Under the Golden Sun

Ashcroft (Meet Me in Bombay) offers an enticing story of a young Englishwoman’s path toward self-discovery. Rose Hamilton is traveling by train from her home in Devon to London during WWII when she sees an advertisement seeking someone to escort a young child to Australia. Needing a change after having a miscarriage and being discharged from the air force for being unmarried and pregnant, Rose, who is engaged to a perennially noncommittal American press correspondent named Xander, answers the advertisement. Vivian Barnes needs someone to travel with her late great-niece Mabel’s son, four-year-old Walter Lucknow, as Vivian is dying from cancer. Together, Rose and Walter journey by ship to Australia and travel to the cattle station that Walter has inherited, which Mabel’s brother-in-law, Max, a pilot seriously wounded in the war, will hold in trust until Walter is 21. Max and his sister, Esme, however, are extremely unwelcoming. Rose’s reluctance to leave Walter and return to England is complicated by an unexpected romance with Max, as well as the untimely arrival of Xander. Ashcroft enlivens the plot with an expertly crafted set of characters. For fans of WWII-era historicals, this will hit the spot. (Mar.)