The Rose Arch — Linda Sole

Brought up by friends of her mother's deep in the French countryside, Jenny Heron's world is an idyllic one of vineyards and everlasting summers. But Jenny's mother Adele decides that at sixteen, Jenny is beginning to grow up too quickly, and insists that she is placed in a strict Parisian convent school. Jenny is delighted to find a soulmate in vivacious Kate Blake, though she begins to doubt her friend's wisdom when she discovers Kate's secret liaison with an older man. But when tragedy strikes Jenny is uprooted again, the time to the beautiful Loire Valley. There she meets dashing Gerard de Arnay, the son of her guardian, and discovers that she herself is not immune to the overwhelming passion of first love. But the past is full of secrets, and Jenny may be getting herself into more trouble than even Kate could have anticipated....