One Last Dance: A mesmerising tale of love, betrayal and shocking secrets

On leave during the First World War, Devlin Reddaway, in love with the beautiful Camilla Langdon, makes her an offer of marriage, and a promise that he will restore his ancient family home Rosindell to all its former glory for her. Thoughts of Camilla and their future together are what get Devlin through the war, yet when he returns home it is to find her engaged to another man. Distraught and finding himself in an awkward compromising position with Camilla's younger sister Esme, who has been in love with him for years, Devlin makes her a practical proposal of marriage, even though his heart still belongs to Camilla. However, Esme is certain she can in time win his love; the key she believes is his beloved Rosindell, and together they set about renovating the house, even restoring the tradition of the annual summer dance. Yet as time goes on Esme comes to believe that Rosindell somehow casts a dark shadow over its inhabitants, a curse almost falling on the family; though years later and now an old woman, she knows she must face up to the past in order to truly lay the ghosts of old to rest.This is a sprawling family saga, stretching across three generations and covering two world wars, taking us up to the early 1970s. Furthermore, Lennox's writing perfectly captures the changing times that her characters inhabit, the shifts in society and way of living. Her period detail in particular is wonderfully evocative, from the horrors of the World War 1 battlefields of France, to bomb torn London in WW2; the scenes all burst to life from the pages, casting you right back to that other time and place.There are a vast array of characters, whose paths and connections criss-cross in tangled webs; however, at the story's heart is the relationship between Devlin and Esme. Indeed my favourite part of the book was the first section focusing on the love triangle between Devlin, Camilla and Esme, and the early days of their marriage. I thought that Lennox explored the gradual evolving relationship between them with all its complexities really well; and even later in the book their on-going bittersweet romance had me enthralled. I liked following their children's' lives too, Zoe and Matthew both interesting characters; though I think by the time we reached the third generation I cared less, as I didn't feel there was enough time to really get to know Stephen or Coral and as such felt less invested as to what happened to them.Perhaps the most central character to the story, however, is Rosindell itself, the Reddaways ancient family home in Devon; which Lennox describes so vividly that I really could imagine it in my mind's eye. I could understand Devlin's obsession with the place, how so many different characters were enticed by it, could feel a nostalgia for what the place had been in its golden age as it later fell into ruin again.A story of sibling rivalry, jealousy and betrayal, of families and the ties that bind, of forgiveness and mostly of love; One Last Dance is a wonderfully nostalgic and romantic read. A charmingly old-fashioned story that you can lose yourself in, with characters whom you come to care about despite their faults and weaknesses; it's rather like snuggling in to watch a Sunday evening period drama. Perhaps Lennox overstretches it a bit, the very last part not quite sustaining my interest as much, however, overall thoroughly enjoyable.

Got lost in this novel. It portrayed great characters and lovely images of surroundings that tale was set in.Really good read.

During the First World War Devlin Reddaway meets the coolly beautiful Camilla and falls immediately in love with her. She shows Devlin that she feels the same and the pair become unofficially engaged just before he returns to the front, Devlin telling Camilla that when the war ends, he plans to restore his crumbling family home, Rosindell, just for her. After battling through some terrible, life-altering experiences, Devlin manages to survive the war and looks forward to returning home to Rosindell and to the lovely Camilla. However, Camilla has not let the grass grow under her feet while Devlin has been away and she has become formally engaged to another man, and when Devlin calls unexpectedly at her home, she has no hesitation in making him aware that she fully intends to marry her current fiancé. Hurt, angry and confused, Devlin later proposes to Camilla's younger sister, Esme, unaware that Esme has been secretly in love with him for years, and the two of them make plans for the restoration of Devlin's beloved family home. Gradually Devlin begins to have deeper feelings for Esme, but has he really put his passion for Camilla behind him? And when Esme is away from home and Camilla comes calling, Devlin's actions towards his manipulative sister-in-law, have long-lasting consequences for everyone involved. (No spoilers, we learn all of this early on in the novel and, with five hundred plus pages, there is plenty more for prospective readers to discover).Moving from the Great War, through the Second World War and beyond, Judith Lennox's latest novel is a tale of love, lies, secrets and sibling rivalry, and is a sweeping and unashamedly romantic story. I downloaded this onto my Kindle as I felt in need of something undemanding after a hectic week at work, and found it a light and very easy read, but I should perhaps admit to finding this a little too sentimentally romantic for me and parts of the story were not difficult to predict. That said, if you are looking for an effortless downtime read to sink into after a busy day, and you have enjoyed Judith Lennox's previous novels ( The Heart of the Night ; The Turning Point  and many more) then this sweeping family drama could very well fit the bill for you.3 Stars.

Judith Lennox is absolutely my favourite author and I have read of all her books but I have to say that I did not think this was one of her best.Somehow her style of writing has changed - there were lots of little sentences and then the next sentence began with "and" or "but" which was for me very off putting. I know that authors these days don't take the construction of a sentence as I was taught at grammar school (never begin a sentence with "and" or "but" as these are joining words) but I feel that Judith Lennox has diminished herself in my eyes by using this style of writing.She hasn't used this style in any of her previous books. Also, I was amazed that one character said "Give me a bell next time you are in town" - this was the 1920's for heavens sake and I am sure no one ever uttered those words at that time! It is little details like that that have contributed to my star rating. I would have so loved to have given it 5 stars like all her other books but this book missed the mark and I feel sad that having looked forward to reading it - the story itself is fine - I found myself mentally picking out the bad grammar and this spoiled my enjoyment of this book.