it all, but instead she hastily marries a footman who: takes her away to live in a small flat where she has to clean, wash, cook and toil, all the things she's never had to do and doesn't know how to; he starts going to veterinary school, ends up volunteering when the war breaks out, comes back with one leg, all while Prudence has a baby and has to make ends meet on her own. That's it! After all of it the reader is expected to believe that she's happy with her lot in life and ends up falling in love with her one-legged veterinary student husband (because she didn't love him when she married him). Just...so disappointing.

About the author

T.J. Brown begins a sweeping trilogy set in Edwardian England with Summerset Abbey, her historical fiction debut. She lives in Portland, Oregon. Visit the author at TJBrownBooks.com.