A Christmas Promise

It may seem wrong to be reading a Christmas story in the spring, but I needed an Anne Perry fix while I wait for the next William Monk novel (A Sunless Sea) to come out in August. I hadn't yet read any of her holiday series books, so I decided to try one of them.
A Christmas Promise is a quick little read about 13-year-old Gracie Phipps trying to help 8-year old Minnie Maude Mudway find her missing friend Charlie in the freezing slums of London's east end. It is three days before Christmas. Charlie is a donkey who pulled Minnie's Uncle Alf's rag and bone cart. Uncle Alf was found brutally murdered. Charlie and the cart are missing.
I might read all the books our library has in Perry's holiday series, but I'll probably wait until the holiday season to read them. I love Anne Perry's Monk series so much. It is hard to believe the author was herself convicted of murder in New Zealand when she was fifteen years old.

Glow is the first novel by Jessica Maria Tuccelli. It is so my kind of book. "With Cherokee lore and hoodoo conjuring, Glow transports us from Washington, D.C., on the brink of World War II to the Blue Ridge frontier of 1836, from the parlors of antebellum manses to the plantation kitchens where girls are raised by women who stand in as mothers. As the land with all its promise and turmoil passes from one generation to the next, Ella's ancestral home turns from safe haven to mayhem and back again."
One line from the book which especially spoke to me was this one - a former slave woman remembering her mother - a woman captured and transported from Africa, sold to work on a plantation: "For the first time since she died, I could feel the joy of her. You got to be careful with grief, that it don't shove all the other memories aside and one day you find yourself on this Mother Earth too far along and with a terrible fear: that you done lost the memories, they vanished like they ain't never happened, and you got to dig to uncover the dead, you got to pray they more than dust."
I'm putting Tuccelli on my list of authors to watch for - hoping that she writes more than one book. She has the kind of magical writing I enjoy.

I probably should have waited another couple of months to read Elizabeth Adler's latest - From Barcelona With Love - just because she writes the most perfect summer reads: romance, exotic locales and mysterious characters. Of course, being transported from Malibu to Barcelona in May isn't too bad, either.
Adler is a self-confessed romantic, travel addict and a foodie, all of which she infuses into her writing. This latest novel continues with the same characters she introduced in her last three, so I have developed an interest in her Malibu detective and his Latino side-kick. I hope she continues to write about them, but I'll always read an Adler novel regardless of the characters. They are just plain fun escapism.

Finally, the popularity of The Help waned and it was no longer always OUT at the library. I'm not even going to try to add my feeble review of Kathryn Stockett's stellar debut novel. Suffice it to say I agree with all the kudos it has received. I loved the book. I want to watch the movie now.

It appears that Kate Alcott is also a first-time author with her judiciously timed novel, The Dressmaker. The book was published this year, the Centennial anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic and the book is about, what else, passengers on the Titanic.
One of the interesting aspects of this novel is that two of the main characters are actual people - Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon - famous as the fashion designer, Lucile, and her sister, British novelist and Hollywood screenwriter, Elinor Glyn. Lady Duff-Gordon really did survive the sinking of the Titanic. And three years later, she survived the sinking of the Lusitania when, due to illness, she cancelled her reservation on its last voyage. I find the life stories of both these sisters quite fascinating.
The book is told from the view of Tess, an accomplished seamstress and aspiring designer. She is hired by Lucy as a personal maid to accompany the Duff-Gordon's to New York. It gives her the opportunity to show Lucy she can be more than just a maid. They all survive the sinking of the Titanic. Once in New York, Lucy gives Tess a job in her dressmaking workrooms. Her first assignment is as a presser. Very quickly Lady Duff-Gordon promotes Tess and gives her some expensive material to use in fabricating one of her own designs which Lucy will show along with her fashions in the season's collection.
A U.S. inquiry into the Titanic tragedy begins almost immediately even as rumors begin to circulate about the survivors and the choices they made. One of the rumors is that Lady Duff-Gordon may have saved herself at the expense of others, and the ensuing stories catapult the imperious fashion designer onto the front pages of the newspapers, turning her into an object of scorn.
Tess is torn between loyalty to her mentor and the chance Lucy has given her to achieve her dreams and doing what is right and honorable. I've read books and watched movies and documentaries about the Titanic and always found them fascinating. This novel adds one more layer to the stories.
Finally, why I said it appears that Kate Alcott is a first time author - Kate Alcott is the pseudonym of author Patricia O'Brien and this is her sixth book. The Dressmaker was rejected thirteen times because her previous novel, Harriet and Isabella, "hadn't sold well enough".  When she submitted the manuscript using the pen name, Kate Alcott, it sold immediately. I'm glad it did. I really enjoyed the book.