The Lives of Two Young Women Writers Intertwine at a Writing Desk

Tenley Roth, daughter and great-great-granddaughter of acclaimed novelists, has received a national award for her first novel. She’s under contract for her second novel, but a severe case of writer’s block has her incapacitated. When her estranged mother, Blanch, begs her to come to Florida to help with her chemo treatments, Tenley agrees. Her fiance doesn’t want her to go and races off to Paris to attend a screenwriter’s symposium. In Florida, she meets Jonas, a furniture designer with a large raucous family. An only child growing up without a mother, she is drawn to Jonas and his family, but she’s still engaged, sort of.

In the early 1900’s another fledgling writer is having difficulty. Birdie Shehorn is the daughter of a Gilded Age millionaire. She’s expected to marry well and carry on the family’s social position that her mother has fought for. Birdie cares nothing for society, doesn’t want to marry the man chosen for her, and is in love with an impoverished English earl.

The two women a century apart write at the same desk. It becomes a symbol for both of them of the ability to create. The writing desk has moved from New York, to Florida, but still it inspires these women.

The Christian fiction in this book is very apparent. Both young women pray for what they desire and feel an inner voice telling them to not be afraid. The story is told in alternating chapters about Tenley and Birdie. While both stories are interesting, I found Birdie’s story more compelling. She is a strong woman caught in the trap of her family’s ambitions and in the early 1900s it was almost impossible to escape.

I recommend this book if you enjoy historical romance and Christian fiction.

I received this book from Booklook Bloggers for this review.