About the book: From the bestselling author of It Happened at the Fair and Fair Play comes a compelling historical novel about a progressive “New Woman”—the girl behind Tiffany’s chapel—and the love that threatens it all.
As preparations for the 1893 World’s Fair set Chicago and the nation on fire, Louis Tiffany—heir to the exclusive Fifth Avenue jewelry empire—seizes the opportunity to unveil his state-of-the-art, stained glass, mosaic chapel, the likes of which the world has never seen.
But when Louis’s dream is threatened by a glassworkers’ strike months before the Fair opens, he turns to an unforeseen source for help: the female students at the New York Art Institute. Eager for adventure, the young women pick up their skirts, move to boarding houses, take up steel cutters, and assume new identities as the “Tiffany Girls.”
Tiffany Girls is the heartwarming story of the impetuous Flossie Jayne, a beautiful, budding artist who is handpicked by Louis to help complete the Tiffany chapel. Though excited to live in a boarding house when most women stayed home, she quickly finds the world is less welcoming than anticipated. From a Casanova male, to an unconventional married couple, and a condescending singing master, she takes on a colorful cast of characters to transform the boarding house into a home while racing to complete the Tiffany chapel and make a name for herself in the art world.
As challenges mount, her ambitions become threatened from an unexpected quarter: her own heart. Who will claim victory? Her dreams or the captivating boarder next door?
My review: I LOVED this book! I love the way that Deeanne Gist writes historical novels. She has such a way with writing characters that almost seem to jump off the pages. I loved Flossie, she is an amazing character. I loved the way that she was willing to go against her parents and most of the people she knew in order to become a working girl, a "New Woman", earning her own money and deciding herself how she would spend it. I liked Reeve too, it was fun to see the story through his eyes as well as Flossie's.
It was really fun to read about the Tiffany Girls, I had heard of Tiffany glass, but really didn't know much about it and nothing at all about the Tiffany Girls. I think these women were amazing to do what at the time was considered man's work, and not only that, but they were ridiculed for it, but the men that would have normally done the job and most of society too. I loved this aspect of the book!
I thought that the story line was excellent too. There was plenty of conflict between society, the people in Flossie's boarding house and between Flossie and her parents to keep the plot interesting and the story moving along. It's a large book, but the way that it's written makes it a book that's very easy and quick to read. I loved the romance of the book too, very well written romance. It was fun to see the way that dating/courting would have been in that time period, it's interesting just how different things were back then.
Pick up this one, it's a great book, just like all of Deeanne Gist's other books.
I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.Labels: Clean Romance, Deeanne Gist, Historical Romance
