Deanna Raybourn (The Dark Enquiry) brings to life the splendor of 1920s Kenya in a romantic story of finding oneself by leaving home.
Beautiful young socialite Delilah Drummond is the outrage of two continents (three, if she counts South America) with her string of failed marriages, reckless behavior and constant drinking. Her newest scandal, a property dispute with her late ex-husband's heirs, has even raised eyebrows in her current home city of Paris. Her devil-may-care attitude finally sees Delilah exiled to Kenya at the behest of her mother and stepfather until talk dies down.
Packed off to her stepfather's African estate, Delilah faces challenges beyond the harsh heat and wild animals: The house is falling apart, the feckless steward is cheating the estate and the local native tribe looks to her for succor. Most challenging of all is her attraction to Ryder White, a Canadian guide as intense and untamed as Africa itself. Through him, she learns to see the beauty and majesty of Kenya as well as its brutal, uncompromising nature. When blood is spilled on her land, Delilah sees the difference between brazenness and true bravery, between what we cling to out of fear and what's truly worth a fight.
Watching prickly, complicated Delilah go from carefree to caring without losing a modicum of style is as entrancing as Raybourn's relationship-driven plot and loving descriptions of the Kenyan landscape. Readers won't want Delilah's sensual safari to come to an end. --Jaclyn Fulwood, youth services manager at Latah County Library District and blogger at Infinite Reads