I really enjoyed the rare setting of rural WWII Britain and thought this looked like a great book. Unfortunately, the style is incredibly descriptive and convoluted. It's too hard to follow the action. I struggled to about the 60% mark and ultimately DNF-ed it. Sorry that I can't recommend it.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

Sorry to say I cannot finish this book. It is jumbled writing and doesn’t make any sense. I also didn’t connect with the few characters in the short amount I read. If it was maybe shorter in length I would possibly stick with it but it is extremely too long to even consider.

This book takes up the story of the Langton’s that was started a few months earlier in In the Shadow of Winter” which I read a few years ago. I was confused when it began, despite having read and enjoyed the earlier book, and my confusion never really eased the farther I read. The heroine’s POV is all we see but we see plenty of it as Emily Sutton has to ponderously think through everything, then rethink her assumptions and then finally catch what she really believes is going on. Everyone is tight lipped about their feelings and actions leading to endless misunderstandings.

I liked that the setting is a little used one – post World War II Britain in the countryside – and that the story incorporates the social and political changes they were grappling with. Unfortunately the more convoluted the story became and the longer the plot twisted around on itself and bogged down in endless pages of discussion and Emily’s observations, the less I came to care what was going on. I finally surrendered at the 2/3 mark. DNF

I received this book from NetGallery in exchange for a honest review, opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
"The Antique Dealer's Daughter" was a book I so look forward to reading, just from the title alone. Also, having lived in the Cotswolds, this book was made for me to read.
I am sorry to say, I could not get into the book at all. Right from the first pages of the book, I was.... bored and confused which turned into disappointment. I just could not follow the story line!
Just too much endless, descriptive and unnecessary information.
I will read more books by Lorna Gray and do recommend this book to others, it just wasn't my cup of tea🤷🏼‍♀️

First, I'd like to thank Netgalley, Harper Impulse, and Lorna Gray (the author) for allowing me to have this ARC.

I was very excited to be given this opportunity to read the Antique Dealer's Daughter, but unfortunately did find some dissapointments as well.

The story: Emily is a young woman trying to find her way in a post WW2 London. She doesn't have an interest in continuing her father's business and fashions herself as a pacifist. She longs for being her own person in a world that is still very much Male oriented. Not really understanding or knowing what to do with their daughter, her parents suggest her to go and live with her cousin (who's considered a spinster, since she is unmarried and independent). Upon arriving to Cotswolds, she finds her cousin isnt home...and she also discovers an older man who has been beat on the head. She realizes that there are still horrid things around during what should be peacetime. She soon becomes involved in the Manor (owned by the Langton family) when she enters the empty home and answers the phone. She meets Captain Richard Langton, who is trying to schedule someone to pick up his father, the Colonel. She tells Richard about Mr. Winstone getting hit on the head and Richard puts her in charge of some duties to prepare for his father's arrival (while the housekeeper is out). While there to make lunch for the Colonel, she interrupts a burglary and is hit on the head with her own case. She soon realizes she is being sought out by this man. Soon, mysteries and secrets around the Langton family begin to unravel.

The good: The story was historically accurate and I felt like I was in Cotswold during the hot summer. I liked the historic touches throughout the book, which helped bring out the time period. I liked that Emily's character was made into a stronger feminine character during a post WW2 world.

The not-so-good: The story was quite descriptive, almost to a fault. I sometimes got lost in all the back and forth between characters, which made the book hard to follow at times. I wanted so badly to love this book, but unfortunately I had a hard time fully getting into the story due to everything happening between the characters and sometimes the unclearness between them.

Interesting story of a young woman trying to find her place in the world after WW2, and not follow in her father's line of work. She travels to stay with a cousin in the country, and stuff happens...