{"id":250858,"date":"2025-07-09T13:30:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T13:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/250858\/"},"modified":"2025-07-09T13:30:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T13:30:16","slug":"loretta-rothschilds-debut-novel-is-full-of-secrets-just-not-hers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/250858\/","title":{"rendered":"Loretta Rothschild\u2019s Debut Novel Is Full of Secrets\u2014Just Not Hers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Loretta Rothschild\u2019s novel Finding Grace (July 8, St. Martin\u2019s Press) opens at the Ritz in Paris<\/a>. It\u2019s Christmas season, and this is where her protagonists\u2014Honor Wharton, a best-selling children\u2019s book author, and her handsome financier husband Tom\u2014are spending the holidays with their four-year-old daughter, an annual tradition they carry out from their regular suite, with its Place Vend\u00f4me views and a canopy bed held together \u201cwith layers of salmon-colored silk, the famous apricot sheets without a single crease.\u201d<\/p>\n

The milieu the Whartons inhabit is one of London townhouses with antique French chandeliers hanging in the drawing room and Defenders parked in the driveway. It\u2019s where first dates take place at the River Caf\u00e9 and wedding dresses are vintage McQueen, where rare Pomerol vintages are poured at dinner parties and appointments are penciled into monogrammed Smythsons. But if you\u2019re expecting a juicy and voyeuristic 325-page peek into what modern life is like for a Rothschild\u2014the author is married to Nat, the 5th Baron Rothschild and scion of the British branch of the banking dynasty<\/a>\u2014let us stop you right there.<\/p>\n

Finding Grace<\/p>\n

\"Finding<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not based on me,\u201d Rothschild says, and she\u2019s right. Get past the first chapter, which ends with a life-altering event that changes the course of the narrative, and you\u2019ll understand. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely based on an imaginary world I have created.\u201d The main thing she has in common with Honor, for instance, is that they\u2019re both terrible cooks. But, she concedes, \u201cthere are always influences from the outside world that come into my books. Absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is Rothschild\u2019s first novel (she follows in the footsteps of sister-in-law Hannah Rothschild<\/a>, who has written four), and the book\u2019s plot had been on her mind for a while before she finally put pen to paper. \u201cI think I was always a writer,\u201d she says. \u201cI just didn\u2019t know that having voices in your head would manifest into becoming one. Honor was that voice. She was so insistent I felt compelled to tell this story from her point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without spoiling anything, we can say that Finding Grace is, at its core, a love story. It almost reads like a rom-com, with the wit of a \u00adBridget Jones installment wrapped up in a broader exploration of grief\u2014and with plenty of unexpected turns. \u201cI like my reader to be buckled up. I want to pull you in and then surprise you,\u201d Rothschild says. \u201cAnd take you somewhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Stories They Could Tell\"My<\/a>My Sister and Other Lovers<\/p>\n

Esther Freud, daughter of the artist Lucian (and great-granddaughter of Sigmund), mines family history again for her tenth novel, out August 5.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>The House of Mirth<\/p>\n

Now 42% Off<\/p>\n

Edith Wharton\u2019s status in New York society put her in a unique position to critique it\u2014which she did through the tragic tale of Lily Bart. It was an instant hit.<\/p>\n

\"Her<\/a>Her Heart for a Compass<\/p>\n

Now 27% Off<\/p>\n

The Duchess of York, already a prolific children\u2019s author, is now a romance novelist too. Her 2021 debut is about a rebellious redheaded heroine.<\/p>\n

This story appears in the May 2025 issue of<\/strong> Town & Country. <\/strong>SUBSCRIBE <\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Leena Kim is Town & Country\u2019s Editor, covering the travel, jewelry, style, arts and culture, education, and weddings beats. She has no priors\u2014she has been at the magazine for 11 years, having started her career at T&C as the assistant to the editor in chief.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Loretta Rothschild\u2019s novel Finding Grace (July 8, St. Martin\u2019s Press) opens at the Ritz in Paris. It\u2019s Christmas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3938],"tags":[3444,14938,96823,1331,77,3989,1381,96822,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-250858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-content-type-round-up-general","10":"tag-contentid-5ba7eb7c-81f5-4d74-8b16-1b9ed6dc8ad7","11":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-hasproduct-true","14":"tag-locale-us","15":"tag-shorttitle-loretta-rothschilds-new-book-is-full-of-secrets","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114823524070446825","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}