About this book:
“The World's Fair.
Chicago, 1893.
It seems a perfect backdrop for what Violet Hayes longs to experience: a little mystery, a little romance.
To be honest, it is more than a little mystery. She schemed her way to Chicago to discover the mother she barely remembered. As for romance...well, with the help of her grandmother and three great aunts, that is coming along nicely as well--perhaps too well. Each of her relatives--including her saintly grandmother--seems to have a separate agenda for her.
In the course of a summer, Violet's world will open wide before her eyes. But in the wake of discovery, she must find a way to determine which path--and which man--will ultimately be the right lifetime choice for her.”
Series: This seems to be a stand-alone novel.
Spiritual Content- Many Scriptures are mentioned, remembered, quoted, discussed, & listened to in sermons; Prayers; Church going, services, hymns, & a sermon (by Mr. Moody about the Prodigal Son); Many talks about God, Jesus, His calling for us, how He made us, Him loving us, & those in the Bible; 'H's are capital when referring to God; Violet finds weekly church services to be a chore, but enjoys the religious traditions around the holidays and after talking with a young evangelist, she wonders if there’s more to it all; After helping with a mission to help the poor, Violet feels very superficial and ashamed of herself (she sometimes wants to go back to the nice side of society, but also knows she doesn’t want do/be apart of either of them for the rest of her life); Violet’s grandmother tells her about how much God loves her; One of the suitors is a young evangelist who almost only talks about God & can come across as insensitive as times; Violet bargains with God for something and is then concerned that she’ll have to do what she bargained; *Spoiler* Towards the end, Violet prays to God that she’s His and will do whatever He wants; She instantly feels loved for the first time since her mother left; *End of Spoiler*; Many mentions of God & Jesus; Many mentions of churches, church going, Sunday schools, hymns, services, pastors, & sermons; Many mentions of missions, missionaries, Dwight Moody, his campaign to win souls for the Lord, spreading the Gospel, evangelists, alter calls, & being passionate about religion; Mentions of those & events in the Bible; Mentions of prayers, praying, thanking God, & blessings over food; Mentions of Heaven; Mentions of Christians & believers; Mentions of a fire-and-brimstone preacher that raised his sons harshly (Violet’s grandfather who chose to emphasize “our need for obedience to Christ’s commands instead” but the command to love our neighbor often slipped his notice); Mentions of Violet’s father being indifferent towards religion; A few mentions of Bibles; A few mentions of sinners & forgiving sin; A few mentions of Quakers & them women allowing to preach; A couple mentions of testimonies; A couple mentions of a man being angry at God after fighting in a war; A mention of Providence; A mention of evening devotions; A mention of thanking Heaven; A mention of blessings; A mention of some abused women not leaving their husbands “because they’re religious, and the church believes that marriage is sacred”; A mention of divorce and remarriage are against some people’s religious principles; A mention of a monk; A mention of nuns; A mention of a heathen;
*Note: Violet wonders if God had run out of ideas creating a place or had a “less imaginative underling” design the place; Violet is shocked that her Christian grandmother is purposely deceitful to one of her sisters, but learns that it’s because the sister can’t handle the hard news of the death of her husband; Some of the evangelists are called “radical” and “zealots” by others; Mentions of luck; A few mentions of a preacher telling a woman that she miscarriage her babies because of her sin (she believed him and was afraid God would hurt her family; others try to correct this thinking, but the woman doesn’t believe them); A few mentions of Satan being the father of lies; A few mentions of alcohol being called “Demon Liquor” and “Demon Rum”; A couple mentions of pagan countries; A couple mentions of places being like hell itself; A couple mentions of stories about princesses who battle evil sorcerers; A mention of a quick way to hell (getting into every vice of gambling, drinking, and women); A mention of damning information; A mention of someone following a guidebook as religiously as the Scriptures; A mention of idle hands being the devil’s playthings; A mention of a place being the devil’s country; A mention of someone being a handsome devil; A mention of Cupid; A mention of a witch’s cauldron; A mention of a witch.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘blast’, a ‘drat’, a ‘my stars’, a ‘shut up’, two forms of ‘dumb’, two ‘gosh’s, five ‘stupid’s, and eleven ‘my word’s; Some eye rolling & sarcasm; Lying, deceit, & using others (Violet does these and so does others, though she feels guilt some of the time; Violet finds out in the beginning that her father has lied to her for years about something important (*Spoiler* about her mother not being ill, but had left them and says he was protecting Violet by lying to her; At one point, Violet wishes her father lied to her and told her that her mother died *End of Spoiler*), because of this Violet wonders why should she obey anything else she’d been taught; Violet also does things she knows her father would forbid because she’s upset with him); Violet comes up with names for others that are unkind (unruly children and society ladies); Violet wishes to smack a woman because she dislikes her & thinks that a mother scrubbed