Weekend Review: The Roaring Days of Zora Lily

 

The Roaring Days of Zora Lily / Noelle Salazar
TO: Mira, c2023.
416 p.

This novel starts out at a contemporary museum, where a curator putting together a retrospective of 100 years of movie costumes uncovers the name Zora Lily under the tag of a dress she's mounting. But who is Zora Lily? Nobody seems to know. 

The book then moves back to Zora's storyline, and only returns to the museum at the very end of the book. So it's not a traditional dual timeline novel, rather, it's more of a framing device. Zora's story is the heart of it. 

Zora lives in Seattle in the 20s. She's the eldest daughter in a large-ish family; her mother is a seamstress and Zora helps with the mending and fitting and stitching. But she has a special skill, and she dreams of becoming another Chanel or Lanvin. 

Her life is very eventful. The chapters have her fortunes rising and falling, finding a good position and losing it, having the chance to go to Hollywood to design but returning home before too long, encountering a rich businessman who everyone wants and having him fall for her instantly despite their class differences, then having certain things come between them... if there is something that can happen to her, it will. 

Early in the story, Zora's adventurous friend takes them 'downtown' to a speakeasy, where her friend dances in a revue. Zora helps keep their costumes in order, and from there just keeps sewing her way into Hollywood. I loved the descriptions of the clothes that Zora sews and repairs, the sewing machine she eventually receives, her time in Hollywood in the unsatisfying studio system, and the direction she takes when she returns to Seattle. All the sewing and designing and clothing bits were engaging and a delight to imagine. 

Overall, however, I found the story quite plodding despite all the eventful ups and downs of Zora's life. Her romance was treacly, many of her misfortunes could have been avoided, and her personality seemed dull in comparison to her ambitious and energetic best friend. Also, the writing style didn't catch me, with the wrong word for something being used a few times, and the inclusion of 20s slang like 'gams' thrown in as something Zora says. This doesn't fit her at all. While people might have been using those expressions, the innocent Zora seems unlikely to be throwing them around. 

So, this was just okay for me. I'm not the best target market for these kind of historical sagas anyhow, but will give them a try just for the sewing content, and this one delivered in that area! I just found the story stretched the suspension of disbelief a little too far, for me. 

Weekend Review: The Seamstress of Sardinia

The Seamstress of Sardinia / Bianca Pitzorno
translated from the Italian by Brigid Maher
NY: HarperPerennial, 2022, c2018.
287 p.

It's 1900 in Sardinia, and a young girl lives with her only surviving relative, her grandmother. Her grandmother is a seamstress, and to help scrape out a living, the girl learns to sew from a very young age.

This young sartina (seamstress of sheets, linens and basic clothing) relates her life story from her youth to her advanced age. And as she does so, she sheds light on the society she lives in. As a seamstress who goes to people's homes to do their sewing, she is privy to many family secrets. The book is told in episodes that interrelate and create a picture of her town and its many layers of social class and privilege. 

There is a rich and complex cast of characters, all seen through the eyes of this poor girl who has ambitions and respect for herself. There's the Marchesa Esther, an intelligent girl whose upbringing is unusual, and who doesn't put up with the misogyny of her husband and their society; there are the Provera sisters, a family who is rumoured to be so wealthy that they order all their clothing directly from Paris (but when she is called to work for them, our seamstress discovers the secrets of the household, and the wardrobe). There is an American lady who pays well to have her linens managed, and her tragic story is revealed in one whole section of the book. And there is the neighbour child Assuntina, who somehow becomes the responsibility of our narrator. 

Plus there is romance and pathos and tragedy and class strife -- so much drama & excitement, told in a flowing style. The story involves so many details of daily life, from food to social events to transportation to landscape to expectations of women of different classes -- it's illuminating and fascinating. 

And for sewists, this one is a must read. The author is clearly a sewist as well, the descriptions of actual sewing are fabulous. The main character is not just a sartina in order to provide inside eyes for the author, rather the sewing is a key part of the many stories she tells. From descriptions of fabrics, to her first sewing machine, it is all very realistic and engaging for anybody who can imagine it right alongside the characters. At one point, she's told that you can only sew baby layettes from old sheets that have been laundered over and over, as they are the only fabrics soft enough for infants. At another, she raves over the beautiful silks and prints she's never had a chance to work with before. And one key element near the end will be guessed ahead by sewists, but I'd say probably not by other readers! 

