Blackberry and Wild Rose

March 1, 2019

DEBUT Velton's intriguing debut spotlights both the successes and hardships of Huguenot silk weavers in 18th-century England. Young and alone, Sara Kemp arrives in Spitalfields, London. She is soon swept away to the Wig and Feathers tavern by a forceful brothel proprietress, thus beginning a dangerous, dismal life of prostitution. Esther Thorel, the wife of one of the finest master silk weavers, offers Sara a position as lady's maid and a fresh start away from her unsavory past. Esther, a painter, longs to design silks, but her husband, Elias, dismisses her talent while resenting her barrenness and inability to provide a son to learn his trade. Enter Bisby Lambert, an exquisitely talented journeyman commissioned by Elias to weave his masterpiece on the Thorels' attic loom. As the weaving begins to take shape, the tumultuous Thorel household, full of secrets and longing, begins to unravel. The story unfolds in alternating points of view between Sara and Esther, women of vastly different circumstances who both harbor secrets. VERDICT Fans of Tracy Chevalier and Jennifer Chiaverini will be captivated by this story for its atmospheric, historically rich drama, and forbidden romance.--Laura Jones, Argos Community Schs., IN

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April 1, 2019
In eighteenth-century East London, Esther Thorel, the wife of a prominent Huguenot silk weaver, whose marriage has soured after years of childlessness, rescues Sara Kemp from a brothel and offers her employment as a lady's maid. Despite her husband's disapproval of her interest in a masculine occupation, Esther longs to turn her artistic designs into silks and begins to do just that with the clandestine help of Bisby Lambert, the gifted weaver using her husband's extra loom to create his masterpiece. However, the presence of Sara in the household means that this secret will not remain buried for long, as Esther and Sara become increasingly resentful of each other's perceived hypocrisies and lies. This debut is leisurely paced, but the tension builds steadily as each woman uncovers devastating secrets about the other?and as the dissatisfaction of local silk weavers spills over into riot. The fraught relationship between Sara and Esther is beautifully drawn, and fans of Jessie Burton's The Miniaturist (2014) will thoroughly enjoy this engrossing, atmospheric tale of two women struggling for control of their own lives.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)