Wednesday, November 05, 2014

What is Renée Rosen reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Renée Rosen, author of What the Lady Wants: A Novel of Marshall Field and the Gilded Age.

Her entry begins:
My TBR pile is overflowing but the following three books really stood out in my mind.

After The War Is Over by Jennifer Robson.

This gorgeous novel by the international bestselling author of Somewhere in France, won’t be published until June—but trust me, it’s so worth the wait. I was fortunate enough to read an advanced copy and for fans of the Great War era, this is a true gem. Meticulously researched and beautifully portrayed, I simply didn’t want this book to end....[read on]
About What the Lady Wants, from the publisher:
In late-nineteenth-century Chicago, visionary retail tycoon Marshall Field made his fortune wooing women customers with his famous motto: “Give the lady what she wants.” His legendary charm also won the heart of socialite Delia Spencer and led to an infamous love affair.

The night of the Great Fire, as seventeen-year-old Delia watches the flames rise and consume what was the pioneer town of Chicago, she can’t imagine how much her life, her city, and her whole world are about to change. Nor can she guess that the agent of that change will not simply be the fire, but more so the man she meets that night.…

Leading the way in rebuilding after the fire, Marshall Field reopens his well-known dry goods store and transforms it into something the world has never seen before: a glamorous palace of a department store. He and his powerhouse coterie—including Potter Palmer and George Pullman—usher in the age of robber barons, the American royalty of their generation.

But behind the opulence, their private lives are riddled with scandal and heartbreak. Delia and Marshall first turn to each other out of loneliness, but as their love deepens, they will stand together despite disgrace and ostracism, through an age of devastation and opportunity, when an adolescent Chicago is transformed into the gleaming White City of the Chicago’s World’s Fair of 1893.
Visit Renée Rosen's website, blog, and Facebook page.

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Writers Read: Renée Rosen.

--Marshal Zeringue