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"Lilybella Tatiana Blossom Button (who thankfully – for our sake as well as hers – goes by a simple Lily) has had an upbringing almost as unconventional as her name. Raised by her grandparents, we join her following their recent deaths and soon discover she is quite unlike most other 20 year olds. It’s going to be a brisk transition from a sheltered life in a small cottage, nursing elderly relatives to the Real World but with no money to speak off, she’ll have to pull herself together, and quickly. Her background is an important part of Lily and contributes enormously to her trusting and a little immature personality that will later be her downfall. A few weeks later, though, and things are looking up. She has taken a room in a house where she is much more one of the family than just a lodger. She’s found some cleaning work and, even more exciting, one of her agency clients is a rather dashing ex-celeb and his beautiful, elegant wife. Yes, Lily’s star is definitely on the rise.
At Christmas, everything changes. The beautiful and elegant wife dies in tragic circumstances. The dashing ex-celeb is devastated until the unexpected happens and, after a reasonable period of mourning (this is, despite its storyline, a wonderfully realistic book for the most part, from a writer who always produces such) he begins to put his life back together. Lily plays a key role in his recovery and soon there is, as the title suggests, talk of her becoming a wife – a ‘’second’’ wife, stepping into the shoes of the first. It may seem quick, but due to his fame and charisma, she is not being discouraged by her adoptive family, the people who, I thought, should have known better.