The Cavendon Women by Barbara Taylor Bradford
(Format used for this read: Print–hardback)
I greatly enjoyed the first book in this series because it gave me all my beloved Downton Abbey feels.
(click below to read that review:)
Cavendon Hall was totally reminiscent of the show I loved so so much and I was so so EXCITED that there were other books to continue the story.
Well my book loving friends, sad to say this book did not captivate me as much as the first….I liked it for the most part I guess but it took me FOREVER to finish it!
Here is the official summary of book 2 in this series:
“Cavendon Women, the stunning sequel to Barbara Taylor Bradford’s Cavendon Hall, follows the Inghams’ and the Swanns’ journey from a family weekend in the summer of 1926 through to the devastation of the Wall Street crash of 1929. It all begins on a summer weekend in July of 1926 when, for the first time in years, the earl has planned a family weekend. As the family members come together, secrets, problems, joys and sorrows are revealed. As old enemies come out of the shadows and the Swanns’ loyalty to the Inghams’ gets tested in ways none of them could have predicted, it’s up to the Cavendon women to band together and bring their family into a new decade, a new way of life.”
This story takes place a decade after the first book…everyone has gotten older and lots of life events have happened.
When I started reading, I surprised myself a bit….
I COMPLETELY forgot the big age difference between Daphne and her husband Hugo.
She was only 17 when they met and he was 32!!! 😨
He fell “instantly” in love with her when he saw her beauty (aka LUSTED AFTER A TEENAGE CHILD AS A GROWN ASS MAN!)
GAH!
OMGGGG…..How in the world did I forget this while reading the first book?!?!
Apparently though ALLLLL the Ingham women are drawn to older men as you find out from the other character’s storylines…in fact two of the sisters even have a conversation about how they are always attracted to men of “maturity”…so it’s a whole entire THING, yall.
Also….
Charlotte.
The extreme intermingling of upper class artistocrats has always been a thing (marrying your first cousin, etc etc) but oooooowwwweeeee Charlotte took it to the NEXT LEVEL.
She managed to fall in love and have relationships with a father/son duo.
Not at the same time or anything….but like…the weirdness of this fact somehow also escaped me in the first book.
WHERE WAS MY BRAIN YALL???
And OBVIOUSLY with all these scenarios it is QUITE obvious those Ingham men have a genetic trait that has them preferring their female companions QUITE YOUNG.
😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑😑
Typical upper class rich white dudes.
In spite of all those things, somehow I still sorta enjoyed this book.
(I don’t know what that says about me and I don’t wanna know🤦♀️)
Even though this book didn’t hit me as sweet as the first, it does still have the Downton vibes which give me LIFE.
All the characters still remind me sooo much of my cherished Abbey ones.
This book did have more romance and a couple steamier scenes than the first book (gotta reiterate how much I FRIGGIN LOVE when it is WOMEN who write sex scenes because *most* of the time they totally GET how female bodies work…can we please get a HALLELUJAH for authors who consistently write scenes where the man takes complete care of a woman’s pleasure FIRST and ALWAYS before ANY OTHER THING happens??)
I was pretty swept away with the romance…it was just cheesy enough to make you sigh and not make you roll your eyes.
This book moves a little slower than the first one did, but there are still plenty of plot twists and turns to keep you interested and engaged.
As the title implies, this story focuses mostly on the women of Cavendon. They are the people who keep the place running smoothly, solve all the problems that arise, and care for all the people who live under it’s roof…they take care of ALL the things on ALL the levels… as women most often DO…even when the men get the credit some (or most) of the time 😑
This book was good but really just an “okay” kind of good.
I will still read the other two books in the series and my fingers are crossed that they take on more of the first book’s vibes.