An interesting insight into life in India for poor Anglo-Indian girls. After the death of her mother Virginia meets Sunil. There are some interesting twists as the story follows their progress, eventually to England. Who is using who – Victoria needs a protector and provider, Sunil needs to show he isn’t impotent.

Their lives gradually unfold in a linear manner – which is a refreshing change from the jumping forwards and backwards in time.

The title aside, the central character of the book is Victoria Standford. She is a good looking Anglo-Indian girl who has seen very hard times. She gets taken in by a visiting Englishman who promises to marry her, but then disappears. She is now an unwed mother to a boy, struggling to meet ends meet. Her roommate grows to be very irate with her as well.

She then meets Sunil, who is visiting from England. He is very caring and once he learns of her difficulties, offer her a passage to England. Victoria takes up the offer without understanding fully what he has in mind for her. And her troubles continue even in England.....Will her relationship with Sunil sustain, or does she need to move on?

The book unfortunately lacks coherence. In a book which relies more on relationships and drama, more impactful incidents were called for to keep up the pace. However, as Victoria tumbles from one crisis to the next, you are left with an unsatisfying story and characterization.

Thank you NetGalley and Thistle Publishing for the eARC.
Unfortunately this book was not for me. Usually I love books set in India and the UK, but the heroine was not one I liked - she made choices I found difficult to understand and the writing seemed uneven and choppy. By the middle I couldn't go on and skipped quickly to the end. Sorry!

The book begins slow but eventually picks up the pace. The characters and their lives were fascinating to read about. Even if the initial few pages make you want to put the book down, once you get over that portion the book does not disappoint. Definitely worth the time.

After a slow start, this book really gets going. The central character, Victoria, is an Anglo-Indian girl brought up in Calcutta in the years after the second world war. She has a difficult relationship with her ailing mother (her father having been killed in the war) who will not seek treatment for health problems and dies leaving Victoria alone and penniless, although with a small flat to live in. She becomes pregnant, then meets the Sunil of the title, who employs her and brings her to England. This seems a rather unlikely scenario, as she has known him for only a week before agreeing to come to England to work for him, but her financial circumstances in Calcutta are dire and by this time she has a two-year old son. Sunil cannot marry her as he is Bengali and must go through with a marriage, arranged by his domineering mother, which is not a success. She does not become his mistress, but outward appearances suggest that she is - for reasons that become apparent as you read on. Years pass and their relationship deteriorates, leading to her moving away and marrying another man - originally not for love... Over the subsequent years, the relationships of all the characters develop in different ways - with some tragic consequences. Definitely worth a read, but this book is in need of some careful editing and proof-reading before publication!