The Violets of March

New Yorker Emily Wilson has just learned that her husband has been having an affair and that her marriage is over. To clear her mind, she decides to spend the month of March with her great-aunt Bee, who lives in Bainbridge Island, WA. Having visited often as a child, she feels the beauty and peacefulness of the island will help her not only research her next novel, but get her life back on track.

As Emily settles in to bed the first night, she discovers a red diary from the 1940s in the nightstand beside the bed. Not knowing the identity of the author (who is Esther?), she can hardly tear herself away from what she’s reading. Is the story that’s unfolding fact or fiction? Are these characters, with their dark secrets, members of her own family?

Sarah Jio’s debut novel is a winner. Her telling of a story within a story is beautifully done, and her writing is perfectly descriptive, not overly flowery. I especially loved Aunt Bee and her relationship with her best friend Evelyn. It's sweet and touching and will make you thankful for your own best friends!

While I'll admit there were aspects of the book that weren't entirely plausible, I'm still a sucker for a well-written book filled with love, self-discovery, suspense and extremely likable characters. I'm looking forward to reading more from Ms. Jio and hope you'll add this novel to your must-read pile.

The Perfume Collector

Imagine receiving a letter telling you a complete stranger has left you an inheritance. That’s exactly what happens in 1955 to demure socialite Grace Monroe, who, with some gentle coaxing from her best friend, travels to Paris to learn more about her unknown benefactor, the mysterious and seductive Eva d’Orsey. 

The latest novel by Kathleen Tessaro is a delicious tale of love, beauty, heartbreak and intrigue that seamlessly intertwines Eva’s complicated life in the glamorous locales of London, New York and Monte Carlo in the 1920s and Grace’s life in the novel’s present day (1950s). I was captivated by Tessaro’s knowledge of the perfume industry, which provides the backstory for the novel. Her descriptions of the art of perfume making are so evocative that you can almost smell the sumptuous concoctions. Add several wonderfully complex characters to the mix and you have all the ingredients for a novel that was extremely hard to put down (I did not want to go to bed!)

While it might not take long for some people to unravel this alluring story (I admit I had things figured out about halfway through the book), getting to the end is a journey you’ll want to take — and soon!

The Chaperone

The Chaperone was incredibly engaging, one of three novels I raced through while sunning myself last week at the beach. As you’d expect from the title, the story focuses on Cora Carlisle, a somewhat prudish Kansas housewife, who volunteers to chaperone 15-year-old Louise Brooks one 1920s summer in New York City. Laura Moriarty deftly chronicles their exploits in the Big Apple, where a strong-willed and somewhat loose-moraled Louise has come to study at a prestigious dance academy. Louise, with her jet-black bob, ends up becoming one of the decade’s most famous silent film stars (really!), but Moriarty ensures that we never lose sight of the fact that Cora is the book’s true star.

I found Cora’s backstory about her search for her birth mother and how she arrived in Kansas (via an orphan train, which was a common way to place orphans from cities like Boston and New York with foster families in the Midwest and West between 1853-1929) to be quite interesting. I also appreciated Moriarty’s ability to make her characters multi-dimensional, especially Cora, who struggles to embrace the changing times — women’s rights and the end of prohibition — while remaining true to her conservative Christian values.

Even though the book starts out a bit slow, once the story begins to unfold you won’t want to put it down. A delightfully entertaining read.