The Fifth Avenue Artists Society

February 1, 2016

Callaway's powerful debut is an 1890s Bronx, NY-set tale of aspiring author Virginia Loftin, who is in love with her childhood best friend Charlie. When Charlie, whose family lives in genteel poverty much like the Loftins, proposes to a wealthy woman, Ginny thinks her world has ended. Ginny's twin brother, Franklin, drags her out of her misery and into the embrace of the artists' society launched by his friend, Fifth Avenue writer John Hopper. There, Ginny finds inspiration and eventually a new love in John. But dark secrets are concealed beneath the glitz of John's high society, as Ginny discovers when everything comes falling down. Callaway paints an all too real portrait of the power of love to both create and destroy, as well as the effect love and grief have on the creative process. As much as Ginny's pain will resonate with the reader, it is a bittersweet pleasure to watch her evolve through the worst time of her life. Readers will never see the twists around every corner. VERDICT Beautifully written and solidly executed, Callaway's novel will captivate historical and romance fans alike.--Kristen Droesch. Library Journal

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2016
Virginia Loftin and her family are part of New York's shabby gentility during the Gilded Age. Since their father's death, they've lived off of their brother Franklin's salesman's salary and the patrons who commission their sister Bessie's millinery, Alevia's piano playing, and Virginia's essays. When Virginia's first love, Charlie, becomes engaged to another woman strictly for her wealth, Virginia pours her emotions into writing a novel and joins an artists' society led by her brother's friend John. She and John become close, even as Virginia still longs for Charlie. Then Franklin and John become embroiled in a scandal that will change the Loftin family forever. Drawing on her own family history, first-time novelist Callaway melds romance, intrigue, and the pursuit of art together to create this engaging late-nineteenth-century story. Readers will enjoy cameos by Edith Wharton and Oscar Wilde, two writers who influenced her dramatization of the dangers of social climbing.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)