The Last Will And Testament Of Daphné Le Marche

Daphne has a skill with making beauty products, when a chance takes her to Paris in the mid 1950s, a young village girls dream becomes a reality and her dreams becomes reality.

Sixty years later and everyone knows the name Daphne Le Marche, through the products she has created as well as the actions and affairs of her children and grandchildren.

With her time now at an end Daphne is determined to bring a fractured family together and surprises everyone with her last will and testament. No one could have predicted what her last requests would have been especially her family.

From the corners of the globe, cousins, mothers, daughters and fathers are thrown together to continue the Le Marche name and brand. Will the future be able to hold onto the past or will they be able to build on it and move forward.

This is a story of how family secrets can destroy a family as well as bring them together. Forster has created some characters that you want to get behind and hope they get their happy ending, like Camille and Billie. But with balance she creates, obnoxious pig-headed arrogance in Robert who I could happily have strangled. Others may have had more patience than me.

I particularly liked the dual narrative in this book, when we taken to Paris in the 1950s as events unfolded in the present day, we were slowly filled in on the past of Daphne Le Marche and what made her the formidable woman that she was right up to the last will that she wrote.

A lovely example of Kate Forster's writing which draws you with the characters and the story, the only small confusion I had was struggling to pin down where the modern-day story was taking place, it seemed to flit between too many places within a few pages. However, the characters kept you reading.

An engaging read.

This book was an absolute delight. I don't know why but I expected something more light-hearted, chick-lit, probably because of the cover, but it was much more than that, set over the lifetime of the Daphne of the title, and her family - mainly her two grand-daughters - once she had died. The minute I started reading it I knew it was going to be one of those books that just drew you into the story immediately.

To set the scene, as it took me a little while to get my head around the relationships; Daphne is the matriarch who has just died and she had two sons - Robert and Henri. Robert was married to Matilde (now divorced) and had two daughters - Camille (now deceased) and Celeste. Henri (now deceased) was married to Elisabeth (now remarried to Gordon) and had one daughter, Sibylla - known as Billie.

Daphne decided to leave her skincare company to Celeste (who lived in France) and Billie (who lived in Australia), bypassing her remaining son Robert whom she had fallen out with, on the proviso that they both moved to London and ran her company together for a year and a day before they could even think about selling it.

This was obviously a shock to both girls, especially Billie. She had no real recollection of her Father's family as her Mother had nothing to do with them once he died, hating them and poisoning her daughter's feelings for them, and she changed their name from Le Marche to just March. Billie knew nothing about this and so it was all a big shock realising who her Father's family, and her family, was.

Celeste was a spoiled brat who had everything handed to her all her life, didn't work and was having an affair with a married man, whilst Billie worked hard for everything she got so throwing them both together to run the company was interesting!

The story alternated between Daphne's life and the current storyline after her death and worked really well. Billie was 'normal' anyway, but Celeste's character certainly developed for the better as the story went on and she realised she needed to take responsibility for her life and stop playing around. There were a few trials and tribulations to sort out as the story went on, mainly involving Robert - horrible man - and a few skeletons came out of the closet involving the family too.

This was one of those books that I didn't want to put down as I kept wanting to know what happened next, the storyline just drew you in and it never flagged at all throughout the whole book. One of my favourite books this year.

I think the cover is lovely and, I adored the storyline. The flitting back and forth, the intrigue, the characters, it was a page turner I could not put down until I had got to the end ( thank heavens for insomnia!!)

This book was a true delight from London, Paris, Nice and Switzerland. I cannot recommend this book enough when it is published, it really was a joy to read.

I rate this book 5/5

This is a family saga, told from many different points of view, each holding a part of the puzzle, adding to the overall picture. There are many of them but surprisingly it works and Ms Forster does a good job of making them all distinct.

All the way through the book I kept thinking of the myriad of ways families can screw you up - usually without even knowing it. Then when it comes to Robert, Daphne's son, and his insufferable boorish behaviour there is the question of nature or nurture. It seems like he had too much of one and not enough of the other.

When I reached the end, I felt empowered - not so much by the fact that as a woman the story made me feel I could achieve whatever I set my mind to, but by the idea that what is really important is love and family.

The story opens when Daphne Le Marche the owner of a successful skin care company located in Europe, calls her longtime solicitor/lawyer Edward Badger to her bedside so she can adjust her will. This adjustment is life changing for the entire Le Marche family and where the story begins.

When Bille March/Sibylla who lives in Australia, receives a call out of the blue to attend the reading of the will of Daphne Le Marche, she is not interested. Can her mother Elisabeth convince her to at least go and see what is in the will?

Celeste Le Marche also gets that same invitation or more like a summons to the reading of the will and for both this will make an interesting pairing that turns into family secrets and a life changing story that I found intriguing.

Kate Forster is a story teller. I loved the twists and turns of this saga, and I could not stop reading until I learned what would happen to each character. She does an excellent job of revealing secrets and lies told by the characters and in some cases, I felt sorry for them That is the mark of a great story.

In addition to secrets, it is also a book that allows growth of the women in business empowering them to create change and overcome obstacles.

While the story moves back and forth between the present and past it was seamless and well done. Other characters introduced to add flavor to the story that I enjoyed and stayed up way too late reading because I was caught up.

I would recommend this highly particularly if you like stories about life issues, family and more with romance that caused me to tear up it was so lovely.

I would be remiss if I didn’t add that I received an advance copy ebook that had some editing issues I hope will be corrected before the final release. It didn’t take away from the story for me. Buy this book!