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Ceylon, 1906: Stella Polegate steps off the ship in Colombo harbour, her heart beating with contradictory emotions. As her father's unofficial research assistant, she's thrilled to explore this island of ancient temples and verdant tea plantations-yet painfully aware that her brilliant mind will remain uncredited, her academic ambitions dismissed simply because she is a woman.
When her father's doctoral student makes unwelcome advances that escalate to violence, Stella's carefully ordered world shatters. With her reputation and future hanging in the balance, she finds an unexpected ally in
Norton Baxter, a principled young civil servant whose growing disillusionment with colonial rule mirrors her own questioning of societal constraints.
As Stella navigates the suffocating expectations of colonial society, she must make an impossible choice. Should she accept the limitations imposed upon her gender or fight for the academic future she deserves? And can she trust Norton with her damaged heart when every man in her life has sought to control her destiny?
From the misty highlands of Kandy to the bustling port of Colombo, Stella's journey becomes a defiant quest not only for love but for something far more elusive-the freedom to become the author of her own story.
Readers who love The Tea Planter's Wife and Lucinda Riley will adore this atmospheric novel of forbidden love set in the twilight of the British Raj.
About the author
Clare Flynn is the author of sixteen historical novels and a collection of short stories. A former International Marketing Director and strategic management consultant, she's now a full-time writer. Having lived and worked in London, Paris, Brussels, Milan and Sydney, home is now on the coast, in Sussex, England, where she can watch the sea from her windows. An avid traveler, her books are often set in exotic locations. Clare is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a member of The Society of Authors, The Alliance of Independent Authors, The Historical Novel Society and the Romantic Novelists Association. She is the winner of the Romantic Novelists Association Indie Champion of the Year 2022, and the Bookbrunch Adult Fiction Prize 2020 for The Pearl of Penang. When she can spare the time from writing and feeding her voracious reading habit, she loves to quilt, paint and play the piano.
