Q: Do you buy books based off colors on the cover?
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The Last Debutante
Georgie Blalock
Pub Date: 8/24/21
#arcreview
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This cover is so gorgeous! This was definitely a cover click for me!

The glittery world of the haute ton in London right before the start of World War II. With the chatter of Hitler not being that bad, and not having to enter the war.

This year’s round of Debutantes enter society to meet an eligible husband.

Valerie, who’s parentage is less than ideal and lives in No. 10 with her Uncle the Prime Minister, is trying to reinvent herself with an accepting group of new friends. There are a bunch of judging busybodies as you would expect in that set though.

All is going well and to plan with some amazing prospects then some gossip is uncovered. (Sidenote: I still don’t get how people can judge children on their parents behavior or how their parents didn’t care for them. But that’s the toxic world of that society. Especially when you are trying to get the best match and take down the girls that look better than you).

This had so many different types of familial relationships for Valerie who’s mother abandoned her, her father did not care for her and was very controversial. Then living with her aunt and uncle who treated her like the parents she never had.

If you love historical fiction you should add this to your list! It was a pre-war view of the aristocracy as they were trying to go on as usual to not incite panic but also start transitioning into helping out the English impacted in other countries effected by the impending world war and scaling back.

Thank you @williammorrowbooks and @netgalley for the e-ARC for my honest and voluntary review.

Synopsis:

Fans of The Kennedy Debutante and Last Year in Havana will love Georgie Blalock’s new novel of a world on the cusp of change…set on the eve of World War II in the glittering world of English society and one of the last debutante seasons. 

They danced the night away, knowing their world was about to change forever. They were the debutantes of 1939, laughing on the outside, but knowing tragedy— and a war—was just around the corner.

When Valerie de Vere Cole, the niece of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, makes her deep curtsey to the King and Queen of England, she knows she’s part of a world about to end. The daughter of a debt-ridden father and a neglectful mother, Valerie sees firsthand that war is imminent.

Nevertheless, Valerie reinvents herself as a carefree and glittering young society woman, befriending other debutantes from England’s aristocracy as well as the vivacious Eunice Kennedy, daughter of the U.S. Ambassador. Despite her social success, the world’s troubles and Valerie’s fear of loss and loneliness prove impossible to ignore.

  How will she navigate her new life when everything in her past has taught her that happiness and stability are as fragile as peace in our time? For the moment she will forget her cares in too much champagne and waltzes. Because very soon, Valerie knows that she must find the inner strength to stand strong and carry on through the challenges of life and love and war.