her children’s faces so thoroughly it looked like they were boiled and Violet adds that “I wished she had” (she does not like the mother or her children); Violet goes to a casino with a suitor and is uncomfortable with him losing a lot, but also gets caught up in the excitement when he wins (she tries to tell him to stop, but he won’t listen); Violet sees a pig being butcher & throws up (up to semi-detailed); Many mentions of the Great Chicago Fire, deaths, describing it, injuries, & people who lost everything (semi-detailed); Many mentions of crimes, criminals, con men, thieves, stealing, thefts, robberies, arrests, & prisons; Many mentions of Violet’s father lying to her for years, lies, lying, & liars (including some trying their best not to lie to others); Mentions of wars, war-related deaths, slaves, & slavery; Mentions of other deaths, injuries, grieving (for a husband, for a mother, for a son; up to semi-detailed); Mentions of possible murder, murders, & murderers (including a man believing most women are too delicate and sensitive to do such a thing); Mentions of domestic violence, husbands beating their wives and children, & Violet not understanding why the women don’t leave their husbands if that happens (up to semi-detailed on their injuries and recalling a beating); Mentions of poison & Violet believing a woman poisoned and killed her husband (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of casinos, gambling, losing a lot of money, & Violet trying to start a betting pool at school (but only her and her friend join it); Mentions of the Temperance Union, alcohol (also called “Demon Liquor”), drinking, drunks, & saloons; Mentions of cigars & smoking; Mentions of Violet’s mother abandoning her and her husband (which makes Violet wonder if she did anything to push her mother to leaving and wonders why she wasn’t enough for her to stay); Mentions of young adults running away from home; Mentions of divorces; Mentions of hatred; Mentions of gossip; Mentions of a dead animals (horses, a sheep, rats, & a pig, including some at a butcher shop, up to semi-detailed); Mentions of throwing up; A few mentions of a young woman’s brother locking her up so she can’t leave and making her do very bad things; A few mentions of Violet wondering what a woman did with her children to be outside without them (her imagination goes wild, thinking that she chained them in the cellar, that they are disfigured and the mother doesn’t want to be seen in public with them, or the children eat raw meat and howl at the moon); A few mentions of fights, fighting, & injuries (barely-above-not-detailed); A few mentions of threats & bribes; A few mentions of jealousy; A few mentions of manure & urine; A couple mentions of a story featuring cannibals; A couple mentions of an assassination; A couple mentions of Indian wars & a man being injured in one; A couple mentions of being abducted at knifepoint or gunpoint; A couple mentions of eavesdropping; A mention of hunting; A mention of some people in other countries eating things like insects, dogs, and cats;
*Note: There are many conversations about women voting and women’s rights as one of Violet’s aunts is a part of the suffrage movement and she also makes many comments about men (some of them are including that “to Aunt Matt, men were the chief perpetrators of everything unfair”, says “if women ran the world…” something would be better often, tells Violet often that she and other young women do not need to “subject herself to a man’s control”, that “marriage is a bondage” and not much difference between it and becoming a servant, calls every married women an actress around her husband, that women related to slaves because women are considered “inferior and to be denied all of the privileges that white men take for granted”, and brings Violet to marches and events where women are showcasing their talents (Violet is impressed by this all, wishes for the freedom to make her own choices now, and recalls things her aunt says many times throughout the book); At times, she comes across as anti-men but says she’s not against marriage if it’s to a man who treats his wife as an equal *Spoiler* she was burned by a man who professed to love her but only wanted her money *End of Spoiler*; A mention of women allowing to be the object of art, but not being allowed to be an artist herself); Violet has a discussion with a suitor about her aunt believing that women can do anything a man can do, which he mentions about manual labor and that there are jobs that only women can do such as having children and nurturing a child properly; Violet thinks that while she’s been taught to trust that men were more knowledge than women and are therefore able to make better choices for her, she learns about what women can accomplished by seeing the work that her grandmother and aunt and their groups do; One of Violet’s aunts is living in the past after finding out her husband died in the war and is called ‘simple’ by Violet; Mentions of a father being very disappointed to only have daughters & him pushing his wife to have more children (she ended up passing away in childbirth with their fifth daughter); Mentions of gypsies (said to be thieves and rogues); Mentions of books & authors; A couple mentions of police taking bribes and Violet’s suffragette aunt saying that it’s up to “women like us to protect other women and children”; A mention of children dying from diseases & Violet being afraid to open her heart to them because they might die; A man makes an unkind remark about locking the asylum when he sees Aunt Birdie; A mention of Violet thinking that “no one wanted to marry a cripple” when there’s a chance she could be injured.
