The year is 1883, and in New York City, it’s a time of dizzying splendor, crushing poverty, and tremendous change. With the gravity-defying Brooklyn Bridge nearly complete and New York in the grips of anti-vice crusader Anthony Comstock, Anna Savard and her cousin Sophie—both graduates of the Woman’s Medical School—treat the city’s most vulnerable, even if doing so may put everything they’ve strived for in jeopardy.
Anna's work has placed her in the path of four children who have lost everything, just as she herself once had. Faced with their helplessness, Anna must make an unexpected choice between holding on to the pain of her past and letting love into her life.
For Sophie, an obstetrician and the orphaned daughter of free people of color, helping a desperate young mother forces her to grapple with the oath she took as a doctor—and thrusts her and Anna into the orbit of Anthony Comstock, a dangerous man who considers himself the enemy of everything indecent and of anyone who dares to defy him.
With its vivid depictions of old New York and its enormously appealing characters, The Gilded Hour is a captivating, emotionally gripping novel that proves Sara Donati is an author at the height of her powers. @goodreads
MY REVIEW:
5 STARS
I won this book in a GOODREADS GIVEAWAY.
I am so glad I won this book, otherwise I might not have ever seen it. This is the first book I have read from this author and I thought it was wonderful. It took me some time to read it, not because it was boring in the least, but because I read a lot of books at one time and this is a large book you want to take time with.
As you can read from the blurb the time is 1883 in New York City and you have the cousins Anna Savard( who is a physician/surgeon) and Sophie Savard (who is an obstetrician and a woman of color)
As you can imagine these woman have some trials with people that in those days, have issues with women being doctors and a colored woman at that. I think the author made such rich characters out of these two women. Actually, there are many characters in the book that are rich in the story telling.
I forgot to mention the cousins live with their Aunt Quinlan and she is quite a character, I like her a lot.
Sophie has to deal with delivering babies and women wanting to be on birth control, which in those days, is a big no no. You could go to jail and lose your license! And then the horrible abortions women are getting from unsavory people and everyone dies in that case :(
Anne works at a charity hospital and does a lot of work with the poor. She tries to get vaccinations to all of the orphans at St. Patrick's Orphan Asylum, and back in that day as well, they are afraid of vaccines but are giving them out as much as possible. There are so many orphans and poor people in the book it's heartbreaking.
There are so many characters in the book and I love how the author puts all of the primary people and some extras in the front of the book in case you get confused. I love that.
There are love interests, great friends, sad situations, and history in this book. I love the vivid descriptions the author gives of everything in the book. This might be tedious to some, but I thought it was wonderful. I don't know, just sometimes those things in certain books grab you and take you into the place and I enjoyed it. At times I felt like I was in an episode of Downtown Abbey and not New York :)
I am definitely looking into this author's previous and future works!
GOODREADS REVIEW:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1341123823
AMAZON LINK TO BOOK:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Gilded-Hour-Sara-Donati/dp/0425271811/ref=cm_rdp_product
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