A Zibby Owens for Katie Couric’s Katie’s Picks Fall Must Read

Set in Victorian England, The Last Season is a story of social upheaval, changing fortunes, and an unlikely romance that develops between a well-to-do heiress and a stable boy.

When they meet as adolescents at Drayton Manor, the well-to-do Cassandra Drayton and the manor’s stable boy, Crispin St. John, seem destined for very different futures. Yet, the two strike up a secret and forbidden friendship. Once discovered, they are forced apart, with Cassandra staying locked in her father’s world and Crispin traveling to India to make his own way.

Years later, when Cassandra’s high-society London lifestyle is shattered by her father’s spectacular fall from grace, she is surprised to reunite with her childhood friend, no longer a penniless boy but an enterprising young man who has risen through the ranks of the Indian cotton trade. As they navigate changing circumstances, fickle friendships, and social upheaval, Cassandra and Crispin find that the bond they developed as children is a lasting one.