Sexual Content- A fingers-to-lips touch, three hand kisses (one being barely-above-not-detailed), a cheek kiss, an almost kiss, a semi-detailed kiss, and two detailed kisses; Remembering kisses (up to semi-detailed); Wanting to be kissed & wondering about it because Violet thinks it looks “so wonderful” to be kissed (*Spoiler* at the end, she asks a suitor to kiss her as an experiment *End of Spoiler*, all up to semi-detailed); Seeing a couple passionately kiss (up to semi-detailed); A suitor has Violet kiss a dice before gambling multiple times; Touches, Embraces, Dancing, Hand holding, Nearness, & Smelling (up to semi-detailed); Remembering embraces, touches, & nearness (up to semi-detailed); Blushes; Noticing (barely-above-not-detailed); Violet longs to be loved and have a suitor who loves her like in a romance book (she imagines different scenarios of falling in love); Violet finds a man (Silas) to be “wonderfully dangerous” as he’s the type of man innocent girls are told to stay away from and is excited and mesmerized by him (she tries to talk herself out of falling for him because she thinks he’s a thief); Violet is tired following all of the rules for a proper young lady and wants freedom (whether that means going on a date with a man no one in her family knows or going out without a chaperone); Violet tries to use her feminine charm of flirting and a coy smile with fluttering eyelashes to find out information from men; Violet’s family has a discussion about if she should be able to choose who to marry or her father should be the one to decide for her (her father thinks parents are better at seeing the good qualities in a spouse and will make the better choice); Some adults tell Violet that love will grow from mutual respect and building a life together since romance is “fine when you’re young, but you can’t always trust the emotions that seem to strong in the beginning”, her father says that “two people need more in common for a good marriage than passion”, and another tells her to only marry for love (Violet also wonders if true love can conquer all obstacles); A man offers Violet a job as a barmaid or at another business “upstairs”; *Spoiler* Towards the end, Violet finds out her mother is a burlesque dancer and goes to her; There’s a couple mentions of her mother’s shame and flimsy outfit *End of Spoiler*; Many mentions of love, the feelings of love, Violet wanting to be in love, & the romance dime novels that Violet and her friend read; Many mentions of affairs (and the possibility of a man stealing his brother’s wife), mistresses, & adultery (Violet does not want a husband who will be unfaithful; a wife whose husband has a mistress says that she knows he loves her and that “his dalliances don’t mean anything, Violet. They allow him to believe that he is still young and indestructible. I’m the one who shares his name and his home—and his life”; A young man thinks about having a wife and also a mistress, which Violet says isn’t fair to either woman); Many mentions of bawdy houses, burlesque shows, their flimsy outfits that show their midriffs (very scandalous for the time period), & vulgar exhibits with dancers that are indecently clothed and make obscene gyrations; Mentions of seeing a couple kiss passionately (up to semi-detailed); Mentions of kisses & kissing (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of blushes & flirting (including that Violet was taught at school to play hard to get as men enjoy the pursuit); Mentions of chaperones, the need for having them (so that the woman is protected, which Violet and a suitor wonder who says a woman needs to be protected in the first place), & reputations; Mentions of jealousy; A few mentions of women of the night (including Violet thinks she may have to become one if she doesn’t get married and is kicked out of her home); A few mentions of kissing a dice for luck in gambling; A couple mentions of rich young men taking advantage of servant girls; A couple mentions of seducing; A couple mentions of a young woman’s brothers making her do very bad things (implied to be possibly sexual); A couple mentions of a beau in a story nibbling on his beloved earlobe (which Violet didn’t find romantic); A mention of a crime story about a man assaulting a woman in the “most dreadful way”; A mention of some salesmen sidling their way into a weak-willed woman’s affections (affairs); A mention of a women assuming what a couple did when they were alone together; A mention of a society becoming “unseemly” after a while because everyone ends up related to everyone else; A mention of harlots; Lots of love, falling in love, & the emotions;
*Note: A dressmaker has Violet wear a low-cut dress to “show off” her “wonderful bosom” (Violet is uncomfortable with all the male attention she receives when wearing it as they are looking not at her face, but her assets); A female doctor speaks to a group of suffragettes about wearing bloomers for their health and when Violet wears a pair out in public, her grandmother is horrified as it makes her backside much more “apparent”, could awaken a dead man in that outfit, and says it looks like underwear/undergarments (Violet planned to wear bloomers to get a suitor to call off his interest but *Spoiler* that plan backfired on her when he finds her attractive in them *End of Spoiler*); Mentions of an elixir that would plump a woman’s endowments; Mentions of corsets (a couple suffragettes say they should be outlawed) & bloomers; Mentions of rituals that young women do to find out their future husband (the Midnight Stairway Ritual, putting a slice of wedding cake under your pillow, and putting walnuts on the stove to see what happens; all silly things, but Violet is desperate to find out about her husband, so she does the first and last of these ideas); A few mentions of a preacher telling a woman that she miscarriage her babies because of her sin (she believed him and was afraid God would hurt her family; others try to correct this thinking, but the woman doesn’t believe them); A few mentions of a wife and mother passing away in childbirth with a baby; A mention of paintings of nude women; A mention of Violet’s suffragette aunt saying she doesn’t condemn women who make the choice to work in a bawdy house, but would like to give them a better alternative; A mention of a man enjoying the rear view of a servant.
