In her lushly described seventh historical novel, The Queen of Roses, Julia Kelly (The Dressmakers of London) takes readers into the foothills of California's San Gabriel Mountains, exploring the intricate gardens and equally complex social dynamics of Pasadena society through the life of English immigrant Adele Pearce.
Kelly's narrative opens in 1960 with newspaper reporter Theresa Johnson stuck writing mostly obituaries, though she longs to write features and hard news stories. Theresa receives a phone call from the septuagenarian Miss Pearce, pointing out some errors in her obituary of well-known Pasadena hotelier Guy Whitley. Theresa drives to Adele's home, Rosewood House, in the Altadena hills, where Adele makes a surprising offer: she will hire Theresa to write her biography. As the women spend time together, Theresa is plunged into the glittering but still-evolving world of Pasadena in the early 1900s, where wealthy transplants from the East Coast and various European cities struggled to establish a new social milieu on untested ground.
Adele, freshly arrived from London in 1903 to join her parents in Pasadena, is stunned to learn that their move to California was prompted by more than just her father's failing health. An unwise investment led to the loss of her family's fortune, and she must find a husband among the brash California businessmen she meets in their new home. Her marriage to Guy, while practical, proves unsatisfying. Adele finds solace in making Rosewood House and its gardens a true oasis--though even Rosewood's beauty provides only a temporary respite from harsher realities.
Kelly deftly moves back and forth between her dual narratives, drawing subtle parallels between Theresa's struggles at the office and Adele's frustrations at being reduced to a society ornament before and after her marriage. The earlier narrative also provides fascinating historical context about Pasadena and the Los Angeles area when both were still considered upstart towns. The two women find ways to exert their influence in their chosen spheres, and they also find love (or at least the hope of it) in unexpected places. As their friendship grows, so too does Theresa's concern for Adele's well-being, and when a dangerous wildfire looms in the foothills, both women must draw on their inner reserves of strength to save what matters most to them.
Depicting sharp contrasts between the beauty of Rosewood's gardens and the stark loss occasioned by California wildfires, The Queen of Roses is an absorbing portrait of two women who find the courage to pursue their dreams even under difficult circumstances. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams
Shelf Talker: Julia Kelly's lush seventh historical novel paints an absorbing portrait of an Englishwoman who becomes a doyenne of Pasadena society and the young reporter hired to write her life story.