From M.J. Rose, New York Times bestselling author of Tiffany Blues, “a lush, romantic historical mystery” (Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale), comes a gorgeously wrought novel of ambition and betrayal set in the Gilded Age. New York, 1910: A city of extravagant balls in Fifth Avenue mansions and poor immigrants crammed into crumbling Lower East Side tenements. A city where the suffrage movement is growing stronger every day, but most women reporters are still delegated to the fashion and lifestyle pages. But Vera Garland is set on making her mark in a man’s world of serious journalism. Shortly after the world-famous Hope Diamond is acquired for a record sum, Vera begins investigating rumors about schemes by its new owner, jeweler Pierre Cartier, to manipulate its value. Vera is determined to find the truth behind the notorious diamond and its legendary curses—even better when the expose puts her in the same orbit as a magazine publisher whose blackmailing schemes led to the death of her beloved father. Appealing to a young Russian jeweler for help, Vera is unprepared when she begins falling in love with him…and even more unprepared when she gets caught up in his deceptions and finds herself at risk of losing all she has worked so hard to achieve. Set against the backdrop of New York’s glitter and grit, of ruthless men and the atrocities they commit in the pursuit of power, this enthralling historical novel explores our very human needs for love, retribution—and to pursue one’s destiny, regardless of the cost.
Reviews with the most likes.
Progressive Era women's fiction is becoming a mainstay, but Cartier's Hope stands out among a growing field of titles. The book pulls you in with its elaborate attention to period detail. Soon enough, you find yourself rooting for our heroine, a young woman making her way back from a well-intentioned tragedy to retake her place in journalism, one of the few careers open to women of that era.
Yes, there is the Hope Diamond, and its whereabouts get shady amid a plot with plenty of family and character secrets. What is surprising is the layers of complications that lead the reader through the world's injustices, leading to a shocking bit of history that propels our heroine into action.
The book runs on beyond a reasonable finish to its story, in large part to give us all the ending we secretly crave where love and rebellion intersect. The author's research is sound, and sometimes striking in its depth. Leading a life of pursuing liberty can be thrilling to watch.
