REVIEW: All My Secrets by Lynn Austin

During the Gilded Age in New York City, follow the stories of Stanhope women Juniata (grandmother), Sylvia (mother) and nineteen-year-old Adelaide (daughter). Juniata and Sylvia married into the Stanhope family though not due to love. The women have lost their income when Sylvia’s husband dies because the patriarch, Juniata’s father-in-law, deeded the family business only back to a male heir. The women must decide what comes next and how they will survive. Over the course of the story, we learn the secrets of Juniata and Sylvia. Those stories shape their guidance to Addie who is of marrying age.
Thanks to Baker Book House for providing me an ARC in exchange for a review in my own words.

REVIEW: The Wings of Poppy Pendelton by Melanie Dobson

Chloe is adrift after the death of her beloved grandparents. When her parents were not able to take care of her, she was left in the loving care of her grandparents. They brought her up in the family business, living on the family island and she fears all will be lost when she settles the estate.
One evening during a terrible thunderstorm, a young girl of about 10 years old ends up on Chloe’s island. The girl is insistent that she needs to stay there.

There’s also the tale of a long-lost Pendleton child, during the Gilded Age, from the same island. That child, Poppy (a/k/a Penelope), was never seen again and mystery surrounds the story as she disappeared the same night as a large party on the island and the night her father died there.

An investigative journalist comes to town to get to the bottom of the story about Poppy. He needs help from Chloe and he becomes involved in both the history story and the arrival of the young girl into Chloe’s life.

Thanks to Tyndale House Publishers for providing me an ARC in exchange for a review in my own words.

REVIEW: The Grand Design by Joy Callaway

Dorothy Draper, 1930s – 1960s interior designer, is the main character. And, the historically significant Greenbrier Resort in White Sulfur Springs, WV serves as another primary character. Although the book is a work of fiction, the author hypothesizes, reasonably so, that Dorothy fell in love with the Greenbrier through her growing up years with summers away from NYC that were spent at the Greenbrier.
The story jumps between 1908 and 1947-1948. We first meet a 19-year-old Dorothy who has fallen in love with Italian race car driver, Enzo. Down on his luck, Enzo agrees to a marriage to Helen Taft, daughter of the President. Star-crossed romantics, Enzo and Dorothy are fated to part. In the 1940s, Dorothy has, at long last, been hired to her dream job of restoring the Greenbrier. As she works on the property, she reflects back on that summer.
It is a clever story with a reach into facts about Dorothy Draper, designer.
Thanks to Harper Muse for providing me an ARC in exchange for a review in my own words.