-Violet Hayes, age 20
1st person P.O.V. of Violet
Set in 1893
432 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
This was different, it was interesting. (The ending was quite abrupt, though, I must say.)
This book was my first book by this author, despite having heard about this author for a long time. I liked parts of it and wasn’t the biggest fan of others.
Violet is a character I can see some readers enjoying and others being annoyed at—and I can’t blame a reader for either reaction. She doesn’t come across as a 20-year-old, but that’s probably do to her being in finishing school for years and not knowing anything but the things that were taught there. She’s dramatic and it mostly works…she’s always coming up with stories about others and their possible pasts, which gives her a bit of a daydreaming personality, but it added to the book. She has an overactive imagination and that’s mainly due to reading romance novels.
The romance of this was interesting because there’s four guys mostly because of different family members introducing her to so many, but it didn’t really feel like Violet was leading them on as she doesn’t know what she wants except true love like she’s read in her friend’s romance books. Now while she might not lead them on, she doesn’t make the best decisions regarding them or other ideas. Such as feeling excited about going on a date with a man no one has vetted that feels dangerous, keeping things a secret or not correcting others’ thoughts to be able to be free from society’s rules (and since most won’t tell her about her mother, she decides to keep little things like that as well), wanting to try to break rules to see what it’s like, etc. She’s using others to track down information about her mother and they’re using her for different reasons as well. There’s Herman the bore, Nelson the rich and handsome, Louis the sold-out evangelist, and Silas the shady salesman that makes Violet’s heart race. And here in lies one of my problems with this book: Silas. Violet is attracted to him and him her, but because she thinks he’s a thief, she tries to talk herself out of falling for her and wonders what’s wrong with her to feel these emotions for him. It’s a fiction book, so it all works out, of course, but I’m not thrilled with that element story being about Violet falling for a man because he’s handsome, fun, makes her heart race, and is the kind of guy that girls like her are told to stay away from. She describes touching his hand as if she’s holding the wrong end of a flatiron, which plays even more to the element of her playing with fire and continues when they share kisses. *Spoiler* It’s revealed in the very last chapter that he’s actually not a thief, but a Pinkerton agent, so it ends with them being able to be together *End of Spoiler*
I thought it was interesting because the whole story is told only in her POV—and in first person at that. It was different because of that, but a good different. I liked the setting being around the World’s Fair. I’m not sure why I like learning about it, but it’s fascinating.
I do think this book was a bit too long at times, but that could be because of the four love interests maybe? It was overall very entertaining, but the ending was very abrupt despite being over 400 pages long.
Violet’s grandmother and great-aunts are all very different from each other: one works with the poor, another is a part of the suffrage/women’s rights movement and makes comments against men, the third is married to a rich man and is a part of society, and the last one is grieving the death of her husband and living thirty years in the past.
There’s so many characters and very different lives within this story, it was interesting to see all the perspectives—on marriage, serving others, women’s rights, and many other topics because nearly no one has the same opinion or shares the exact same advice with Violet. This could be part of the problem on why she’s so confused on so many things, though! This is also why I hesitate to suggest this book for younger teens because just as how Violet is very impressionable. I didn’t always agree with Violet’s thoughts or actions, and it was very apparent how she could be swayed to one side or the other based on who she was with or currently experiencing. Which, yes, that can be realistic, but I think that’s an important note for potential young teen readers for many reasons, including the fact that Violet is attracted to a man who comes across as dangerous and she thinks is a thief for the large majority of the book.
There’s good lessons tucked into this book through some character development that happens, but with Violet’s flightiness and many suitors, I could totally see how those little messages could get lost. It was an overall entertaining read, but there were some content and moral concerns that I listed above that makes it better for older girls, in my opinion. I think some readers might brush off certain things or not notice certain details, but I would hate to not mention them as some of the morals and discussions in this book didn’t settle right with me.
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
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