Publishers Weekly
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Cookbook author Knight (How to Eat with One Hand) makes her fiction debut with a touching tale of a student’s romantic entanglements and family secrets. Penelope “Pen” Elliot Winters arrives at the University of Edinburgh from Toronto. While in Scotland, she looks up aristocrat Elliot Lennox, from whom she believes her parents derived her middle name. Her father, Ted, was friends with Elliot and Elliot’s sister, Margot, at university, and Elliot now lives with his wife, Christina, at their crumbling family castle, while Margot is a fashion designer in London. Elliot and Christina invite Pen to their estate, where she meets their oldest son, Sasha, who is frequently in the tabloids as he finishes his final year at St. Andrews, and with whom Pen feels an instant attraction. As Pen frets over her virginity and worries what others think of her, she grows closer to the entire Lennox clan, including Margot’s daughter and grandson. But after a second trip to the castle ends with the cold shoulder from Sasha and revelations about their families’ connections, Pen confronts her naivety and tries to “make peace with herself.” Though the cast is a bit too crowded, making the story hard to follow, Pen’s intelligence and charm carry the reader along. The result is a satisfying coming-of-age story. Agent: Samantha Haywood, Transatlantic Agency. (Jan.)

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From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Knight bookends her debut novel with gentle scenes of a new mother preparing her infant daughter for sleep and their next-morning snuggles. In between, she returns to “the age of leaving” to “remember who we were, and what we thought we knew.” Born and raised in Toronto, Penelope Elliot Winters begins her first year at the University of Edinburgh in 2006, joined by her BFF Alice (their Scottish decisions were made independently). Pen’s across-the-pond arrival puts her in easy train-ride proximity to Lord Elliot Lennox, once her father’s close school friend. Although the men have since become estranged, Pen is convinced her shared name is not coincidental, and she’s hoping Lennox might help her better understand her separated parents’ past. Along with her growing relationship with the extended Lennox clan (particularly young Sasha), Pen commences her own journey of self-discovery with new friends, new experiences, and new relationships, especially in matters of the heart. Another coming-of-age novel about commencing young adulthood could seem pedestrian, but Knight’s gorgeously intimate, cleverly insightful wordsmithing will certainly impress and entertain.