JESS JUST READS

A BOOK REVIEW BLOG

Her Mother’s Secret by Natasha Lester

1918, England. Armistice Day should bring peace into Leonora’s life. Rather than secretly making cosmetics in her father’s chemist shop to sell to army nurses such as Joan, her adventurous Australian friend, Leo hopes to now display her wares openly. Instead, Spanish flu arrives in the village, claiming her father’s life.

Determined to start over, she boards a ship to New York City. On the way she meets debonair department store heir Everett Forsyth . . . In Manhattan, Leo works hard to make her cosmetics dream come true, but she’s a woman alone with a small salary and a society that deems make-up scandalous.

1939, New York City. Everett’s daughter, Alice, a promising ballerina, receives a mysterious letter inviting her to star in a series of advertisements for a cosmetics line. If she accepts she will be immortalized like dancers such as Zelda Fitzgerald, Josephine Baker and Ginger Rogers. Why, then, are her parents so quick to forbid it?

Her Mother’s Secret is a historical fiction novel set in America in the early 1900s. Leo’s father has recently died and she’s boarded a ship to NYC to start over. She dreams that her cosmetic creations will be stocked in department stores. She’s crafted lipsticks, glosses and mascaras and despite judgement and scolding, she knows that beautiful, glamorous makeup is what women will want.

Prior to boarding the ship, Leo meets Everett Forsyth. He’s gorgeous, captivating and the two of them share one night together. But then Leo meets Everett’s fiancé, and any hope she had of the two of them being together is lost. Leo realises that even though they may be soulmates and he may be the love of her life, she needs to venture out on her own. The two of them part ways.

“Leo searched for the right words to describe her encounter with Everett. He was the first man who’d kissed her with passion, open-mouthed; the first man who’d brought her body fully to life. The first man who’d made her understand what love was. But she couldn’t say that.”

Natasha Lester’s writing style is accessible and easy to read. The characters are inviting and relatable, and we are engaged throughout the entire book. Leo is strong, smart and determined, but she is forced to fight society’s perception of her and society’s gender inequality. Despite being set in the early 1900s, this inequality can definitely still be found in the world today. It was humbling to read about someone who carved her own future despite all the odds being stacked against her.

“So Leo does have something of value.”
“Besides a propensity to sleep with men she shouldn’t,” Faye bit back.
“Didn’t you once say you’d followed a rake to England? I assume you didn’t just hold his hand,” Leo said.

Despite some of the characters being incredibly flawed, Natasha has put together an ensemble cast that compliment each other and really help drive the story. I really sympathised for Leo, who had to work so hard and who had to compromise with other people who didn’t really work hard at all. But, despite this, Leo forms a strong bond with two other women: Jia and Lottie. Together they plan and create the products. They’re not just Leo’s colleagues — they’re her friends. The two of them help Leo through some really tough times, and it was great to see their friendship grow over the course of the novel.

“The salon opened its doors in September 1920. On that day, Leo stood in the main room with Jia and Lottie, eyeing what they’ve done, feeling so proud.”

The factual events in the book highlight Natasha’s research, for example Elizabeth Arden and the Red Door Studio. There is also a lot of information about how Leo makes her cosmetics and the chemistry and science behind them. It’s actually really interesting and intriguing if you don’t know anything about it (like me!) and getting a glimpse into all this behind-the-scenes information was my favourite part of the book (as well as the romance, of course!).

Natasha has crafted a really glamorous, envious setting for most of the book. The people that Leo meets and the connections she makes opens her up to a lot of opportunities she didn’t otherwise have. Yes, she goes through her fair share of struggles but she also paves her own way through a very elite and glamorous group of wealthy people. She’s also a very intelligent woman with a very strategic mind.

Her Mother’s Secret is fun, fabulous and bold. The characters are wonderful, and they make the story pop. I loved this book so much that upon finishing it, I immediately went and bought Natasha’s previous book A Kiss from Mr. Fitzgerald. There have been very few books that I’ve adored so much that I’ve gone and bought backlist without a second thought.

Natasha was inspired to write the book after working as the marketing manager for the head office of L’Oreal. If you want to know more, Natasha has written a fantastic blog post series on her website about writing this book. I highly recommend you give it a read HERE.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Her Mother’s Secret
Natasha Lester
April 2017
Hachette Publishers

Spindrift by Tamara McKinley

Set in 1905, Spindrift is a historical fiction novel about three generations of women journeying from Tasmania to the Isle of Skye in Scotland. Sixty-five year old Christy wants to make the trek back to where she was born and lived out her childhood years. Unwilling to let her go by herself, Christy’s daughter Anne and granddaughter Kathryn accompany her.