I really enjoyed this book -- for the strong sewing content of course, but also for the story. The characters were so engaging, the stories were dramatic and focused on the female experience. And the setting was completely absorbing. I couldn't stop reading. One of my favourite kinds of historical reads are ones that travel alongside a woman over her whole life, and this is a great example. So good! 

Weekend Review: A Dress of Violet Taffeta

 

A Dress of Violet Taffeta / Tessa Arlen
NY: Berkley, c2022.
335 p.

This novel is based on the life of Lady Duff Gordon, otherwise known as British fashion designer Lucille. I've always been interested in this figure, the sister of sensational writer Elinor Glyn, as they have a Canadian connection. Their mother was Canadian, and they both spent some childhood years living in Guelph with their maternal grandparents after their father died. When their mother remarried, they returned to England. 

In any case, this book focuses on Lucy at the moment that her first marriage is breaking down. Her husband James Wallace was a drunk and a philanderer, and he walked out on her and their daughter Esme. She, somewhat scandalously at the time, filed for divorce. But to support herself and her daughter, she started designing and selling dresses from their flat. 

This took off and she kept growing, with her finger on the pulse of fashion -- less restrictive clothing, less corsetry, lower necklines, and skimpy & silky underclothes. She was a hit. The book focuses quite a bit on the business side of things, describing the dresses and clients well. There is also an assistant who is important in the book, who is an amalgamation of two real people in Lucy's life. The character is interesting, so I was disappointed to learn she was a mashup of sorts. 

Lucy also meets a Scottish lord, Cosmo Duff Gordon, who she eventually marries. They end up travelling on the Titanic, and both survived, though they were accused of bribery afterward as the way they survived. They were completely cleared of the accusations in an inquiry, but Cosmo never got over the character assassination during the trial, and they separated a few years later, he retiring back to Scotland and Lucy spending much time in New York where she'd launched a shop. 

The book was mostly interesting, though it did drag on a bit. I enjoyed the descriptions of the fashions and the sewing, as well as the actual running of a business by a woman at this time. The problem with the book is one I often have with these kinds of stories: the reliance on real people as fictional characters. I don't mind real people showing up as side characters, or having a walk-through role. But when they are the main characters and their motives and personal thoughts are created by a fiction writer, it makes me uncomfortable. Where does truth end? It's not always clear what the author is basing their interpretation of a character on. And I found that in this book, the author tries very hard to create a great love affair between Lucy and Cosmo that I just don't think is based in real life. She focuses heavily on romance, perhaps because this book falls into that kind of genre. But I feel like Lucy would have been a much more self-focused, pragmatic person, as shown by the couple's eventual separation as well. 

In any case, I enjoyed the dressmaking parts, found the writing adequate, and was a little unsettled by the heavy use of real people as main characters. Despite the fact that Lady Duff Gordon had an eventful life, full of moments perfect for a novelist, I am not sure that in the end I wouldn't have just preferred a good biography. 

Weekend Review: The Thread Collectors

 

The Thread Collectors / Shaunna J. Edwards & Alyson Richman
NY: Graydon House, c2022.
400 p.

I'm featuring a novel this week, one that is co-written by two friends, aiming to give a different perspective on the American Civil War. It's set in 1863, and moves between chapters told from the viewpoints of our two main characters, Lily (a New York Jewish wife) and Stella (a Creole woman in New Orleans who is the mistress of a white man but in love with a black man). 

The dual perspectives add to this book. It looks at the Civil War from a woman's point of view, as well as those of the Jewish and Black communities; it examines love, family ties - or fractures, history, music, racism, and of course sewing and thread make their way through the story in meaningful ways. 

I can't summarize the plot, there's too much in it. However, the basic outline is that Stella's William has run away to join a regiment accepting black soldiers. To help him, she stitches a map from threads she's pulled from household items. These maps become much in demand and she finds herself surreptitiously making many for local families. All this while dealing with her family legacy of being claimed by a white man as a kind of mistress at the right age, as a way of staying alive. 

