Tiffany Girl by Deeanne Gist

From the bestselling author of It Happened at the Fair and Fair Play comes a compelling historical novel about a progressive “New Woman”—the girl behind Tiffany’s chapel—and the love that threatens it all.

As preparations for the 1893 World’s Fair set Chicago and the nation on fire, Louis Tiffany—heir to the exclusive Fifth Avenue jewelry empire—seizes the opportunity to unveil his state-of-the-art, stained glass, mosaic chapel, the likes of which the world has never seen.

But when Louis’s dream is threatened by a glassworkers’ strike months before the Fair opens, he turns to an unforeseen source for help: the female students at the New York Art Institute. Eager for adventure, the young women pick up their skirts, move to boarding houses, take up steel cutters, and assume new identities as the “Tiffany Girls.”

Tiffany Girls is the heartwarming story of the impetuous Flossie Jayne, a beautiful, budding artist who is handpicked by Louis to help complete the Tiffany chapel. Though excited to live in a boarding house when most women stayed home, she quickly finds the world is less welcoming than anticipated. From a Casanova male, to an unconventional married couple, and a condescending singing master, she takes on a colorful cast of characters to transform the boarding house into a home while racing to complete the Tiffany chapel and make a name for herself in the art world.

As challenges mount, her ambitions become threatened from an unexpected quarter: her own heart. Who will claim victory? Her dreams or the captivating boarder next door?


About The Author

Deeanne Gist—known to her family, friends, and fans as Dee—has rocketed up bestseller lists and captured readers everywhere with her very fun, very original historicals. She has received numerous RITA nominations, two consecutive Christy Awards, and rave reviews. Deeanne has a background in education and journalism and a degree from Texas A&M. She has written for "People," "Parents," and "Parenting." She lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband and has four grown children. She has a very active online community on her website at IWantHerBook.com.



  
My Review

I have enjoyed books by Deeanna Gist in the past and this one sure does not disappoint, I was captivated from the first page. She is bringing us back to the fair, the Chicago World’s Fair, if only briefly. This is the 1890’s and a woman is very inferior to men, and it is just accepted common thinking, any money she earns belongs to her husband or her father.
Flossie Jayne is a New Woman, and wants to take flight in her life away from her parents. When opportunity knock and she is offered a job as a Tiffany Girl, she defies her parents and begins a new life. Mr. Tiffany has hired woman while the glassworker’s strike, and he needs his windows for the World’s Fair, so begins Flossie’s new life. She takes a room at a boarding house, and wants all of these new and exciting people to become her family.
One of the boards, a newspaper man, does not like these new modern women, and takes a job of sleuthing out information from the male strikers and reporting on these “scabs”. Reeve Wilder is about to begin a very new journey in his own life, both professionally and personally.
Life doesn’t become a bed of roses for Flossie, she is a willing and hard worker, and very friendly. She puts everything she has into her new job, but will it be enough? We meet some interesting people in this story, and not all are to be trusted. Loved that at the end of the book in the author’s notes, we find out about some of the real people and whom some of these characters are based on.
I enjoyed this story, and from a recent experience of going to Chicago and Navy Pier, and seeing the Tiffany work there, made this book even more enjoyable for me.
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Howard Books, and was not required to give a positive review.