Tamara has established the setting of the novel and really created picturesque imagery for the reader to enjoy. She’s crafted Tasmania and Scotland beautifully and I really enjoyed both settings in the novel. Spindrift is well-paced, with plenty of historical references and enough mystery and intrigue to keep me reading.

There were a few things about the book that I disliked. Despite the bond these three develop, and despite the epic journey they undertake, I felt like the three characters weren’t very likeable. Christy seemed bland, Anne was so overly flawed that she was unlikeable, and Kathryn seemed unrealistic for a young girl of her age.

“Kathryn felt sorry for her mother’s embarrassment, but she really only had herself to blame. Grandmother had warned them that they should dress appropriately for their journey, which would involve getting on and off boats and ramps, and although she’d heeded the advice, her had, as usual, ignored it.”

“Gregor’s eyes twinkled and Kathryn giggled, but Anne gave a disgusted snort and moved to the far side of the carriage to distance herself from her mother’s shocking behaviour.”

Tamara McKinley has a habit of hinting at a conversation or known fact, but drawing it out to try and keep the reader interested. Instead of including dialogue for a conversation, Tamara will paraphrase the exchange but keep out vital information. Although this is intended to keep the reader interested in whatever ‘secret’ information is left out, it actually feels like a cheap trick and it frustrates the reader.

Harold, Anne’s husband, is presented with some documents that jeopardise some of Christy’s land, except, a lot of information is left out for most of the book and you find yourself confused. The reader doesn’t actually know what the lawsuit is about until right at the end of the novel when Christy talks about it. So, for the entire novel you’re reading about how worried Harold is and how stressed Christy and Anne are, but you really have no idea what they’re talking out. It’s quite confusing for the reader and at times I felt my interest faltering.

“Read through that while I take a bath. Once I’m clean and fed, I’ll be in a better frame of mind to discuss it with you.”
Harold went up to the sweeping staircase and along the wide landing to the suite of rooms in the west wing.”

After the above conversation, there’s a section break while Hamish reads the documents and so then they have a conversation about these papers, but the reader has no idea what’s on them!

Despite these few flaws, there were some great aspects to the book. Tamara sets up suspense and intrigue well – there are parallel stories running throughout the book and therefore there are a lot of secrets being uncovered and a lot of suspicions being raised. The ending to the mysteries are not predictable and quite well thought out – they satisfyingly rap up the storyline and bring an end to the story.

I would really only recommend this book to readers who love historical fiction. Without any romance to carry the story, it can feel like a chore at times.

Thank you to Hachette Publishers for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Spindrift
Tamara McKinley
March 2017
Hachette Publishers

The Courtesan by Alexandra Curry

The Courtesan
Alexandra Curry
June 2016
Published by Allen & Unwin

The Courtesan is a historical fiction novel set during the Qing dynasty, and the book follows Sai Jinhua’s life during the extraordinary twilight decades of this dynasty. This novel was inspired by the real-life courtesan Sai Jinhua, who to this day, is still considered a legend in China.

It’s hard to believe that this is a debut novel for Alexandra Curry – she has crafted a tale that takes the reader from the depths of the Chinese empire to the palaces of Vienna. In 1881, seven-year-old Jinhua is left an orphan, alone and unprotected after her mandarin father’s summary execution for the crime of speaking the truth. Jinhua is sold to a brothel-keeper and subjected to horrible torture at the hands of the men who visit her. She struggles to understand where her life is now headed, but she holds on to her father’s legacy to remain headstrong to survive.

Soon after she is brought into the brothel, a troubled scholar takes Jinhua as his concubine (mistress) and she becomes enthralled in his tumultuous relationship with his first wife, who is extremely jealous of Jinhua.

San Jinhua is a determined, strong character. She’s smart enough to understand the world she inhabits, but confident enough to try and break the mould and adapt her life to suit her needs. She stays strong, even when she shouldn’t. She is able to reminisce on her bond with her father to get her through some rather tough circumstances, and even though this book can be quite distressing to read in some parts, it highlights a part of Chinese history that some may have since forgotten.

The Courtesan is a raw, moving and inspired tale of loss, survival and determination. We follow Jinhua through her worst moments and watch her build herself up as a survivor amidst a large amount of death and defeat. There are particular scenes in the novel that Alexandra thankfully decided to skip over. We don’t have to read about the horrific, painful process of Jinhua’s feet being bound, only the lead up to it as the brother keeper prepares Jinhua for the process. Again, we don’t have to read too many detailed scenes of Jinhua’s sexual assaults, but we do read about her recovery and how each experience affects her afterwards.