Lily, on the other hand, has her eyes opened to wider realities once her husband Jacob joins up and is sent south. She gets involved in war work to support him, which includes a lot of sewing and bandage making. She eventually travels south herself to find him when his letters stop. 

William and Jacob are both musicians and coincidentally end up in companion units, where Jacob befriends him -- unheard of at this time. Their experiences and developing relationship make up a lot of the book, which we see from their eyes, not from a distance. This does mean that there are some horrific events included, so be aware. But they are all based in real events or stories, and it's important to remember that. 

The tone of the chapters varies slightly depending on who's telling it, but the book overall is well edited and the narrative is smoothly told. It's a bit long in some ways - some of the backstory could have been tightened up, for me anyhow. There were some parts that felt a little coincidental, but were needed to keep the story going. These few small caveats were the only issues I had with an otherwise very unusual and compelling read about this time in history. I thought the characters were fascinating and complex. I was especially drawn in by Stella and her sister, finding their story rich and full of life. I enjoyed how Stella upcycled and used the fibres around her to work toward freedom for many, and how this process strengthened her sense of self. 

Definitely a great read for anyone who is interested in widening their view of American history, or loves a story of strong women swept up in big events. The sewing content is, of course, another plus for me!

Weekend Review: Hester

 

Hester / Laurie Lico Albanese 
New York : St. Martin's Press, 2022.
322 p.

I picked this up because of the beautiful cover, and because the main character was described as a seamstress and embroiderer. I discovered that it tells the story of Scottish born Isobel, who arrives in New England in the early 1800s with her new husband -- and meets Nathaniel Hawthorne, at that time a young moody writer skulking around town.

Isobel feels a connection to him right away, despite being married to an older man. But her husband goes off on an expedition with the ship's captain who brought them to American, and she is left alone in this new and unfamiliar settlement. Her Scottish heritage and her red hair mark her out as 'lesser than' to the Americans already living there. And then she finds that her husband has taken her small savings with him, leaving her literally penniless. She has to turn to the needle to survive, and the descriptions of her embroidered gloves, and eventually more clothing for the women of the settlement, are beautifully done. Her needle is enchanted, stitching images with hidden words and a feeling of power. But this isn't something that will be of much benefit in a place that's suspicious of any inkling of enchantment. 

She is helped by her landlady, an old woman known locally, half-seriously, as a witch. And she's also helped by her nearest neighbour, a free Black woman named Mercy (who is Isobel's inspiration for the powerful hidden words in her work; Mercy did it first). Both of these long-term residents know that the community is not friendly to unusual women, and they reluctantly help Isobel even when she's headstrong and behaves in questionable ways. It doesn't help, either, that Isobel has synesthesia, like many women in her family, and has embroidered her family's story into a cloak that she wore upon arrival, arousing more suspicion of being uncanny. 

Isobel, lonely and young, is swayed by Nathaniel Hawthorne's gothic moodiness and obvious attraction to her. They begin an affair, which Isobel thinks is serious even when the reader can tell it isn't, not on his side. He comes across as entitled and petulant, weak willed and selfish, which is a problem when you are using real people as characters in your fiction. I've mentioned my distaste for real people as fictional characters before, and this book just squeaks by for me due to its other strengths. And the fact that I'm not a huge Hawthorne fan, I guess! 

The writing is rich here, particularly when describing Isobel's childhood and Scottish life. The toxic relationship between the two main characters goes on a little too long, and the outcome is easily predictable, sadly. But I enjoyed the ending, as Isobel ends up in Atlantic Canada with a decent man. The book is presented as a possible backstory for The Scarlet Letter, but I can see connections to novels like The Witch of Blackbird Pond or the more contemporary The Sea Captain's Wife, as well. I actually thought it was a pretty good read, compelling writing with some dual timeline backstory on Isobel's witchy ancestor, and a strong thread about slavery's evils with complex characters inhabiting that story alongside Isobel's own.

(this review first appeared at The Indextrious Reader)

Weekend Review: The Paris Seamstress

 

The Paris Seamstress / Natasha Lester
New York : Forever, 2018
453 p.

I knew I was going to have to read this one at some point -- I couldn't ignore the title or plotline, in which a seamstress from Paris escapes to New York during WWII and starts up a fashion line. However, I am getting a little read out on the WWII stories these days and so had put this one off for a while. 

