The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
In 1920s England, Frances is an old maid at 26 years old. Her two brothers died in WWI and her father died shortly after, leaving Frances and her mother much poorer than what they are used to. In order to try to escape their debts, they rent part of their house to lodgers, euphemistically called “Paying Guests.” Leonard and Lillian Barber move in, and on the surface, they are a young, vibrant happily married couple.
Stay with this book! The beginning is so slow and you can find yourself completely bored by Frances and her boring life replete with boring chores. The boredom lulls you into complacency, and so when business starts to pick up, it’s really shocking!
That’s about all I can say without giving away absolutely everything. Stay with it.
This was the second book I read in 2015. View all my reviews
I would have liked this book a million times more if 250 pages had been shaved off.
Haha..it did get pretty lengthy in places.