The Finishing Touches

A fading English finishing school gets a twenty-first-century makeover in this "modern-day fairy tale" (Romantic Times) from New York Times bestselling author Hester Browne, whose sparkling novels are "charming and feel-good" (Cosmopolitan).Twenty-seven years ago, an infant turned up on the doorstep of London’s esteemed Phillimore Academy for Young Ladies. Now, Betsy Phillimore returns to the place where she was lovingly raised by Lord and Lady Phillimore, only to find the Academy in disrepair and Lord P. desperate to save his legacy. Enter Betsy with a savvy business plan to replace dusty protocol with the essentials girls need today: cell phone etiquette, eating sushi properly, handling credit cards, choosing the perfect little black dress, negotiating a pre-nup, and other lessons in independent living. But returning to London also means crossing paths with her sexy girlhood crush . . . and stirring up the mystery of who her parents are and why they abandoned her. Will the puzzle pieces of her past fall into place while Betsy races to save the only home she’s ever known?

In New York Times bestselling author Hester Browne's delightful new novel, a fading English finishing school is about to get a twenty-first-century makeover. Out with white ...

Lisa Hanson O'Hara - Library Journal

Betsy Cooper Phillimore has turned into a very well-finished lady, considering that she had been abandoned as a baby. Luckily, her birth mother had the foresight to leave her on the doorstep of the Phillimore Academy, one of London's last finishing schools, where she grew up learning good manners along with her ABCs. Betsy didn't actually attend the finishing school, instead taking a math degree at university and eventually ending up in Edinburgh running a high-end shoe store. However, owing to some misunderstanding, her adoptive family believes that Betsy is a successful management consultant and asks her to help get the now faltering academy back on the right financial track. Betsy can hardly say no, and there is the added incentive that she might discover her real mother's identity if she is given access to the academy's old records. Being in London also means that she will see more of Jamie, her best friend's brother and her long-time crush, and Mark, the academy's slightly bookish but handsome bursar. Browne (The Little Lady Agency) has written another entertaining and highly enjoyable novel that will appeal to fans of Bridget Jones's Diary and other British chick lit.

Hester Browne is the New York Times bestselling author of The Little Lady Agency, Little Lady, Big Apple, The Little Lady Agency and the Prince, and The Finishing Touches. Born in England, she studied English at Trinity College, Cambridge. A devotee of Scottish reeling, vintage-clothes hunting, and cryptic crosswords, she lives in London and Herefordshire with her Basset hound Violet. Visit her at www.simonandschuster.com/hesterbrowne.