Leaving Rock Harbor

Leaving Rock Harbor by Rebecca Chace This is an old fashioned book in a good way. Steeped in setting we grow with characters who fall in and out of love, split over class issues and labor strikes, then succeed because of surprising inner strength. The central character, Frankie Ross--the daughter of a cotton mill worker--marries the rich son of its owner. I might have made the first chapters shorter (while respecting the time frame) but I loved the authentic ring of the details and the young girl is perfect to shoehorn us into a distant time and place. There are some real ironies (the mill owner loses everything and a Portuguese kid who worked for him ends up owning a chain of mills in South America). And there is some genuine sadness too. Inspired by the author's own family history, readers will experience the First World War, the Jazz Age and the Great Depression as if we had lived them. And through this terrific read, we do. -John Lehman, Rosebud Book Reviews

Leaving Rock Harbor is the kind of novel that stays with me. Its main character, Frankie, is smart, sensual, honest -- almost to a fault -- and beautiful, again almost to a fault. The setting captivated me -- mill town New England immediately prior and post World War I, with the roaring 20s, prohibition, women's right to vote, union building and busting, and passion all wrapped in together. Frankie is in love with two men, one who is rich, and one is not. It's a classic triangle, but with provocative twists, characters who I fell in love with, a sense of a community that felt so real I could rub the cotton in the mills between my fingers and the salt air of the ocean in my skin. The writing is evocative and literary without being heavy-handed. In short, a terrific read.

Smart, funny, tender, and above all, a wonderful story. Full of grace and emotion, it captured me from the very first paragraph. Set in a New England mill town (based largely on Fall River, MA) just before the onset of World War I, Leaving Rock Harbor follows a young Frankie Ross as she negotiates her way between the harshness of the textile mills and the high-society world of Massachusetts politics, each mirrored by her two best friends Joe Barros and Winslow Curtis. Through the war, the strikes, the political machinations, Frankie's journey is leading inexorably to an ending that may surprise some. Leaving Rock Harbor is a pitch-perfect mix of history and love story that makes an ideal summertime read.