More Than You Know

Title: More Than You Know

Author: Penny Vincenzi

Publication Information: Doubleday, Random House Inc. 2012. 589 pages.

Book Source: I received this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program free of cost in exchange for an honest review. The book arrived as a bound galley.

Favorite Quote: "Two things count in this business...One is that you have to be a gentleman. Your word is your bond....And you've got to be able to get along with people."

More Than You Know is a saga of a family and the people who surround them. It is set in 1960s London in the world of high fashion and real estate. It is the story of Eliza, a woman from the "upper" class of London, and Matt, a working-class man making his own way in the world. It is the story of how they come together, the family they create, and how that family falls apart and comes together.

More Than You Know is also the story of societal class lines and the struggle to find your own identity in the world regardless of those lines and where you come from. Being told where you "belong" or thinking where you belong, yet striving for something different.Eliza sets out to not follow the expected debutant path but to create her own identity in the fashion industry. Matt sets out to reinvent himself away from his working-class roots into the life of a real estate tycoon.

Surrounding them are varied characters who also walk this path in some way. Some do it with success and grace; some less so. All these stories are told in the context of Matt and Eliza's relationship - through meeting, courtship, marriage, parenthood, divorce, and beyond.

More Than You Know was an okay book. The story is told in almost 600 pages. The first quarter of the book seemed to be introducing the characters and setting up the main plot line of Matt and Eliza. It got a little long. Some of the characters were interesting, and some of the side stories were interesting. However, there are a lot of them! Overall, not a bad book but not a great book either.