It's a historical that takes place around 1850 Calcutta, India. Romance, drama, loveable (and love to hate) characters with depth, dark secrets and by far one of the most shocking and unexpected betrayals I ever read. Beneath the propriety of the staid expatriate British community in Calcutta fester secrets of unspeakable defilements, and Ryman, a spellbinding storyteller, captivates the reader from the first page. Yet her romantic ordeal transforms Olivia into as ruthless an adversary as the man to whom she gave her love and trust, and out of the ill-fated choices she must make a great cynicism is forged. Her radiant innocence proves out of place in the stiflingly proper atmosphere, and from the moment her path crosses that of the enigmatic Eurasian Jai Raventhorne she is caught up in an obsessive affair, with only her formidable intelligence and courage enabling her to endure Jai's savage betrayal of herself, her aunt and her uncle. In the center is pseudonymous Ryman's heroine, freethinking American Olivia O'Rourke, who comes to Calcutta's "village of palaces" to visit her relatives Sir Joshua and Lady Bridget Templewood. Set against an exotic background complete with a tiger hunt and the opium trade of 19th-century India, a tragedy of surprising scope is played out here.
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