My Rating: 5 stars
I am probably one of the few people left on this planet
who has not yet read Lilac Girls, Martha Hall Kelly’s
debut novel about real life heroine Caroline Ferriday during World War
II. The book has actually been on my TBR for quite some time and I even
own a copy of it, but unfortunately, I have struggled to find the time to read
it (which hopefully will be rectified soon). Despite not having
read Lilac
Girls, I was still excited to have received an ARC of Kelly’s second
novel Lost Roses, which is the prequel to Lilac Girls and tells the
story of Caroline’s mother Eliza Ferriday. This time around, the story is
set against the backdrop of World War I, though technically, the Great War only
plays a peripheral role, as most of the story takes place in Russia, with a
narrative revolving around the events leading up to the Bolshevik Revolution in
1918 – a peasant uprising that eventually overthrew the imperial dynasty and
ended the rule of the Romanov family. Central to the story is Sofya
Streshnayva, cousin to the tsar and also Eliza’s best friend, who is forced to
flee with her family to their country estate in the woods when war erupts and
things become too dangerous for the ruling class. While staying at the
estate, the family hires a young peasant girl, Varinka – the daughter of the
local fortune teller -- to help in the kitchen and also take care of Sofya’s
newborn son Max. Unbeknownst to them, Varinka brings with her tremendous
danger that will end up changing the family’s lives forever. Meanwhile,
after having returned to her hometown of New York, Eliza endures a tragedy of
her own, but through it all, she continues to do her part in helping the
Russian immigrants who successfully fled from the revolution to America, while
at the same time, she continues to hold out hope that her friend Sofya and her
family will also be able to escape the turmoil wrought by revolution as well as
the vestiges of war.
With the story narrated mostly from the alternating
perspectives of Eliza, Sofya, and Varinka, each woman lends a distinctive voice
to this captivating tale of endurance and survival during a turbulent period in
history. Going into this book, I had very limited knowledge about the
Bolshevik Revolution and the resulting turmoil in Russia at that time, so I
definitely appreciated the tremendous research that the author Martha Hall
Kelly did in order to bring that historical event and all the other ones to
life. The storytelling here was top-notch, as I truly did feel like I was
being transported back to that time and place, living through the harrowing
circumstances that Sofya and her family faced. The portrayal of the
horrors and violence suffered by those caught up in the uprising felt so real
that I actually felt a chill run through me while I was reading those particular
scenes. Sofya was the type of character that I couldn’t help but root
for, with everything she goes through and still finding the will to survive for
her son’s sake, an admirable trait many of us with children can relate
to. With Varinka, I felt her inner moral struggle and though I pitied the
situation she was placed in, I still couldn’t help being upset over the role
she played in the events that transpired. As for Eliza, I actually felt
that her story was the least interesting of the three, though I did love her
fierce personality and compassionate spirit. I love stories with strong
female protagonists and this book didn’t give us just one, but several
indomitable women (and I include not just the above-mentioned 3 women, but also
Luba, Caroline, Mamka, Eliza’s mother Carry, etc.) whose courage,
determination, and tenacity amongst so much destruction and adversity made this
such an unforgettable story for me.
This is historical fiction at its finest: well-researched with the historical events
incorporated seamlessly, plus a compelling story as well as wonderfully
developed characters – a balance that is not easy to achieve in books like this
one where it is necessary to strive for authenticity historically while still
maintaining great storytelling. Emotionally,
this story resonated with me deeply, especially with its portrayal of family,
love, hope, friendship, and most significantly, resilience. The one warning I would give is that the
descriptions of the atrocities of war were gut-wrenching and, truth be told,
difficult for me to get through, but I understand the necessity of including
these scenes for us to understand the devastating impact of such history and as
a lesson to never let them happen again.
In her Author’s Note, Martha Hall Kelly mentions that she
will be writing a third book – another prequel, but this time the story will go
back further in time to the Civil War, continuing the story of the Woolsey
women with Caroline’s great-grandmother Jane Eliza Newton Woolsey and the
establishment of the first nursing services in America. I’m looking
forward to Kelly’s next book and for sure, I will definitely have read her
first one Lilac Girls by then!
Received ARC from
Ballantine Books via NetGalley
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