City of Ash
A Novel
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- 6,99 €
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- 6,99 €
Publisher Description
When the great Seattle fire of 1889 leaves them with nothing to lose, two very different women discover a mutual passion for revenge.
Chicago socialite and art patron Geneva Langley has brought scandal to her family for the last time. Her latest and boldest act of immodesty is too much for her father to bear, and he banishes her to Seattle, along with her scheming, ambitious husband, Nathan. Seattle is a far cry from Chicago—the streets are muddy, the society backward, and Ginny feels stifled and alone.
Despite her considerable talent, Beatrice Wilkes is an actress whose dream of being a leading lady is fading rapidly. She can’t believe her luck when a new production gives her a chance at stardom, but Geneva Langley seizes the opportunity for her own and unwittingly crushes Bea’s last dream.
The two women engage in a fierce battle for center stage, but the great Seattle fire, which ravages the city, changes their fates and plans. In its aftermath, Ginny and Bea see an opportunity to change their lives: but it would mean banding together to enact a truly wicked plan. Their dark and perilous alliance will set them on the path to either redemption or damnation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Leave it to Chance (Prima Donna) to pen a fine historical that's both a gripping novel and a study of the constraints placed on 19th-century women. When 23-year-old bohemian heiress Geneva "Ginny" Stratford oversteps the boundaries of propriety by posing nude for a painting exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1888, a humiliated Papa dispatches Ginny and her husband, Nathan Langley, to faraway Seattle, Washington Territory. Bad news outpaces the couple's transportation, and Seattle society snubs Ginny as she steps off the train. A virtual prisoner inside her own home, Ginny grabs at the opportunity when Nathan suggests she become a patron of playwright Sebastian DeWitt. DeWitt's new play, written for Beatrice Wilkes, a local actress who's become Nathan's mistress, inspires Ginny, who's blind to Nathan's ulterior motives. After Seattle burns to the ground, however, Ginny and Beatrice become unlikely allies. Stellar characterization, terrific dialogue, and a twisty plot make this story of old-time Seattle pop.