Rachel Woodley is a refined and well-schooled nanny to the three children of a French countess in post-World War I Paris. When she receives word that her mother lays dying of a recurrence of the Spanish flu in England, she rushes home to find that she is too late. She turns to her closest relative, her cousin David, who helps her sort through the meager belongings of the long-widowed woman who raised her alone since her father died on a botanical expedition when she was four years old.

"THE OTHER DAUGHTER is a well-done beach read from Lauren Willig, a story of intrigue and deception, revenge and remorse adorned in the grandeur of the extravagance of the Roaring Twenties."

Rachel discovers among her mother’s things a crumpled newspaper photo of the Earl of Ardmore with a young woman on his arm, identified as his daughter, Lady Olivia. He closely resembles the man who Rachel remembers as her father, but the article is dated only six months earlier. Puzzled, she shows it to David, who slowly and painfully divulges the truth. Thus begins her shocking discovery that she is not who she thought she was and that her entire existence is a sham. The man in the photograph is her father, but instead of being Dr. Woodley, he is indeed the Earl of Ardmore and Rachel is humiliated to learn that she is his illegitimate daughter.

Rachel meets Mr. Montfort, a friend of David’s, a journalist with royal ties who covers the beautiful people who frolic from one lavish party to another, attending London’s most prestigious social events and fancy dress balls. He offers to help Rachel uncover the truth, assisting her to acquire a suitable wardrobe as his visiting cousin from Paris, Vera Merton, so she can gain entry to some of London’s most coveted social events. Together they create an adventurous scheme to get close to Rachel’s half-sister, Olivia, confront her and her philandering father, and expose him for what he is.

Her half-sister is a plain, reclusive young woman engaged to a man with political ambitions whose marriage to the daughter of an Earl would ensure his seat in Parliament. How better to complete Rachel’s revenge than to seduce her half-sister’s fiancé. Things are not always as they seem, and as her plan unfolds, she learns deeper truths about the royal system and her own parents’ closely held secrets.  

THE OTHER DAUGHTER is a well-done beach read from Lauren Willig, a story of intrigue and deception, revenge and remorse adorned in the grandeur of the extravagance of the Roaring Twenties.