Here’s good news: an excellent (starred) review of The Gilded Hour from Booklist — the review arm of the American Library Association (have I mentioned that I love librarians?) Here it is:
Donati became an internationally best-selling author with her Wilderness series and now presents a novel about the descendants of her earlier characters. As she illuminates life in America in 1883, she tells a compelling tale that dramatizes aspects of race, ethnicity, class, family, societal roles, and gender while creating memorable characters and intense relationships set against the bustle of New York City, as the Brooklyn Bridge rises and Anthony Comstock crusades against what he considers vice and depravity.
Cousins Anna and Sophie Savard, both raised by a Knickerbocker relative they call Aunt, are graduates of the Women’s Medical School and hardworking physicians who defy social norms by caring for those who need them most. Sophie, who is mixed race, loves and is loved by the consumptive scion of one of Manhattan society’s leading families. Anna meets a well-educated Italian American detective who helps her search for orphaned brothers, one an infant, who have gone missing after being separated from their sisters en route to a Manhattan orphanage. When Anna treats a woman who dies after being injured during a botched abortion, Comstock sets his sights on the cousins. This satisfying read, rich in interpersonal relationships of many kinds, is part romance, part mystery, and part serial-killer thriller.
— Diana Tixier Herald
Congratulations! That’s two excellent reviews so far, let’s hope the trend continues.
And it all makes me even more anxious to get my copy.
Sara Donati is adding to her skilful tapestry continuing her saga of the later descendants of the much loved family. I can’t wait to read it!
So exciting! I have had a hard time finding another author that I liked, so I couldn’t be happier to see one of my favorites write a new book. I’m not really too surprised that it’s getting good reviews.
I cannot wait to read this book!
Arrrrrrrggggg.
1. I am so happy ( but not in the slightest bit surprised) that the book got a lovely review.
2. I hate reading reviews for books I am anxiously awaiting. It’s pretty much like telling me how much you are enjoying the hot fudge sundae with the whipped cream and nuts and fresh out of the oven chocolate chip cookies that you are eating right NOW knowing full well that_I_won’t_any til much, much later. Excuse me please while I go ease my sorrow with a wee dram. And a chocolate chip cookie.
You make me smile. Now I want a hot fudge sundae.
I am so excited!
What can I say that you have not heard before, when I first found the first book about Elizabeth and Nathaniel, it was like I stepped into a place where i always wanted to go but was afraid to visit. Fascinating.