But this month I finally got to it. It was a pretty good read, although the plethora of "WWII in Paris" novels do start to kind of blend together at some point. In this one there is the added intrigue of famous people who our main character slowly finds out are linked to her in inextricable ways. Lots of family secrets, dashing spies, political intrigue, romance, and of course a lot of sewing.

I liked the balance among all these elements. Estella is a young woman working in a Paris atelier when the war begins, and as things get more dangerous her mother, also a seamstress, basically sends her off to America with the sudden information that Estella had an American father. Estella heads out, still in shock from this revelation, with a suitcase and a sewing machine -- although she hustles down to the port with the sewing machine "banging against her leg" in one hand and the suitcase in the other. I wonder if the author experimented with carrying a 1940s metal machine in a clunky carrying case in one hand for any length of time, when it's described like this. And at one point Estella whips up a glamorous gold evening gown from leftover lamé, about 2 yards worth, in about 2 hours after a long day of work. A real Cinderella moment; I wish I could sew that quickly with such a little bit of fabric! 

But other than those small moments that gave me pause, I found the rest of the book realistic and believable. Estella's story is dramatic, with many strong characters surrounding her - her mother, her two best friends she meets on the boat over to NY, a socialite who looks uncannily like her which leads to a friendship of sorts, and of course her dashing love interest. She also meets many real people, like Elizabeth Hawes (author of Fashion is Spinach) and other fashion leaders of the day. Plus a couple of notorious characters of NY fame; this part was leaned on extensively and I didn't find it convincing at all -- and wonder if there are any descendants of those people who might take issue with the characterizations! 

But like most of these WWII novels lately, the book also has a dual timeline format. Estelle's story starts in 1940, and to me is the much stronger part of the book. We also have a 2015 timeline, in which Estelle's granddaughter Fabienne is discovering her grandmother's secrets just as Estelle's fashion house is being celebrated with an exhibition at the Met in contrast to Estelle herself, whose health is failing due to age. Fabienne thus has to manage the discovery of many secrets on the reader's behalf, including her father's birthright, and the war experiences of her grandmother. Fabienne is, of course, also developing a romance with a tall, dark, handsome, rich and tragic man, even though he's based in NY and she's currently based in Australia. 

Oh, the tangled webs here! Lester is good at creating a complicated, interwoven set of relationships and plot points, which she then resolves neatly by the end. It's a little predictable and the drama is cranked up a little too closely to melodrama once or twice (at least for me). But the settings -- both Paris and lively New York (7th Ave, the Barbizon, the Met and more) are well drawn and the characters are memorable. Overall there is a lot of compelling detail in it, both generally and in more specific sewing areas. I did enjoy it, although I think I'll move on from the genre for a while now. 

Weekend Review: The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle

 

The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle / Jennifer Ryan
NY: Ballantine Books, c2022.
411 p.

This was a very enjoyable novel, set on the home front in England, mid-WWII. It follows the fortunes of three women as they adjust to the new patterns of life in their small village. 

Grace Carlisle is the vicar's daughter, and she's trying to fix her deceased mother's wedding dress for her upcoming nuptials. But she's as uncertain about the wedding as she is about the repairs, especially after she runs into Hugh Westcott, a childhood friend and member of the local aristocracy who she hasn't seen in years.

Cressida Westcott is a successful, London based fashion designer who left the village when she was young and had no intentions ever to return. But her fashion house and her home have both just been destroyed in the Blitz -- she had a narrow escape. She has nowhere left to turn other than her old home. Her nephew Hugh is now in charge, and she can only hope that both Hugh and her niece Violet are more welcoming than her late brother was. 

Meanwhile, Violet is excited by the idea of her famous aunt coming to live with them -- but shortly after Cressida arrives, spoiled Violet receives a conscription letter. She's off to train for a position in the women's corps, but doesn't know what she will end up doing. 

The three women learn to be more empathetic, build their relationships, create meaningful activity that draws the women of the village together, and of course, find true love. 

