I read this as a great fan of the television show on which it's based, but I should rate it as a stand alone piece first, I suppose. As such, it is a solid effort, but not especially engaging. The writing is facile and accessible but not touching or memorable. It's hard not to be colored by being a fan of the show, which is probably the best audience for this book. If you want an epic family-based historical drama - even specifically Edwardian - there are much better books to spend time on.

Essentially the story is told from the point of view of Richard Bellamy. As RB was probably one of the drier and, to me, least interesting characters on the show, I applaud the author for trying to give him some flavor and paint him as a complex, quiet hero of sorts. Not sure I buy it, but it was interesting. Unfortunately it seems to come at the cost of relegating Marjorie Bellamy - one of my favorite characters, maybe most to do with her nuanced portrayal by the actress - to a second tier, sort of bland state. She didn't have much depth and seemed only to exist in the story as either catalyst or foil for Richard's changing emotional states.

In fact, Marjorie's portrayal is part of a bigger issue I had with the book as a whole. I didn't much care for the slightly, and sometimes not so slight, misogynistic tone to the characterization of the female characters. All cues were taken from the television series to be sure, and he didn't drastically change anybody but his alterations bugged me. Marjorie is extremely shallow here, oftentimes conniving and shown as being less intelligent than Richard. That doesn't jibe with my take on her at all from the show, since she always seemed to know more than everyone even if she hid it behind a cool front and diplomatic manner. Her mother is a drunken monster of operatic proportion. Hudson is referred to more than once as a "genius" and while he may have been it was demonstrated in the book by his being so much more astute than (and, frankly, superior to) Rose and Mrs Bridges who are always on the inevitably "wrong" side of the argument because they are guided only by their emotions. Even doofy Edward is given the privilege of being smarter than both of them. Hazel is, of course, ennobled a bit because she puts up with her husband's maltreatment. But even she doesn't escape censure when it is suggested that her unhappiness with her terrible (I say abusive) marriage and her inability to control her temper made her miscarriage her own fault. Hazel's mother is domineering, James' sweetheart Diana is described as an "arch-bitch" and even Elizabeth loses her shine in Richard's eyes when he visits her in NYC because she seems to dominate her husband. Only when he realizes she has met her match and her husband can keep her in her place a bit does he relax. Worst of all, in my opinion, is Prudence, a personal favorite of mine onscreen. She could be catty on the show (sometimes hilariously so) but here she is downright despicable a lot of the time. A harpy who is described as trying to prey on Richard's troubles and moods so she can steal him away for her own spouse. There was so much great material to mine with the ladies of the show and he turns them all into cardboard cliches.

The second half of the book covers the entirety of the events of the television series. It seems unneeded - especially considering there exist novelizations of the series - and, worse, begins to simply feel like a catalog of events. I liked that the author tried to write in between the elliptical gaps in the show's chronology. So instead of simply recounting all the events already known to fans, he showed linking moments in their lives, and other perspectives. It was nice, also, to get a few more scenes with Elizabeth, however brief, which was impossible on the show. In the end though, it all feels very thin. It took me about twice as long to read the second half of the book as the first. I feel like a novel of this sort could have solely concentrated on their lives leading up to the start of the show's timeline. So many cool tidbits of personal history were dropped in the characters' dialogue onscreen that were here either brushed over or only just fleshed out.

Overall, the book seems to drop the ball in a lot of ways. Unlike the promises of the cover blurb, we get no real atmosphere from the Parisian bits or Eaton Place either. We get name dropping of figures from the political and art world of the time, but no real use is made of them or the climate. I felt like the strongest imagery came from Southwold, which was a nice touch but since most of the action never occurred there it would have been nice to feel the other places exist in the same manner. Although it claims to chronicle the story of the servants as extended family, they are much lesser players and we learn nothing new about them. In fact, aside from maybe Hudson, had I not known them from the show already I might have forgotten them instantly so little depth did they have. There isn't much in the way of “romance” either, so even if one wanted that, it's tepid at best. I'm glad to have it as a keepsake of a show I love, and it was definitely nice to revisit characters I hadn't been with in years, but I can't recommend it to people who are looking for more than that. ( )