Review: Women's Suffrage and a satisfying love story
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 27, 2013
All along, I was certain this novel would not end well. Something from page one (the verdigris eyes!) tipped me off that the narrator spoke from a place of loss. I was right and wrong. The loss was not what I thought it was, but it brought tears to my eyes. If you hate sad endings, let me assure you, this book does have a happy ending -- but it doesn't just stop with "and they lived happily ever after." From the outset, we know the narrator is an old woman, looking back, telling someone of the struggle for women to gain the right to vote in America. In all my high school and college history classes, I never grasped how brutal that struggle was. To have fellow citizens physically injure picketing women  - to jail them, to force feed them when they went on hunger strikes -- unbelievable. The burning pain of feeding tubes rammed through the nose, to the stomach. Time in jail. Public shame and humiliation.I'm amazed at how Meredith Allard brings to life the WWI era. Sights, sounds, smells, every detail brought New York City in 1917 to life. Vaudeville. The Bell Brothers (and how they acquired that name). Discrimination against U.S. citizens with German names or ancestry -- as historical novels go, this one sent one shock after another into the reader's heart. Even if I'd read some of these things in history books, reading them in fictional form brings it all to life and makes the truth hit so much harder.Adam Bell, his impoverished upbringing, his devotion to his father, then to his injured brother; his humor, his green eyes; everything about him is endearing and memorable.The novel might have seemed a bit slow in places, but the most accurate and well-researched historicals often are.I highly recommend this novel. It was a Kindle daily freebie, but it's a rare gem, one that a reader could pay for and read without thinking, "I wish I had those three hours of my life back" for something better. I would read more of Allard's novels if they're all as good as this one.