It was a straightforward story with not too many surprises. It was pretty easy to see the direction that the story was taking as it went along, but it was an enjoyable read with interesting characters. When they start the Wedding Dress Sewing Circle, spurred on by Cressida's arrival and Grace's need for help from the ladies of the already existing sewing group, it livens up the village and allows for some great sewing talk. As mentioned in the notes to this book, and in the last book I read, Fashion on the Ration,  a Wedding Dress lending circle was actually a real thing in the war, started by Barbara Cartland (yes, the romance novelist) who was upset to think that women in the services would have to marry in their ugly uniforms. There is a lot of fascinating historical content in this book, which was so intriguing. 

The parts I was most drawn to were the fashion bits; I thought they were the most unique parts of the story, and of course the whole idea of clothing availability and design in wartime is of interest to me -- I just read a whole book about it! There is info about the clothes rationing schemes rolled into the story quite naturally, and Cressida, as a designer, is asked to participate in the (real life) design challenge given to a handful of fashion designers by the British government when they were trying to figure out how to make Utility clothing more appealing. The scenes at the challenge event were fun to read, especially since Grace was one of Cressida's models -- it was entertaining to see our characters inserted into an historical moment. 

And there was also a bit of historical detail shared at the top of each chapter; the explanation of the design requirements for a piece of Utility clothing was my favourite bit.

If you enjoy a sweet historical romance with a Happy Ever After and lots of period colour, as well as a lot of fascinating fashion tidbits, I'd recommend this read. 

Weekend Review: The Seamstress of New Orleans

 

The Seamstress of New Orleans / Diane C. McPhail
New York, NY : John Scognamiglio Books/Kensington Books, 2022.
346 p.

This is a book I picked up at my library solely for the title and promise of sewing inside! It's a historical novel set in Chicago and New Orleans in 1900 -- not my usual genre but I thought I'd give it a chance. 

It's okay. I wasn't really caught up in the story, finding it a bit repetitive and wishing the focus had been shifted a bit. It follows two female leads, Constance and Alice. Both have just lost their husbands, Constance's to death and Alice's to disappearance. Left on her own in Chicago, Alice makes her way down to New Orleans where she's drawn into the preparations for an all-female Mardi Gras krewe, hired as a seamstress to make Constance's gown. 

Now if this part had been the primary focus -- Mardi Gras, the unusual presence of an all-female krewe, New Orleans itself, plus of course all the gowns in preparation, I would have been enthralled. Unfortunately, McPhail chooses instead to focus on the women's emotional responses to their missing husbands, which gets bogged down as the story goes. Too much backstory, and the big secret that ties Constance and Alice together is extremely easy to see coming from about chapter two. So the mystery falls flat, and the repeated attempts to create tension around it are not effective since the reader already knows the outcome (it's very clear early on).

I found myself skimming a lot of the backstory bits, until I could get back to the descriptions of the dressmaking. And those parts are great. McPhail is an experienced sewist, which you can tell from the way she writes about design and the practicalities of fabric and stitching. When Alice and Constance are discussing the design of the gown they're making, there is life and spark to the story. I found it really interesting that they are basically upcycling a few gowns given to Constance by a richer friend, since she's now pinching pennies without a husband around. They cut them apart and even remove beading, saving the silk threads, to use all of these materials again in the final outfit. And the gown isn't a magical Cinderella thing, Alice lives with Constance for many weeks in order to work on this project, which also shows familiarity with dressmaking!

So I would say this is partially successful; there was obviously a lot of historical research in this story, which shows, and I wish there was more of that detail included in the story -- she could have used the setting much more intensely. Much of the story is focused on the interior lives of Constance and Alice, and it begins to drag in the middle. It wasn't utterly gripping, but enough to keep me reading all weekend to finish it up and see where she went with it. And the sewing details are perfect ;) 

Weekend Review: Making Bombs for Hitler

 

Making Bombs for Hitler / Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
TO: Scholastic, c2012
186 p.

This middle grade novel is a companion to Skrypuch's earlier novel, Stolen Child. This one follows the elder sister of this Ukrainian family that is broken up when Nazis kidnap children in WWII. Lida pretends she's 13, even she is small, knowing that if the Nazi work camp doesn't find her useful for work she'll have a worse fate ahead. Thanks to her cleverness in speaking up about a loose button on an officer's jacket, she is assigned to the laundry, where she performs back-breaking washing and ironing, and is then put to work mending sheets and clothing. Her sewing skills are eventually praised by the head laundress, and her sewing keeps her safe for quite a while. 

