Lost Roses

January 15, 2019
On the brink of World War I, three women fight internal battles on the homefront.Novelist Kelly (The Lilac Girls, 2016), who offered the perspectives of three women during World War II in her bestselling debut novel, turns back the clock to examine the lives of another female trio as the world enters the Great War. Connecting the two novels is Eliza Ferriday, the New York socialite with a heart for social justice, who is the mother of real-life Lilac heroine Caroline Ferriday. The book is a prequel, though it is a silk thread that binds the two stories. Eliza is enjoying the high life with her Manhattan and Southampton social set, making regular visits to Paris and St. Petersburg to sightsee with close friend and confidante Sofya Streshnayva as the world buzzes with talk of impending war. Eliza takes the threat more seriously than beautiful Sofya, a cousin of the Romanovs who, like most of her ilk, is living in a bubble of denial about the danger that lies ahead. When Sofya's stepmother hires Varinka Kozlov, the daughter of a local fortuneteller, she unwittingly brings trouble into their home. Although young Varinka is a kind soul, her family is closely connected to a pair of local thugs leading Bolshevik uprisings against the bourgeoisie White Russians. Soon, Sofya's family is caught in the crosshairs of a revolution, Eliza is powerless to help from New York, and Varinka must make a choice about where her loyalties lie. Though the writing is rich and vivid with detail about the period, the storytelling is quite a bit slower than in Kelly's captivating debut, and both the plot and relationship development feel secondary to the historical scene-setting.A nuanced tale that speaks to the strength of women.

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February 18, 2019
How Caroline Ferriday, the real-life character featured in Kelly’s Lilac Girls, was inspired to become an advocate for Polish refugees who survived WWII comes to light in this lively, well-researched prequel in which she appears as a child. Here the story focuses on her mother, Eliza, who set an example for her daughter by being a champion for Russian nobility brutalized during WWI. Just as the author focussed on three strong women surviving a war in her previous novel, she does the same here: in addition to Eliza, there is her aristocrat friend Sofya Streshnayva (cousin to the tsar) and a Russian peasant girl, Varinka. The author follows the trajectory of their lives from 1914 through WWI and then the Russian Revolution and its aftermath with page-tuning brio. Interweaving three story lines (Varinka ends up working for the Streshnayva household) where all three are emotionally and physically put to the test, the author depicts Eliza’s upper-class life in America and how, despite personal loss, she throws herself into helping Russian emigres; Sofya’s tragic circumstances when a rowdy, dangerous mob takes over the family’s country home; and Varinka’s struggles as a peasant girl at the mercy of a man who is both abusive and protective toward her. Some story lines strain credibility (coincidences and melodramatic cliffhangers abound) or are questionable (the prurient element involved with Varinka’s protector/abuser falls flat). Nevertheless, Kelly memorably portrays three indomitable women who triumph over hardships and successfully brings a complex and turbulent time in history to life.

Starred review from February 15, 2019
Kelly is back with another epic tale of three women's lives overlapping against the backdrop of history, this time a generation earlier than?and starring the mother of a heroine from?her debut, The Lilac Girls (2017). The setting is WWI and the Russian Revolution; the stories are inspired by true events. New Yorker Eliza Ferriday returns home when her tour of Russia with her school friend Sofya Streshnayva, a cousin of the Romanovs, is cut short by the outbreak of war in Europe. Sofya's family retires to their country estate to wait out the troubles, while Eliza works to find refuge and employment for displaced Russians in America. Sofya hires a local peasant girl, Varinka, to help with her small son, unaware of the danger that Varinka's revolutionary connections pose to her family. Kelly's gift is bringing to life and to light the untold stories of women and families far away from the war front yet deeply affected by the decisions of leaders and the efforts of fighters. Fans of historical fiction like the works of Marie Benedict and Lisa See, and viewers of period dramas, will want to clear their calendars when Lost Roses comes out.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

April 1, 2019

After debuting with Lilac Girls, which has sold 1.2 million copies across formats in this country alone, Kelly returns with a novel featuring the mother of Lilac's real-life Caroline Ferriday. In 1914, Eliza Ferriday travels to St. Petersburg with a Romanov cousin, Sofya Streshnayva, whom she had met two years previously in Paris. While she's there, World War I explodes, the Romanov dynasty begins its tumble, and Eliza escapes, determined to help Sofya's family and others like them.

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