Not That Sort of Girl
A Novel
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3.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
From the bestselling author of The Camomile Lawn comes the “amusing” story of a widow reflecting on her past as she looks toward a new future (Publishers Weekly).
Rose Peel had never loved her husband. Their marriage had simply made sense, being built on honor and respect and mutual needs. But love was not a part of their union—for Rose has always kept that part of herself for Mylo Cooper, whom she was forbidden to marry.
Upon the death of her husband, Rose suddenly finds herself free after almost fifty years of marriage. But as she reflects on her life—her passionate adoration of Mylo, the promises she made to her husband, the lies they both told each other, the tragedies she survived, and the joy she shared—she finds herself unsure of her next step, or what she truly wants.
A finalist for the Sunday Express Book of the Year Award, Not That Sort of Girl is an unforgettable and emotional triumph of Wesley’s one-of-a-kind insight and vivid characterization.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
From a witty septuagenarian novelist of British upper-middle-class life (Harnessing Peacocks, The Camomile Lawn) comes this amusing story of a widow remembering her boring marriage and the man she really loved. The heroine is newly widowed Rose Peel who, at a tennis party when she was 18, fell for Mylo Cooper, tutor of French to her host's sons. We also meet the twins Emily and Nicholas Thornby who wander incestuously, cadging from their friends and returning material favors with sexual ones. Rose knows that her husband Ned had a lifelong affair with Emily and fathered her child, but she doesn't care: her body and spirit are Mylo's. Throughout World War II they meet and make love, sometimes in Rose's own house while Ned is away on military duty. This adds both to the licentiousness and the charm; it is a measure of the author's skill that the bond between Rose and Mylo is made not only believable but innocent. That happiness is in store for these two is inevitable. The novel was a finalist for a new British literary award, the Sunday Express Book of the Year.
