Name: A Memory of Violets
ISBN: 9781628995893

Hazel Gaynor

Backcover: Center Point Large Print Edition Women's Fiction.

A Memory of Violets

The author of the USA Today and New York Times bestselling novel The Girl Who Came Home has once again created an unforgettable historical novel. Step into the world of Victorian London, where the wealth and poverty exist side by side. This is the story of two long-lost sisters, whose lives take different paths, and the young woman who will be transformed by their experiences. In 1912, twenty-year-old Tilly Harper leaves the peace and beauty of her native Lake District for London, to become assistant housemother at Mr. Shaw’s Home for Watercress and Flower Girls. For years, the home has cared for London’s flower girls—orphaned and crippled children living on the grimy streets and selling posies of violets and watercress to survive. Soon after she arrives, Tilly discovers a diary written by an orphan named Florrie—a young Irish flower girl who died of a broken heart after she and her sister, Rosie, were separated. Moved by Florrie’s pain and all she endured in her brief life, Tilly sets out to discover what happened to Rosie. But the search will not be easy. Full of twists and surprises, it leads the caring and determined young woman into unexpected places, including the depths of her own heart.

A Novel of London's Flower Sellers

Rebecca Light

This book surprised and delighted me in its complexity and heart. When I started reading it I thought it would be enjoyable, but predictable and treacly. I was wrong. Sort of. It was predictable in some respects but only in the way a good romantic movie is predictable but it still "gets you" anyway. Other elements of the book, the question of whether good people can make life-altering mistakes and still be good, went surprisingly deep. The main characters were complex and sympathetic and flawed. The setting was evocative and scrumptiously described. The love story was sweet but not overdone. It was really, fantastic. Great read for fans of historical fiction.

A Memory of Violets

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