∎ Read The Tea Rose Jennifer Donnelly 9780007208005 Books

The Tea Rose Jennifer Donnelly 9780007208005 Books

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The Tea Rose Jennifer Donnelly 9780007208005 Books

This book deserved to be read. And to be made into a movie! With its 700+ pages long and all the details.. oh so much detail (all essentials too, definitely not fillers), the town, the situations, the every moves of every one. It got you invested in the story. How devastating the circumstances. The murders. The union. The ambition. The business. You grow with them, with the characters. I had a heavy chest reading more than half of the book. But it was so worth it at the end. Though I wanted to strangle some characters for meddling. Some for their decisions. But the sweet part of the story, when it was sweet, it got you. It grips and never loosen. The chase that got your heart pounding. The mystery. The cruelty of poverty, the selfishness... So much has happened in one book. I would give it a thousand times 5 stars if I could. Highly recommend.


Tags : The Tea Rose [Jennifer Donnelly] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Set in Whitechapel in 1888, The Tea Rose is a tale of a love lost and won, of a family's destruction,Jennifer Donnelly,The Tea Rose,HarperCollins,0007208006,Fiction - Romance,Romance - Historical,Fiction

The Tea Rose Jennifer Donnelly 9780007208005 Books Reviews

This is not a new book and I don't know how I missed it until now, but The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly is the best book I've read in a long time. This rather epic story begins with Fiona Finnegan and her family, chronicling their struggles to survive in London's Lower East Side. Fiona and her childhood friend, Joe, dream about the day when they can open a shop together and they scrimp and save every penny of their meager salaries toward that end. Fate intervenes and what follows takes the reader from Whitechapel, London, the backdrop of Jack the Ripper, to New York City's Golden Age. Ms. Donnelly portrays these settings vividly and in detail, so that the reader gets a true sense of the time period and surroundings. She also writes with great emotion, so the reader can truly feel Fiona and Joe's joys and despairs. I highly recommend this book to lovers of historical fiction!
An absolutely wonderful family saga with a strong female as the protagonist.

The Tea Rose is book one in a truly fascinating historical saga. The Tea Rose centres around Fiona Finnigan who lives in the East End of London around 1888 (during the time of Jack the Ripper). Fiona's father is a hardworking dock worker who is well respected by his peers. When he becomes involved in organizing a union, he is murdered for his troubles. The Finnigan family now in greater hardship, falls apart. Fiona flees to New York where she is determined to destroy the man responsible for her fathers death and destruction of her family...Fiona finally returns to London, stronger, wealthy and on her way to revenge her fathers murder. We meet many memorable characters in this book including Fiona's true love, Joe Bristow a costmonger in the markets of London's East End.
This is truly a wonderful read and the first in a three book Saga.
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Donnelly is an author that I've never read before, but she will easily become a new favorite of mine. This book was beautifully done. I loved how the author stuck to the accents each character had, adjusting her writing to illustrate those. This is an author who writes delicious sentences and descriptions, and this book is one I enjoyed falling into.

I also loved the story, although it was often so heartbreaking that I couldn't help but feel sorry for Fiona. She lived a tough life. Growing up poor and eventually left to her own devices because of tragedy after tragedy, Fiona still manages to make something of herself and to reach her dreams. The author used Jack the Ripper as a way to move the plot forward and took creative liberties to tie him into her story. I loved this part of the book. Jack intrigues me, and as a villain he is most definitely a scary one. While the story was high on drama, I never felt like any of it was too wildly unbelievable. Each tragedy and success that Fiona experienced seemed plausible, although I often wished for a little more happiness for her. In the end, the story does work out, although there are many hardships on the way.

The characters in this novel were all well done. My favorite was probably Nick, a man Fiona encounters on her way to New York who becomes a rock for her throughout the beginning of her new life there. Nick is often funny and cares about Fiona to a degree that almost no one else in the book does. He supports her in all endeavors that she undertakes, and who doesn't want a best friend like that? Michael, Fiona's uncle, was an interesting character, often funny because of his developing paternal feelings toward Fiona. Although many of Fiona's family is lost early in the book, those characters are also given a certain livelihood that sets them apart, a testament to the skills of development on Donnelly's part.

Overall, I definitely recommend this book. It's sizable but quite worth it. There's enough story to keep the reader interested, and it's so beautifully done that it's a world readers won't want to leave.
This story starts out in a poor section of London in 1888 where hard working parents could barely feed their families or put a roof over their heads. It is a very grim existence. But 17 year old Fiona Finnegan and her childhood sweetheart, Joe Bristow, have a dream. They are working hard and saving every penny they can, to someday get married and own their own shop.

Then one thing after another goes wrong. First, Joe's boss's daughter sets her sights on Joe, who only had eyes for Fiona. But a devious plan and a bottle of whisky proves to be too much for the young man to resist. Sadly, Fiona and Joe's future plans are dashed forever. Then, several tragedies occur which leave Fiona and her little brother orphans. With reason to believe her life is in danger, Fiona and her young brother board a ship and flee to America.

The saga continues, with Fiona in America and Joe in England. The book is very long, but if the reader can get through the first hundred pages, it's a literary journey well worth taking. The characters are well developed, and the book is filled with interesting details pertaining to that period of time. It's a good old fashioned historical fiction that reminded me of books I read many years ago. I enthusiastically give it four stars.
This book deserved to be read. And to be made into a movie! With its 700+ pages long and all the details.. oh so much detail (all essentials too, definitely not fillers), the town, the situations, the every moves of every one. It got you invested in the story. How devastating the circumstances. The murders. The union. The ambition. The business. You grow with them, with the characters. I had a heavy chest reading more than half of the book. But it was so worth it at the end. Though I wanted to strangle some characters for meddling. Some for their decisions. But the sweet part of the story, when it was sweet, it got you. It grips and never loosen. The chase that got your heart pounding. The mystery. The cruelty of poverty, the selfishness... So much has happened in one book. I would give it a thousand times 5 stars if I could. Highly recommend.