The Kashmir Shawl by Rosie Thomas

A romantic novel about a young woman who goes on a trip to India to rediscover her family's past. Luckily, this past is more interesting than "my grandparents lived in India for a bit" (although not by much). There are some truly amazing coincidences. The young woman can hardly turn round without accidentally bumping into people who have some connection to her grandparents. Or perhaps not that amazing. India is quite small.


The characters in this novel are a little one dimensional but the writing is good and the plot, although thin, is gently flowing. Definitely a readable girly novel and would be a good beach read.


[Note to author: there is no grammatical rule which requires the words "in spite of.." to be followed by "...perhaps because of...". You're welcome.]