Cinders & Sapphires (At Somerton) by Leila Rasheed

Rose Cliffe has never met a young lady like her new mistress. Clever, rich, and beautiful, Ada Averly treats Rose as an equal. And Rose could use a friend-to the rest of the staff at Somerton Court she is the indulged favorite of the housekeeper, her mother. Especially now that she has risen to ladies' maid at barely sixteen. Rose knows she should be grateful to even have a place at a house like Somerton. Still, she can't help but wonder what her life might have been had she been born a lady like Ada. If she even had a father.

Ada never believed that one encounter could so completely alter a young lady's heart. That was before her voyage to England. For the first time in a decade, the Averlys have returned to Somerton, their majestic ancestral estate. But terrible scandal has followed Ada's beloved father all the way from India. Now Ada finds herself torn between her own happiness and her family's honor.  Only she has the power to restore the Averly name-by marrying a man more than twice her age. And ever since her voyage across the sea, she's loved someone else...someone she could never persuade her father to accept. 

I made it about a third of the way through this book, and I enjoyed the story well enough, but I came across the same problem I had with the Gossip Girl series, too many characters, not enough development, and not enough interest to keep going.  For awhile I pretended that the maid Rose was actually Moira from American Horror Story: Murder House, and that helped.  But, eventually I started reading again and they mentioned a character that I'd already been introduced to and I thought "who in the world is that???", didn't care to go back and find out, and promptly gave up reading.  I don't think the book was bad, I just lost interest.

This review is based on an e-ARC I was allowed to read.  I received no compensation or free swag for my review.