Listen to your heart

Confused about who you really are?  The same was true for the main character in Listening for Lions by Gloria Whelan.  It's the early 1900s, and Rachel lives in British East Africa with her parents.  After an influenza epidemic kills both of them, she falls under the "care" of the Pritchards, a money-grabbing couple whose daughter Valerie also died of the flu. They convince Rachel to impersonate Valerie and visit Valerie's ill grandfather in England.  Afraid that she'll end up in an orphanage and that the truth of Valerie's death would be the end of Grandfather Pritchard, Rachel goes along with the plan.  But what she doesn't expect is to actually become fond of the elderly gentleman, who's definitely wiser than the Pritchards suspect.  Not only are the descriptions of life in both Africa and England wonderful, but the way in which Rachel eventually tells the real story and figures out how to get back to Africa leads to a very satisfying ending.