Completely satisfying story with lots of twists and turns. Totally FUN read. This is the first in the author’s series about the Schuyler sisters. Awarded four stars on Goodreads but 4.5 is more accurate.
It’s 1964. VIVIAN Schuyler, a single, recent Bryn Mawr graduate now working at a New York magazine, receives a mysterious and very old, locked suitcase, addressed to VIOLET Schuyler, on the very same day she meets a handsome young doctor at a post office. As much as she is interested in the doctor, she’s just as intrigued by the suitcase.
Vivian figures that since she and the addressee share the same last name, there must be some connection. Deciding that she is the only one capable of finding out both who Violet is and why the suitcase arrived on her own doorstep, Vivian imagines she will then be able to write an interesting enough story to earn a promotion from lowly fact checker to staff writer.
But that’s just the set up. With alternating chapters revealing both Vivian’s story and Violet’s, you, the reader, wind up with a little of everything that makes a novel enjoyable — a couple of love stories, wealthy New York socialites with interfering parents, mystery, betrayals both big and small, World War I geopolitical intrigue, a bit of pioneering physics, and more plot turns than you can possibly imagine.
I don’t want to give any more away because that might spoil the fun of discovering this cleverly crafted novel on your own. Including the writing style that translates Vivian’s flippant attitude toward life into prose that will make you laugh. Just don’t skip any pages because there are surprises up to and including the very last page
More about Author Beatriz Williams.
Toby A. Smith 