Tiffany Blues by M.J. Rose literally broke my heart and put it back together again.
What it's about: It is New York in the 1920s. Prohibition is in full swing, it's the Jazz Age, and Louis Comfort Tiffany has created an artists colony at his Laurelton Hall estate in Long Island. Jenny Bell is 24 and is selected to go to Laurelton Hall for a shot at winning a spot in Tiffany’s New York gallery at the end of the 8 week experience. Jenny goes with her best friend Minx Deering who she lives with, and falls in love with the beautiful estate. She also ends up being drawn to Tiffany’s grandson Oliver. But Jenny has had a painful past that she is determined to hide from everyone around her; and when she gets to Laurelton Hall she finds out someone knows about her past and is determined to expose her.
The cover of Tiffany Blues is gorgeous, and the inside is simply sublime. M.J. Rose is very descriptive in the way that she writes about Laurelton Hall specifically, but also the rest of the book as well. If you are a person that doesn't like a ton of details, you might have to skim this one a bit. But for me, it completely enhanced the story and I loved trying to picture the estate and New York as it was back then.
I was constantly rooting for Jenny throughout the novel, and my heart broke for her multiple times as I learned new things about her past and felt her pain in the present. The book is mostly set in the 20s but the prologue and epilogue are set afterwards in 1957. I LOVED the author's note in the beginning of the book as well, where we learn there are some fictional characters like Minx and Jenny, but most of the things in the book are completely fact. Now THAT is how you do historical fiction ladies and gentlemen.
Final Thought: There were a couple of things that irked me and made this fall short of a 5 star book for me, but overall I really enjoyed it. It is also pretty short at just over 300 pages, and the pages turned very quickly for me once I got into it (which didn't take long). This was my first time reading M.J. Rose but it will definitely not be my last. The mystery and dash of romance, combined with some hidden secrets, made this book a page-turner for me that I didn't want to put down.
What it's about: It is New York in the 1920s. Prohibition is in full swing, it's the Jazz Age, and Louis Comfort Tiffany has created an artists colony at his Laurelton Hall estate in Long Island. Jenny Bell is 24 and is selected to go to Laurelton Hall for a shot at winning a spot in Tiffany’s New York gallery at the end of the 8 week experience. Jenny goes with her best friend Minx Deering who she lives with, and falls in love with the beautiful estate. She also ends up being drawn to Tiffany’s grandson Oliver. But Jenny has had a painful past that she is determined to hide from everyone around her; and when she gets to Laurelton Hall she finds out someone knows about her past and is determined to expose her.
The cover of Tiffany Blues is gorgeous, and the inside is simply sublime. M.J. Rose is very descriptive in the way that she writes about Laurelton Hall specifically, but also the rest of the book as well. If you are a person that doesn't like a ton of details, you might have to skim this one a bit. But for me, it completely enhanced the story and I loved trying to picture the estate and New York as it was back then.
I was constantly rooting for Jenny throughout the novel, and my heart broke for her multiple times as I learned new things about her past and felt her pain in the present. The book is mostly set in the 20s but the prologue and epilogue are set afterwards in 1957. I LOVED the author's note in the beginning of the book as well, where we learn there are some fictional characters like Minx and Jenny, but most of the things in the book are completely fact. Now THAT is how you do historical fiction ladies and gentlemen.
Final Thought: There were a couple of things that irked me and made this fall short of a 5 star book for me, but overall I really enjoyed it. It is also pretty short at just over 300 pages, and the pages turned very quickly for me once I got into it (which didn't take long). This was my first time reading M.J. Rose but it will definitely not be my last. The mystery and dash of romance, combined with some hidden secrets, made this book a page-turner for me that I didn't want to put down.