However, her quick seamstress hands lead her to a new role alongside a few other girls; they are reassigned to work in a munitions factory, assembling bombs. The descriptions of their daily life and routine are horrifying but well-known to anyone who has read WWII fiction or non-fiction. Lida and her fellow bomb makers decide that they will sabotage the bombs, ruining the gunpowder so that the bombs won't explode on use -- even though they could easily be caught doing this and that would be their death sentence. These scenes draw from the true story of Jewish slave labourers in Czechoslovakia,  who removed the charges from Nazi ammunition and left a note instead, found when a British plane was shot at but wasn't destroyed.

Eventually their munitions factory comes under fire itself, and Lida is sent to another work assignment on a farm where they are starved and cold; but then they are freed by the American forces. During all this time, Lida can't stop wondering about her younger sister Larissa (of The Stolen Child) and what might have happened to her.

This is well written, thoroughly researched, and emotionally compelling, while also pitched just right for the juvenile audience. Skrypuch is really good at these kinds of stories, and this one caught my eye because of the role of sewing in keeping Lida alive. But it's also a powerful story of war and survival, pinning both the Nazis and the Soviets down for their horrific actions. It's timely again, sadly enough. 

Weekend Review: The Dress in the Window

The Dress in the Window / Sofia Grant
NY: William Morrow, c2017
357 p.

I picked up this book in a sale a while back, for obvious reasons! The cover is lovely, and the story follows two sisters who sew and design clothing -- the back blurb makes it sound like they do this together as a business, which I kept waiting for while reading, but it doesn't exactly turn out that way.

WWII has just ended, and Peggy Brink and her sister Jeanne are now living with Peggy's mother-in-law -- Peggy's husband Thomas and Jeanne's fiance Charles (a real rotter) were both killed in the war. Their parents are both dead as well, and they are all so short of money that they've combined forces. Peggy also has a little girl Tommie, who is a strong-willed child who Peggy finds hard to deal with.

It had the setup for a great story. But for me, it turned out to be a so-so story in the end. 

What I liked about it:

At the beginning of each section, a fabric type is described, rather as a metaphor for the upcoming action. But it was also a delight to read these paragraphs that dig into fabric itself. Also, it is clear that the author sews. She understands details and describes the action of sewing correctly, and with that joy that many sewists feel and experience with fabric in hand. Also the frustrations though! 

Jeanne sews and makes over clothing, and it's a pleasure to read those passages. Peggy designs and draws, and ends up with a job in a department store that gives her the opportunity to design her own line. The part in the department store reminded me of Madeleine St John's Women in Black, and it was a great storyline. I'd have been happy to have that element fleshed out as the entire book.

However. What I didn't like about it -- the characters, the writing style overall, the weak, weak ending. 

Most of the time when I read fiction, I'm drawn to a story because of writing and characterization. So this one didn't quite meet my readerly needs. The three characters, Jeanne, Peggy and Thelma, are well conceived, but their interactions are clumsy and unnecessarily fraught with secrets and hurt feelings to keep the story flowing. It got tiresome. 

And the drama! Oh my goodness, each chapter has some big drama - Jeanne has the kind of scare that no single woman wanted at that time; Thelma is revealed to have been having a string of lovers; Peggy doesn't like being a mother! Thelma is sick (secretly of course); the girls' uncle has been keeping their inheritance from them!

Peggy's ambition was to design clothing; she gets her wish. She's extremely successful and happy. But the other two, and society itself, guilt her into giving it all up to take care of Tommie. Who already has a grandmother and aunt who dote on her and are taking care of her, and could use the income that Peggy is making. 

After making a huge deal of Peggy's ambition and rise, the ending falls very flat indeed. Is Peggy then to become one of the women to be shortly written about in Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique? A disappointing ending never leaves a good impression of a book. 

So, there are parts that make this readable, especially for sewists. But the whole book doesn't quite hang together, for me. If you're particularly fond of post WWII American settings you may find it a little more interesting than I did.

