Brooke's Daughter: A Novel

Lesley Brooke has spent her entire life within the quiet walls of a Parisian convent, knowing only that her mother visit her faithfully, that her father lives somewhere in England, and that the life awaiting her beyond the cloister is entirely unknown. When she finally leaves the Convent of the Annonciades to meet her grandfather and the mother she adores, she discovers a fractured family held apart not by malice but by years of wounded pride and stubborn misunderstanding. Her father, Caspar Brooke, is no polished gentleman: he's a rough, brash, fiercely loyal journalist, a man more comfortable exposing injustice than expressing tenderness. Yet it is Lesley's simple, steadfast love that must bridge the chasm between them all, navigating the delicate work of healing old wounds without pretending they never existed. Adeline Sergeant writes with quiet skill about the small, patient acts of reconciliation that true forgiveness demands, crafting a hero who is neither saint nor villain but a complicated, contradictory man worthy of redemption. The novel earns its title by placing at its heart not a love affair, but the particular grace of a daughter who sees her parents clearly and loves them anyway.