The Tea Rose: A Novel (The Tea Rose Series, 1)

The Tea Rose is a towering old-fashioned story, imbued with a modern sensibility, of a family's destruction, of murder and revenge, of love lost and won again, and of one determined woman's quest to survive and triumph.

East London, 1888-a city apart. A place of shadow and light where thieves, whores, and dreamers mingle, where children play in the cobbled streets by day and a killer stalks at night, where bright hopes meet the darkest truths.

Here, by the whispering waters of the Thames, a bright and defiant young woman dares to dream of a life beyond tumbledown wharves, gaslit alleys, and the grim and crumbling dwellings of the poor.

Fiona Finnegan, a worker in a tea factory, hopes to own a shop one day, together with her lifelong love, Joe Bristow, a costermonger's son. With nothing but their faith in each other to spur them on, Fiona and Joe struggle, save, and sacrifice to achieve their dreams.

But Fiona's dreams are shattered when the actions of a dark and brutal man take from her nearly everything-and everyone-she holds dear. Fearing her own death at the dark man's hands, she is forced to flee London for New York. There, her indomitable spirit-and the ghosts of her past-propel her rise from a modest west side shopfront to the top of Manhattan's tea trade.

Authentic and moving, Jennifer Donnelly's The Tea Rose is an unforgettable novel.

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592 pages

Average rating: 8.53

15 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

melbeesue
Oct 16, 2023
4/10 stars
***Spoiler Alert****I found this book overly sentimental, really predictable and TOO long.

About 50 pages in...I knew that the main character (Fiona) was going to lose her father. I knew that Millie was going to get Joe (Fiona's fiancée) to sleep with her. I also knew that if I turned to the last chapter, I would discover that Joe and Fiona were back together somehow, and they were. It all came true!

I wouldn't say that I read this book, per se. It is rather more realistic to say that I skimmed this book until the conclusion. There were no surprises in store for me within the many pages and no hidden depths of understanding waiting to be discovered within.

This was just one author's take on creating a sentimental time-spanning epic to pull at your heartstrings, but apparently, my heart felt played and didn't want to waste time on another story like so many stories it had heard before.

This was more of a 3-hour costumed drama screenplay rather than a novel. Wait for the film!

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