Review by Booklist Review
Matilda Wallin, devastated after the death of her mother and her father's suicide a year earlier, is astonished when Countess Agneta Lejongård is named in her mother's will as her guardian. Agneta takes Matilda from her home in Stockholm to Agneta's country estate of Lion Hall. Matilda, who had planned on going to business college and marrying her sweetheart, is upset about this move and by Agneta's son's treatment of her. Slowly, Matilda grows to love life at Lion Hall, until she learns a secret that upends her life and turns her against the family she has found there. Readers who have read the first book in Bomann's Inheritance series (The Inheritance of Lion Hall, 2021) will recognize Matilda's titular secret right away and may be impatient with the beginning of the narrative here. Once the secret is revealed and the story moves on to World War II, the pacing picks up. Readers seeking a mix of historical fiction, romance, and family drama told with a melodramatic writing style will enjoy this one.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Bomann's second "Inheritance" novel (following The Inheritance of Lion Hall) is well written, thought-provoking, and full of intrigue and mystery. In 1931 Sweden, Matilda Wallin is a young woman with plans: Once her sweetheart, Paul, comes of age and she finishes business school, they will marry and then run his family business together. But when she becomes an orphan, she learns that her mother's will stipulates that her new guardian will be the Countess Agneta Lejongård of Lion Hall. Reluctantly, Matilda moves in with the countess, her husband, and her twin sons Magnus and Ingmar, trying to reconcile her past and her future. Trouble brews in Germany that threatens to come to Lion Hall, while a different threat already lurks within. One of Bomann's strongest skills is character development, and readers will feel as if they are living and growing around these individuals and feel connected to them. Another plus is that even though this title is part of a series, it stands by itself as a fulfilling saga. VERDICT Recommended for fans of interwar-era and World War II-era historical fiction, and general historical fiction, especially with a European setting.--Jen Funk
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