Happy Pub Week to Joy Callaway and All the Pretty Places! May is the perfect time to read this historical novel that features love of nature, both in manicured Gilded Age gardens and public parks.
It's 1893 and Sadie Fremd is at a crossroads in her young life.
- The Panic of 1893 is jeopardizing the economic stability of her Rye, New York community and her family's landscape nursery that creates elaborate private gardens for the socially elite.
- She, rather than her brothers, has the passion and knowledge to be her father's successor in leading the family business, but it's not proper for a women to assume such responsibilities.
- And she's being pressured to marry to secure the financial stability of the family rather than for love.
Her German immigrant father believes strongly in employing families of new Americans who become almost family to Sadie. So a possible financial crisis for the nursery's customers puts her father and brothers in jeopardy as well as their employees. Her decisions will not only affect the rest of her life but also of many others whom she loves.
Sadie also has great empathy for people who lack access to the health benefits of time in nature and is an early advocate for the creation of public parks. It's hard to imagine a time when public green spaces weren't an essential feature of any community.
I enjoyed this novel, but I gained a greater appreciation when the author's note told me it was inspired by the author's great-great-grandmother. Now I want to read The Fifth Avenue Artists Society, the author's debut novel that was also inspired by her ancestors.
Thank you to Harper Muse and NetGalley for access to the audiobook narrated by Cassandra Campbell, one of my favorites.
It's 1893 and Sadie Fremd is at a crossroads in her young life.
- The Panic of 1893 is jeopardizing the economic stability of her Rye, New York community and her family's landscape nursery that creates elaborate private gardens for the socially elite.
- She, rather than her brothers, has the passion and knowledge to be her father's successor in leading the family business, but it's not proper for a women to assume such responsibilities.
- And she's being pressured to marry to secure the financial stability of the family rather than for love.
Her German immigrant father believes strongly in employing families of new Americans who become almost family to Sadie. So a possible financial crisis for the nursery's customers puts her father and brothers in jeopardy as well as their employees. Her decisions will not only affect the rest of her life but also of many others whom she loves.
Sadie also has great empathy for people who lack access to the health benefits of time in nature and is an early advocate for the creation of public parks. It's hard to imagine a time when public green spaces weren't an essential feature of any community.
I enjoyed this novel, but I gained a greater appreciation when the author's note told me it was inspired by the author's great-great-grandmother. Now I want to read The Fifth Avenue Artists Society, the author's debut novel that was also inspired by her ancestors.
Thank you to Harper Muse and NetGalley for access to the audiobook narrated by Cassandra Campbell, one of my favorites.
