Idgie Says:
Unfortunately I found that I was unable to become invested in the characters in this novel, but that could be because I often found the writing a bit clunky and distracting instead of absorbing.
The only other remark I will make is that the book descriptions of Fiona's debut and second novel appear to indicate that these books contain a very similar storyline, with different characters. I did not read the first book though, so I can't say for certain that this latest novel is a repeat plot.
Click HERE for an excerpt.
The only other remark I will make is that the book descriptions of Fiona's debut and second novel appear to indicate that these books contain a very similar storyline, with different characters. I did not read the first book though, so I can't say for certain that this latest novel is a repeat plot.
Click HERE for an excerpt.
Dutton
August 1, 2017
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In THE ADDRESS, Fiona Davis invites readers behind the walls of The Dakota, weaving an evocative and mysterious story about two women, separated by a century, whose
lives are forever altered by their time at the iconic New York City residence, examining the thin lines between love and loss, success and ruin, and passion and madness.
Sara Smythe arrives from England in 1884 to become the female manager of The Dakota. Upon arrival, she's surprised to find it’s located in the upper reaches of the city, a far cry from what she imagined Gilded
Age New York City to look like. But a budding friendship with the building's wealthy—and married—architect, Theodore Camden, helps ease the transition to her new home.
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The Dollhouse Book Description
Fiona Davis's stunning debut novel pulls readers into the lush world
of New York City's glamorous Barbizon Hotel for Women, where in the
1950s a generation of aspiring models, secretaries, and editors lived
side by side while attempting to claw their way to fairy-tale success,
and where a present-day journalist becomes consumed with uncovering a
dark secret buried deep within the Barbizon's glitzy past.
When she arrives at the famed Barbizon Hotel in 1952, secretarial school enrollment in hand, Darby McLaughlin is everything her modeling agency hall mates aren't: plain, self-conscious, homesick, and utterly convinced she doesn't belong—a notion the models do nothing to disabuse. Yet when Darby befriends Esme, a Barbizon maid, she's introduced to an entirely new side of New York City: seedy downtown jazz clubs where the music is as addictive as the heroin that's used there, the startling sounds of bebop, and even the possibility of romance.
Over half a century later, the Barbizon's gone condo and most of its long-ago guests are forgotten. But rumors of Darby's involvement in a deadly skirmish with a hotel maid back in 1952 haunt the halls of the building as surely as the melancholy music that floats from the elderly woman's rent-controlled apartment. It's a combination too intoxicating for journalist Rose Lewin, Darby's upstairs neighbor, to resist—not to mention the perfect distraction from her own imploding personal life. Yet as Rose's obsession deepens, the ethics of her investigation become increasingly murky, and neither woman will remain unchanged when the shocking truth is finally revealed.
When she arrives at the famed Barbizon Hotel in 1952, secretarial school enrollment in hand, Darby McLaughlin is everything her modeling agency hall mates aren't: plain, self-conscious, homesick, and utterly convinced she doesn't belong—a notion the models do nothing to disabuse. Yet when Darby befriends Esme, a Barbizon maid, she's introduced to an entirely new side of New York City: seedy downtown jazz clubs where the music is as addictive as the heroin that's used there, the startling sounds of bebop, and even the possibility of romance.
Over half a century later, the Barbizon's gone condo and most of its long-ago guests are forgotten. But rumors of Darby's involvement in a deadly skirmish with a hotel maid back in 1952 haunt the halls of the building as surely as the melancholy music that floats from the elderly woman's rent-controlled apartment. It's a combination too intoxicating for journalist Rose Lewin, Darby's upstairs neighbor, to resist—not to mention the perfect distraction from her own imploding personal life. Yet as Rose's obsession deepens, the ethics of her investigation become increasingly murky, and neither woman will remain unchanged when the shocking truth is finally revealed.