Luella and Effie are sisters. Very close sisters who will do anything for each other. Luella never believed that Effie was really dying despite the fact she has a terrible heart problem and what they call “blue fits”. Their parents love them and trust them it seems completely. But when the Gypsies come around they love to sneak off and go visit them.
Luella is a ballet dancer in the very early 1900s and is 16 years old. She is very fascinated by the Gypsies and loves going to visit and listen to their music while dancing with them also. Effie is more fascinated with the fortune telling part. She goes along mainly because of Luella though. She seems to almost worship her older sister.
Effie was born in 1900 and with a hole in her heart. The dr told her parents that she would never survive to see her first birthday. Each year on her birthday Jeanne, the girls mother, is afraid it will be Effie’s last. She’s not ready to lose her baby girl. It seems the birth of Effie puts a distance between their parents in the fear of having another baby born with problems. But their problems are by far not Effie’s fault.
The parents seem to truly love the girls and give them a good life. Their father, Emory, does not allow to many maids or help and seems like he may be a little bit on the stingy side but it’s understandable if he’s doing this to teach his girls to be selfs reliable. Luella wants her own maid but Effie does not see the sense in that. Luella is growing up and wants things that her parents don’t understand. She’s like a free spirit in many ways.
One morning Effie awakes and Luella is gone. She is convinced her father sent her to the HOUSE OF MERCY. A place where young girls were sent if they were a bit out of hand or for other reasons. It’s not a very pleasant place though. The girls are treated more like slave workers than human beings. The so called Sisters who run the place are cruel indeed. Makes me wonder about any religion that allows such cruelty. Effie finds a way to get put in this awful place and meets a girl, Mable. Mable is a character I won’t forget soon. This book tells her story along with Effie’s and Luella’s. Jeanna tells her story of fear and heartbreak. Many points of views are told here. Each so worth reading and knowing. It explains so much about each of the characters of this book.
I love the end where the author told about the places like HOUSE OF MERCY that were everywhere back then. They were all cruel and treated women, both young and older, terrible. The research that was done for this book is very interesting and worth reading also. So at the end be sure and read that part.
This story will touch your heart. Make you hold your breath in several places and even laugh in a few. It’s told from several prospectives and the characters are so well developed. I loved them all. I think this book is one that will stick with me for a long time. The ending did make me cry, but also part of it made my heart happy. It’s the story of not just two girls, but three and the mother of two of them, and how they survived, dealt with and endured some things that no young girl should have too. I was also surprised that back then at 16 a girl could get married without the parents consent. Men could do whatever they wanted and got away with it, that part didn’t surprise me though. It’s the story of love, loss, finding one’s self and losing people who are a treasure. It’s well written and a very touching story.
Thank you to #NetGalley, #Harlequin, and a new to me author, Serena Burdick. I look forward to more from this author. This is my own review.
I have to give it 5 stars. A very high recommendation also. A must read.
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