British author Lord (The Flower Girl
) places lackluster, interchangeable characters against a backdrop of political change and WWI in this disappointing saga. Constance “Connie” Mornington, a wealthy doctor's daughter, and Eveline Fenton, an office worker from the East End of London, go against their families' wishes and join the women's suffrage movement, and their incongruous friendship blooms. The plot plods along as Connie's family disowns her for loving bank clerk George Towers, and Eveline's wealthy lover predictably gets her pregnant and abandons her. Eveline's grandmother, who is “exceptionally modern for one of seventy,” and Albert Adams, the man who agrees to marry Eveline despite her pregnancy, are pleasant distractions, but the central friendship is never truly convincing, and the frequent bickering is obnoxious. Despite the rich setting, this novel merely simmers when it should boil. (Nov.)
