This book is shallow. Shallow on all fronts. The writing, the characters, the plot, the setting, the dialogue, the emotions, everything about this is shallow. The setting is purely aesthetic, it's obvious that whoever wrote this (whoever S&S hired to write this, that is) didn't do their research. The characters are cardboard, just words on a page, they don't feel like real people. The dialogue is not engaging and weirdly modern. The plot had potential to be completely soap-opera dramatic but it was beyond predictable. The consequences of certain actions never come to pass and everything works out all too happily. The whole time you are told the story never shown it.This book is trying to cash in on the success and hype of Downton Abbey. Don't bother with it because it has none of the emotion and charm that Downton does.