Kathleen O'Donald: A Novel

I hate romance novels but I fell in love with this one. Great story telling and it shows the delicate issues surrounding women during the 1900's. This book has a little of everything: is tragedy, romance, and passion and there are also some very sexy parts to it. If you like Sarah Waters you will love this book. I recommend it 100 percent.

This book gives an excellent view of what it was like to be a new immigrant to this country in the early 1900's. It captures the misery of the living conditions and the abysmal lives of factory workers. Rose and Kathleen arrive in New York knowing no one, but each having big dreams for her future. They both find out very quickly that the dreams may be harder to achieve than they thought, but their growing relationship makes everything more bearable. The biggest fault with this book is that it doesn't develop the details enough, so that the horrific Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, which really occurred, becomes almost a minor event in the book. This is definitely worth reading.