The Courtesan highlights the history of China’s relationship with the West and distills Jinhua’s journey of untold miles to discern what is real and what is abiding. I really love historical fiction and this novel didn’t disappoint. It’s masterfully crafted and exquisite in detail and description. I’d highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys adult fiction or historical fiction.

The Blue Between Sky and Water by Susan Abulhawa

This is one of my favourite books that I’ve read this year. Have I mentioned how much I love reading historical fiction?

The Blue Between Sky and Water is about four generations of powerful Palestinian women in Gaza. The women are strong, resilient, passionate, and they put their family first and they aren’t afraid to make sacrifices to protect their own.

A Palestinian family is violently pushed from their ancient farming village of Beit Daras and they try to reconstitute themselves in a refugee camp in Gaza. The men there, those who have escaped prison or the battlefields, worry over making ends meet, they tend their tattered pride, and they join the resistance. The women are left to be breadwinners and protectors. Nazmiyeh is the matriarch and very much the main character in the novel. She is the center of a household of sisters, daughters, granddaughters, whose lives threaten to spin out of control with every personal crisis, military attack, or political landmine.

Her brother’s granddaughter Nur is stuck in America; her own daughter’s son, traumatized in an Israeli assault, slips into another kind of exile; her daughter has cancer and no access to medicine. Their neighbour, the Beekeeper’s wife, will extract the marijuana resin to shrink her tumor, but it is also Nazmiyeh’s large heart and zest for life that heals, that will even call Nur back from the broken promise of America and set her on a new path. All Nazmiyeh’s loved ones will return to her, and ultimately journey further, to that place between the sky and water where all is as it once was, and where all will meet again.

The Blue Between Sky and Water is a fantastic, divine novel about survival, showcasing powerful women who manage to enlarge and enliven the everyday. When I say ‘powerful women’, I don’t mean in status. They are not wealthy or important, but they are struggling. They have tragedy in their lives and they are coping. But the women rise above all that to tackle their problems and their issues and they come together to live their lives and take things one step at a time. They are bold and confident and they stand up for themselves. They are the stars of this novel and they are inspiring to the reader.

This is a timeless novel, with lyrical prose and insight into the historical woes and turmoil in Gaza. The novel jumps between generations and families and characters, but all of the sections come together to deliver a satisfying conclusion that resembles the importance of family and the importance of being there for one another.

I loved the characters in this novel, but I also loved the magic realism that the author wove into the story. We received short bits of it every so often and it was refreshing and uplifting and it helped propel the story forward. This book illustrated a culture that I know very little about, and it presented it in a sensitive and honest setting. A true setting, with events that have really happened in the world and are hard to imagine.

Above all else, this book shows us characters who have lost everything, who are suffering and have nothing, but are able to rebuild and begin again, find love and cherish everything that they’ve gained. It’s a beautiful book and I can’t recommend it enough.

Precious Things by Kelly Doust

Precious Things is one of my favourite adult fiction books of the year. It’s a slow-burner, but it’s beautifully written with wonderful characters and hidden historical gems.

Kelly Doust has done a marvellous job of writing an adult fiction book that resembles historical fiction as well as contemporary fiction. Precious Things follows many characters throughout the past few centuries, however the main character is Maggie, an auctioneer in modern-day London. She comes across a crumpled, neglected collar in a box of old junk, and sets out on an unexpected mission to discover more about its secret and elusive past.

Whilst this happens, Kelly has interwoven chapters in the book about who owned the collar in the past. In Normandy, France in 1891, a young woman sews the beaded collar to her wedding dress the night before her marriage to someone she barely knows. And then in Shanghai in 1926, we come across a dancing sensation Zephyr who finds that same collar discarded on a ballroom floor. There are many other characters that are explored in this novel, all who have come across this collar at some point in their lives, holding special meaning for them and the reader. The collar has passed through the hands of many talented young people, but not for long.

It’s hard not to fall in love with these characters. They’re kind-hearted, devoted, passionate, and struggling. The collar seems to come into their lives when they most need some kind of good luck charm. And as quickly as it enters their lives, it departs, finding itself a new owner and a new life to latch onto.

Kelly juggles all of the storylines extremely well. Not once did I feel confused, and I read this book in two sittings. It’s not a complicated storyline, but it is full of emotional turmoil and heartbreak. It forces the reader to become active when engaging with this book, and not passive. It’s impossible to not relate to these characters or feel anything for them. They all have flaws and faults, but they’re all driven and deserving of an easy life. And tragedy seems to befall quite a few of them.

This novel explores desire, marriage, relationships, friendships and family, and illustrates that the thing or things we most cherish or desire can be gone all too quickly. Precious Things is an absorbing tale with fascinating characters and storylines, and I recommend this book to everyone.

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