Empire Girls

May 15, 2014
When their father dies unexpectedly and leaves their home to a half brother they never knew they had, Ivy and Rose Adams head to Jazz-Age New York City to find their missing sibling, each full of expectations and unprepared for the changes the city will wreak.Neither plain, practical Rose nor beautiful, dreamy Ivy are prepared for the sudden death of their father. Devastated by grief, they are further rocked when they learn he was on the brink of financial disaster and that he left the management of his home and estate-such as it is-to Asher, a son from a previous marriage. More mysterious, Asher seems to have disappeared since he returned from the Great War. Ivy and Rose take it upon themselves to find him: Rose, because she wants to convince him to sign their home over to them, and Ivy, because she feels her brother will somehow take the place of the father she was so close to. But following the few clues their father left takes the girls down paths they never expected; it makes them question their roles in the family and their own personalities as they've always understood them, causing enormous friction between them before allowing them to move beyond their preconceived notions of who they are and who they might become. Hayes and Nyhan have written an imaginative and elegant tribute to the timeless complications of young women coming of age, set against the glitter and jumble of New York in the 1920s. Family tensions are ratcheted up through death, misunderstanding, jealousy and the shadow of war, and the sisters find that once they leave the comfort of their father's love and their childhood home, they are both challenged and liberated.Lovely and lyrical.

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May 15, 2014

Hayes and Nyhan team up once again (after 2013's I'll Be Seeing You) with this Jazz Age tale of two sisters close in age but otherwise far apart. Rose is more serious, and she considers it her duty to look after her wild younger sister and their father. Ivy is a dreamer who longs to go to New York and become a star. When their father suddenly dies, the siblings find out they have an older brother and that he is the rightful heir. The only clue to his whereabouts is a photograph taken in front of Empire House, a boardinghouse in New York City. The girls travel there, renting a room at Empire House, where the residents are welcoming but secretive. Ivy finds work at a speakeasy while Rose becomes a seamstress, and they try to figure out their future as their brother is still nowhere to be found. VERDICT Although the ending is too neatly wrapped up and some secondary characters could be more fully developed, the sisters' internal struggle to realign their dreams and heal the breach in their relationship adds pathos and makes for an ultimately satisfying read. With historical details of Prohibition-era New York, romance, and some elements of mystery, this novel of sisterhood should have wide appeal.--Christina Thurairatnam, Holmes Cty. Dist. P.L., Millersburg, OH

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2014
Hayes and Nyhan, coauthors of I'll Be Seeing You (2013), collaborate again on this novel set in 1920s New York. Sisters Rose's and Ivy's differences have kept them at odds. Reserved Rose embraced a domestic role after their mother died, while would-be actress Ivy dreamed of leaving small-town life behind. After their father's death, they learn that his estate has been left to a half brother, Asher, whom they had never met. With only a few clues to start their search, the sisters head to New York City to find him. They secure a room at the Empire, a boardinghouse for women, and get jobs working for an enigmatic boutique owner, Cat, who also runs a speakeasy. As they search for their brother, they finally develop a sisterly relationship. Each coauthor narrates in the voice of a sister, and the alternating perspectives work well as Hayes and Nyhan depict the changing mores of the flapper era. Though the plot includes a mystery, the romantic elements are stronger. Readers will be charmed by the Adams sisters and their adventures.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)