The Other Dashwood

“There were three Dashwood sisters, but most people could only remember two. Maggie felt this keenly. Being the least exceptional member of an annoyingly exceptional family.”

Elinor and Marianne Dashwood have met their matches and moved on. Leaving Barton Park Barn and their little sister Margaret behind. Margaret Dashwood—known to her friends as Maggie—and to herself as The Other Dashwood. The one no one remembers.

Just-turned-seventeen-Maggie is reeling from a school suspension after her involvement in a fire that seriously injured a fellow student. Determined to start again and work out exactly who she is without her sisters, Maggie enrols at a new college, only to have her world turned upside down when her mother and half-brother John instead decide to send her to the elite Cliveden boarding school, in an effort to instil her with the Dashwood sensibility.

At Cliveden, being a Dashwood matters. As one of the founding families of the 250 year old school, Margaret Dashwood is welcomed with open arms; but for half-Tamil Maggie, daughter of an immigrant and cut off by her Dashwood family following the death of her father, the reality is more complicated—leaving her more the ‘other’ Dashwood than ever.

Until she meets Theo Willoughby. Beautiful, rakish, misunderstood Theo, who understands the power of a family name more than most. When Theo disappears, it is up to Margaret to find him and prove once and for all, that a name is not what makes you.

Faced with the past, Maggie must answer questions about her future. How will she live with what happened the night of the fire—and can you ever be free of other people’s expectations?