From taking on a challenging job to creating a new life after a devastating natural disaster, this month’s books echo January’s theme of new beginnings.
We start with THE TIFFANY GIRLS by Shelley Noble. It’s the dawn of a new century and to promote his work, stained glass artist Louis Tiffany is planning a special exhibit for the Paris World’s Fair. Among the artists working to make this project a reality are three members of the Women’s Division. Emilie Pascal, daughter of an art forger who fled Paris, hopes to establish her new life as a craftsman by perfecting Tiffany’s designs. Grace Griffith is the best copyist, cutting glass pieces to form the exquisite flower designs for which the company is famous. Overseeing them is Clara Driscoll, manager of the Women’s Division, who while handling her division’s schedule, budget and sometimes fractious employees, has her own dreams of the ultimate glass creation, even though the women workers receive none of the credit for the designs they bring to life. Full of fascinating detail about the construction of glasswork and with rich background details that bring to life New York and Paris in 1900, Noble‘s book illuminates these women pioneers who worked in one of the few commercial artistic endeavors open to them, blazing a trail for women artists to follow.
Shelley Noble gives us the tale of another set of trailblazers in THE COLONY CLUB. When Gilded Age society matron Daisy Harriman is refused a room at the Waldorf because her husband didn’t accompany her, she decides to create a feminine version of the traditional men’s club, a place where women can stay overnight, dine with friends and meet to discuss the issues of the day. She hires famed architect Stanford White to design the building and asks actress Elsie de Wolfe to design the interiors. White sends over an assistant, Nora Bromely, to help coordinate the project. Though Nora, who is determined despite male hostility to become an architect herself, is initially angry at being foisted off on the “women’s club” project, the three women will eventually overcome their differences to work together. But when Stanford White is murdered, his scandalous personal life becomes known, with Nora falsely implicated as one of his lovers. As wealthy backers begin withdrawing support because of the scandal, the three will have to harness all their skill, energy and persuasion to make Daisy’s dream of a woman’s retreat finally become a reality.
To what lengths would you go to create a new life? Frances Quinn takes on that question in THE LOST PASSENGER. Elinor Coombes thought she was living a fairy-tale romance when she was wooed by an English aristocrat, realizing too late he married her not for love but for her fat dowry. Trapped in an upper-class English world full of rigid rules, allowed to see her own infant son only a few hours a day, she gratefully accepts her father’s gift of tickets on the maiden voyage of the luxury liner Titanic, a chance to escape her husband’s controlling world and to spend time with her son Teddy. When the ship is sunk, Elinor sees a chance to escape for good with her son and begin again. Stealing another woman’s identity, Elinor lands in New York, catapulted from a sheltered life into the teeming struggle to survive that is the Lower East End. When someone from her past appears, she must risk everything to protect her new life and keep her son.
In a fascinating meld of the historical and fictional, OLEANDER CITY by Matt Bondurant explores the aftermath of the devastating 1900 Galveston hurricane through the eyes of three main characters. Six-year-old Hester is the sole survivor from the Sisters of the Incarnate Word orphanage. While recovery efforts begin, vigilantes prowl the city to settle scores, with innocents like Hester at their mercy. She finds refuge with Diana, one of the Red Cross ladies led by Clara Barton, who are organizing relief efforts. To help in the recovery effort, “Chrysanthemum Joe” Choynski, the most successful Jewish boxer in America, agrees to stage a bout with local champion Jack Johnson, “the Galveston Giant.” As each character alternately narrates his or her story, Bondurant shows us the spirit of a city fighting back from devastation and chaos to rebuild lives, businesses and hope for the future.
Do you have some project to start anew in the New Year? Let these stories of gritty survivors determined to achieve their objections in the face of all opposition inspire you!
Real, intense, passionate historical romance
Award-winning romance author Julia Justiss, who has written more than thirty historical novels and novellas set in the English Regency and the American West, just completed her first contemporary series set in the fictional Hill Country town of Whiskey River, Texas.
A voracious reader who began jotting down plot ideas for Nancy Drew novels in her third grade spiral, Julia has published poetry and worked as a business journalist.
She and her husband live in East Texas, where she continues to craft the stories she loves. Check her website for details about her books, chat with her on social media, and follow her on Bookbub and Amazon to receive notices about her latest releases.
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