Good book. Good author. Loved the characters and the plot. Look forward to reading more of her work.

Pearl has no family - her mother committed suicide hours after she was born and she has never known who her father is and she was brought up by her Aunt Kitty and Grandfather both of whom are now dead - so when she lands a job as Ladies Maid with Lady Ottoline Campbell she is over the moon

She soon finds that Ottoline wants a friend and confidante as well as a maid and the two become closer and closer. Starting off in the North of England they then move to Scotland for the summer - the last summer before WWI starts. Ottoline is distraught when both of her sons join up and Pearl is equally upset when Ottoline's cousin Ralph, the artist that has caught her heart, follows suit.

Staying up in Scotland events overtake both Ottoline and Pearl and they both have secrets that tie them together forever.....but can they both get through this unscathed!

A great family saga I loved the character Pearl and her longing for family and to belong somewhere, with the niggle of a name circled in a paper by her Aunt Kitty that she is sure must have significance to her past, and all ends are well tied up at the end of the book

It’s 1914 and Pearl Gibson, a young woman in her twenties, is about to take up a new position as lady’s maid. Her new employer, Ottoline Campbell, has estates in Northumberland and Scotland, which means Pearl will have to leave London and move north. She’s prepared to do this, however, because it’s not as if she has much to leave behind – her relationship with her boyfriend, Stanley, already seems to be fizzling out, and she has no other friends or family. Her mother killed herself just after Pearl’s birth and Pearl was raised by a great-aunt who is also now dead.

Spending the summer at Delnasay, the Campbells’ house in the Scottish Highlands, Pearl gradually settles into her new job and her new life. Although the other servants view her as proud and superior at first, she slowly wins them over, and at the same time she starts to form a close friendship with Ottoline. It seems that both Pearl and Ottoline are hiding secrets and as the bond between them strengthens, they begin to confide in each other more and more.

Meanwhile, the trouble which has been brewing in Europe throughout the year has escalated into war and the family return to England, hoping they will be safe at Birling Hall, their other estate in Warkworth, Northumberland. Ottoline’s two sons, Billy and Hugo, both enlist and are soon on their way to France, while Pearl also has someone to pray for: Ralph Stedman, an artist with whom she embarked on a new romance during her time in Scotland and who has also gone to war. All of this takes place just in the first half of the novel; there are plenty of other surprises and revelations to follow as Pearl and Ottoline learn more about each other – and as the war progresses, changing the lives of all of our characters forever.

Pearl, the novel’s narrator, is an interesting and complex character. I was intrigued by her habit of pretending to be other people, introducing herself to strangers as Tess Durbeyfield, Mrs Gaskell and even Ottoline Campbell herself…anybody but Pearl Gibson. I was happy, though, that by the end of the novel we’d had a chance to get to know the real Pearl. Ottoline was also a fascinating character, but I felt that she remained more of an enigma.

The Echo of Twilight is Judith Kinghorn’s fourth novel. I loved her first, The Last Summer, was slightly less impressed by the second, The Memory of Lost Senses, and haven’t yet read her third, The Snow Globe. This one sounded appealing to me as it is set during the same time period as The Last Summer – and although the stories are quite different, the two books do share some similar themes. The impact of war, not just on those who are fighting in it, but also on the people left behind, is an important part of both novels. We see how, with so many young men lost from the British workforce, women had to take on what would previously have been considered ‘jobs for men’, and how, once the war was over, the social structure had changed so much that the running of large estates like Delnasay and Birling tended not to be sustainable.

The Echo of Twilight is an easy read – the sort where the pages seem to fly by effortlessly – and a beautifully written one. Although I wasn’t entirely convinced by the romance at the heart of the novel and didn’t sense a lot of chemistry there, there were enough other aspects that I did like to make up for that. It’s not just a romance; it’s also a lovely, moving story about a young woman trying to find her place in the world.

Sadly this book fell very short for what i expected and wanted from it.

The summary of this book sounded so fantastic, i was excited to see a historical fiction book told from a woman's perspective covering such a huge historical important time without actually being about the wars and political changes during the time.

I don't know what exactly i was expecting, but i was not expecting to be bored basically right from the start of this book.
And i am not even sure if it was the writing itself that was just... well for the lack of a better word... dull, or if the plot and the speed the story was told in was what bothered me about this book and made it so very boring and endless feeling.

I do like a handful of small moments throughout the book, for example of Pearl becomes more independent, but i didn't really like the ti didn't really see if that was because Pearl herself became more independent or that simply happened as a by product of the changing times and how the more "traditional roles" became less traditional and changed and so Pearl simply changed with the time.

All in all this book, sadly, just lacked big time for me.
But not every book works for every reader, this one was just clearly not for me. Maybe next time...

A beautiful book. I love stories set in WW1 times. This is not about the battlefields but about the people left behind and the bravery and tragedy war brings. Set in Northumberland and the Scottish Highlands offering a stunning, scenic background you can visualise. War does not discriminate between the privileged or the serving classes. There is a little of a Downton Abbey feel to to it. I loved all the characters and the love, heartbreak and personal stories of the effects of the Great War. Highly recommend.

Great book. Excellent storyline and wonderful main characters. I would highly recommend this book.

I received a free copy of The Echo of Twilight from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
I thoroughly enjoyed this story of Pearl Gibson, a lady's maid taken on by the glamorous but emotionally fragile Lady Ottoline Campbell, facing love and loss upon the outbreak of the First World War. Despite its historical timing, the story stays firmly in Britain, never venturing to the front line, although we hear tales from the broken men returning. However, this is not so much a story of those who went to war as those who stayed behind, touching on what the loss of a whole generation of men meant for the women and the society that remained.
Pearl from very early on is more than just a maid to Ottoline – she very quickly becomes a confidante. The relationship between Ottoline and Pearl is mesmerising. Ottoline goes far beyond what a normal employer would do for their maid, but Ottoline can be erratic and her fragile mental state can make her behaviour concerning at times.
Pearl was born to a young unwed mother who killed herself shortly after and starts the book with nobody in the world. Following Pearl as she finds her way in the world, as she finds people she can love and call family is hugely satisfying. There’s a fair amount of intrigue and brewing scandal in the novel but it is the relationships Pearl forges that drive the novel – particularly those with the butler Mr Watts and Ottoline’s son Billy and cousin Ralph.

I was thrilled to receiving a free copy of this book and it did not disappoint. After reading nothing but thrillers for the last couple of weeks this book was a welcome change and I got engrossed in the characters, there was romance and humour in this book. A good easy read