The Tea Rose
Author: Jennifer Donnelly
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins
Date Published: May 2nd 2006
Series: Bk 1 of the Tea Rose Series
From Goodreads:
The Tea Rose is a towering old-fashioned story, imbued with a modern sensibility that is fresh, compelling, and perfectly pitched for these times. This sweeping epic follows young Fiona Finnegan's climb from the teeming streets of East London. Her dreams of leaving her home behind are shattered when her father, a dockworker and union organizer, is killed in an accident. Crushing poverty, the loss of her lifelong love, and the destruction of her family quickly follow. When Fiona discovers that her fathers death was no accident, but a murder engineered by a ruthless tea baron bent on destroying the union, she flees to New York to save her own life. There, the ghosts of her past propel her to the very top of the city's tea trade. A decade later, armed with tremendous wealth, she returns to London to reclaim her lost love and exact a breathtaking revenge.
The Tea Rose is one of those books that stay with you after reading it. It becomes hard to get into another book.
The Tea Rose reminds me of the books I use to read back when I didn't have 500+ books in my TBR. I would go to my local library and check out Judith Michael books and Judith Krantz books, and get lost in these elaborate stories.
Fiona Finnigan is such a great character. She's independent, feisty, and ambitious. She overcomes so much, and fights for everything. I fell for all of Jennifer Connelly's characters in The Tea Rose. As the story progresses many characters come into Fiona's life touching her life in some way. The romance is written beautifully. The tragedy of love, the overcoming of odds in The Tea Rose gets your heart into the story.
There is a little of everything in The Tea Rose. Revenge, love, heartbreak, and murder are just some of the things you will find in this well written story. I can't say enough about how much this story was straight up bad ass.
This sounds like a really good story and being the feminist that I am, I love characters that are strong and independent like Fiona! :)
ReplyDeleteWow. Sounds great. I really like the classy cover too.
ReplyDeleteI've heard nothing but good things about her work. I really need to just pick up one of her books and read away! I have two of them on my shelves!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great book. I recommend it to so many people. The Winter Rose, the sequel, is good, too. I just received the last in the trilogy, The Wild Rose, through NetGalley.
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