The upheaval of World War I changed society forever, wartime work by women opening doors to new opportunities that could never quite be closed again. Whether it was new occupations or striking out after failed marriages to forge an independent life, the heroines of this month’s selections are determined to create the future they choose.
We begin with THE HARVEY GIRLS by Juliette Fay. Charlotte Crowninshield’s Boston blue blood doesn’t protect her when she finds herself in an abusive marriage. Desperate to escape, she flees to the Southwest. Sixteen-year-old Billie MacTavish, eldest of nine children, needs to earn money to help her struggling immigrant family. Both find refuge when they are accepted to train as Harvey Girls, waitresses who serve the chain of restaurants set up along the Santa Fe railroad. Assigned to room together, they initially share a mutual disdain—and both have secrets that would get them fired, Charlotte as a married woman and Billie being underage. But as they continue the intensive training a bond is formed that deepens when both are assigned to the luxurious El Tovar hotel at the Grand Canyon. We follow as they develop their friendship, their tentative romances, and the courage required to make hard decisions. Fay‘s novel paints a lush picture of the 19th century southwest, from vivid details of the wealthy international visitors who stay at the hotel to the ignoble treatment of the native Americans whose land is being appropriated by ever-expanding American settlement. It’s also a fascinating look into a company that was one of the first to offer attractive wages and a true career opportunity to women.
We explore another unique post-World-War I opportunity in THE EIGHTS by Joanna Miller. In 1920, for the first time, the formerly all-male Oxford University admitted female students. Miller’s story follows the journey of four young women who room on Corridor 8. Dora, who would not have been allowed a university education before the war, goes to replace the brother and fiancé killed on the battlefield. Beatrice, daughter of a famous suffragette, yearns to emerge from her mother’s shadow and build an identity for herself. Otto, a nurse during the war, hopes to recapture her pre-war socialite life and escape the memories that torment her. Quiet Marianne, daughter of a village pastor, sees the university as a chance to build a good life—if she succeeds in hiding a devastating secret. This initially mismatched quartet must bond together to combat the misogyny of fellow students and professors and pioneer a future amid the upheaval of a changing class structure and the shadows lingering over a county that lost a generation of young men. Rich in period detail about post-War society and the university itself, Miller’s book also celebrates the power of female friendship.
The world explored by in THE LAST TWELVE MILES by Erika Robuck couldn’t be more different from academia—and is based on the lives of two real and remarkable women. Elizabeth Smith Friedman, wife of husband-wife team who developed cryptanalysis, works with the Coast Guard in Washington, DC, assisting that service to tract down and intercept rum shipments during Prohibition. In the course of her investigations, she discovers her primary adversary to be Marie Waite, queen of the rumrunners who ply their trade from the Cuba and the Bahamas to Miami. While these two masterminds compete for control—to stop the trade and to continue it--they are also wives and mothers battling to succeed in domains normally ruled by men. Full of fascinating details about the Roaring ‘20s, from the brutal world of mobsters to the cerebral domains of codebreaking, this novel exploring the relationship of two brilliant women rivets the reader.
We end with the story of an ordinary woman who faces an all-too-familiar situation in inventive new ways in MRS. ENDICOTT’S SPLENDID ADVENTURE by Rhys Bowen. After thirty years of marriage, Ellie Endicott is shocked by her husband’s demand for a divorce. As angry as she is stunned, Ellie leaves the house to her cheating spouse, takes the Bentley, her housekeeper Mavis and her elderly friend Dora and with no plan in mind but escape, heads for the South of France. When the Bentley breaks down in the small fishing village of Saint Benet, Ellie rents a villa and settles in. From making friends with the villagers to a possible romance with fisherman Nico, she is energized about her future—but as the 1930s draw to a close, the threat of war approaches to cast a shadow over her new life. What woman couldn’t root for a heroine who throws off the devastation of divorce with the determination to recreate herself? The reader will avidly follow to discover where Ellie’s new adventure will lead.
From opportunities sought to those available to those thrust upon them, the women in this month’s selection of stories use the power of friendship and the grit of determination to battle, succeed and flourish in their environments. Here’s to the ladies!
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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