Literary Sewing Circle: Bellewether

Spring is here, and so is a new Literary Sewing Circle title! I'm happy to announce that our group read for this round of the Literary Sewing Circle is

Bellewether by Susanna Kearsley 

Summary:

Some houses seem to want to hold their secrets.

It’s 1759 and the world is at war, pulling the North American colonies of Britain and France into the conflict. The times are complicated, as are the loyalties of many New York merchants who have secretly been trading with the French for years, defying Britain’s colonial laws in a game growing ever more treacherous.

When captured French officers are brought to Long Island to be billeted in private homes on their parole of honour, it upends the lives of the Wilde family—deeply involved in the treasonous trade and already divided by war.

Lydia Wilde, struggling to keep the peace in her fracturing family following her mother’s death, has little time or kindness to spare for her unwanted guests. And Canadian lieutenant Jean-Philippe de Sabran has little desire to be there. But by the war’s end they’ll both learn love, honour, and duty can form tangled bonds that are not broken easily.

Their doomed romance becomes a local legend, told and re-told through the years until the present day, when conflict of a different kind brings Charley Van Hoek to Long Island to be the new curator of the Wilde House Museum.

Charley doesn’t believe in ghosts. But as she starts to delve into the history of Lydia and her French officer, it becomes clear that the Wilde House holds more than just secrets, and Charley discovers the legend might not have been telling the whole story...or the whole truth.

(via publisher) 


About Susanna:

© Jacques du Toit

Susanna Kearsley is a New York Times, USA TODAY, and Globe and Mail bestselling author and former museum curator who loves restoring the lost voices of real people to the page, interweaving historical intrigue with modern suspense. Her books, published in translation in more than twenty countries, have won the Catherine Cookson Fiction Prize, RT Reviewers’ Choice Awards, a RITA Award, and National Readers’ Choice Awards, and have finaled for the UK’s Romantic Novel of the Year and the Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel. She lives near Toronto. Visit her at SusannaKearsley.com or follow her on Twitter @SusannaKearsley.  


(via publisher)



This book is available for purchase in both hard copy and ebook formats, as well as in audiobook format.

You can find many formats at all of these locations:

Amazon.ca

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com.au

Book Depository

Chapters Indigo

Powell's

Barnes and Noble

IndieBound

ABE Books

Biblio.com

Or, of course, check your local library!

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How does the Literary Sewing Circle work? We read a book together, discuss it, and then make something inspired by our reading. As long as you can point out what inspired you from your reading, even if just a sentence, you can share your makes in our final roundup!

Anyone can join, and you can sew, knit, quilt or embroider - any textile art that you like doing - to participate. This is a reading/sewing circle, very low-key; no competitions here, just reading and sewing for fun. Although we are very lucky to have special sponsors this time around -- two of the finished projects will be chosen at random to each receive one of the free pattern offerings. Just finish and post your project by the end of the linkup and you will have a chance to win.

There is no official sign-up to worry about; just start reading along if you wish, and leave your thoughts on the book or your project on any of the Literary Sewing Circle posts. We do have a dedicated book discussion post halfway through and again at the end, but leave your thoughts anytime. And when the final post goes up, so does the project linkup -- you can leave a link to your finished project there, whether it is on your blog, a pattern site, or even Instagram. It's easy :)

So, join in, and share!

Literary Sewing Circle Schedule


Mar 6 - Announcement & Introduction
Mar 13 - Inspiration post & featured sponsors
Mar 20 - Author feature
Mar 27 - Halfway mark: book talk
April 3 - Inspiration post
April 10 - Final Post: book discussion wrap up & posting of project linkup


(The project linkup will be live until May 1 - three more weeks - so you have enough time to get your project posted)



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And now for our sponsors!

Because this book involves so much Quebec content, we have two wonderful sponsors, both based in Quebec.

Jalie Patterns is based in Quebec City, and they are offering one free PDF pattern to a participant.

Closet Case Patterns is based in Montreal, and they are offering a $25 credit to their online shop to a participant.

Winners will be selected by random draw on May 2, once all projects are linked up. This is more of a friendly sewalong than a competition, so all prizes are chosen via random number generator. If you participate and link up your project, you have a chance to win one of these generous sponsor prizes.
Thank you to our sponsors!