Audiobook7 hours
Empire Girls
Written by Suzanne Hayes and Loretta Nyhan
Narrated by Meredith Mitchell
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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About this audiobook
Ivy and Rose Adams may be sisters, but they're nothing alike. Rose, the eldest, is the responsible one, while Ivy is spirited and brazen. After the unexpected death of their father, the women are left to reconcile the estate, but they make a shocking discovery: not only has their father left them in financial ruin, but he has also bequeathed their beloved family house to a brother they never knew existed. With only a photograph to guide the way, Ivy and Rose travel to New York City, determined to find this mysterious man and reclaim what is rightfully theirs.
Once in New York, temptations abound at every turn, and soon the sisters are drawn into the glitzy underbelly of Manhattan, where they must overcome their differences and learn to trust each other if they're going to survive in the big city and find their brother. Filled with unforgettable characters and charm, Empire Girls is a love letter to 1920s New York and a captivating story of the unspoken bond between sisters.
Once in New York, temptations abound at every turn, and soon the sisters are drawn into the glitzy underbelly of Manhattan, where they must overcome their differences and learn to trust each other if they're going to survive in the big city and find their brother. Filled with unforgettable characters and charm, Empire Girls is a love letter to 1920s New York and a captivating story of the unspoken bond between sisters.
Author
Suzanne Hayes
Suzanne Hayes is the author of the novel The Witch of Little Italy and her essays have been published in Life Learning Magazine and Full of Crow: On the Wing edition. She lives with her husband and three daughters in New Haven, Connecticut.
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Reviews for Empire Girls
Rating: 4.142857142857143 out of 5 stars
4/5
21 ratings5 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Two sisters who went in search of their long lost brother after their father died.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What a delightful book. Everything from cover to cover and everything in between was great. I loved Ivy and Rose equally. I can relate to Rose because she is like me...more mature. Yet by the end of the story, I would say that both Ivy and Rose were on even playing grounds. They rubbed off on one another. Ivy did a lot of growing up throughout the story. Rose on the other hand learned to let loose some. Both sisters showed that family shares a strong bond and had each other's back. Than there is the time period. Love, Love the 1920's era. I used to always be in love with the Western era with outlaws: Belle Star, Wyatt Earp, etc. I always said that if I could go back in time to an era this would be it. Yet the more books I read that take place in the 1920's the more that I am in love. At this point both eras are a tie. The best part about joint authors...you never know where one ends and the next begins. I will be checking out more books by these authors.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This is the coming of age story of two sisters, Ivy and Rose, in 1920's New York. After their father dies they are shocked to learn that they had a brother that they never knew about and he has inherited the house they live in. They set off to find him and along the way enjoy many new experiences such as smoking, drinking, and falling in love for the first time. Ivy plays the part of the impulsive, reckless sister while Rose is the sensible one. Even though the sisters suffer from their share of disagreements eventually they reconnect when both realize the importance of family.While I enjoyed the descriptions of 1920 New York, this book was just lacking something for me. I never really felt connected to the characters and consequently didn't really care much about them. I finished it easily enough but I never found it very compelling. I have read other, more interesting books about this time period before.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5“Welcome to real life…Nothing we expect is ever how we expected it.”Twenty-two year old Rose Adams and her twenty-one-year-old sister, Ivy, experience the shock of their lives when their father dies unexpectedly leaving them orphaned, homeless, and penniless. It’s 1925, and up until then, the girls have been living in modest luxury in their attractive family home, Adams House, in the country town of Forest Grove, in upstate New York. Soon, the family’s solicitor explains to the sisters that not only was their father’s finances in ruin, but he’d been harboring an incredible secret: the girls had a older half-brother named Asher…and the family home has been willed exclusively to him. Evidently, their father had been trying to locate Asher for quite some time, but had failed. Now it was up to the two sisters to find him. The only clue they have is a photograph of Asher in front of a boarding house in New York City. Soon the sisters pack up what belongings they can carry and take the train to New York City. They arrive “like a pair of unexploded bombs.” It’s not hard for them to locate the boarding house in Greenwich Village that was in the background of Asher’s photograph. They need to learn more about their brother’s connection to this place, so they secure inexpensive attic accommodations and start questioning the boarders. Everyone says they’ve never seen him, but the sisters sense that they are all hiding something. There is an air of mystery over everything and everybody. Soon they’ve completely adapted to the crazy life of the boarding house. It is a fun place filled with rowdy, lively, bathtub-gin-loving modern women. There are also two nice-looking guys associated with the place who instantly move in on the sisters in a sweet romantic way. The book recreates what it might have been like for two young woman to be set free in The Big City during the Roaring Twenties—an era filled as much with jazz clubs, speakeasies, flappers, and bobs, as it was with enormous social, artistic, and cultural upheaval. The book does a very good job of putting the reader smack in middle of that exciting and tumultuous world…and that is exactly what I enjoyed most about this book. On the slightly negative side, the book dragged a bit in parts, especially in the beginning. However, eventually I got into the rhythm of the plot and it carried me along nicely right up to the gratifying ending. The characters, although somewhat stereotypical, were far better than I expected.Basically, it was one terrific story. It’s been a few days since I finished reading the book and the mental image of the two sisters and the story of what happened to them still tumbles around in my mind, giving me pleasure. For me, “Empire Girls” was a delightful, breezy, uplifting, family-oriented story with a touch of honest romance. It’s a book about relationships of all kinds: how important they are and how difficult it is to not be misunderstood by those who mean the most to you. And what’s not to like about that? I’d say, it’s a great choice to put on your light summer reading list.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Empire Girls is the story between two different sisters that find themselves traveling to New York to search for a brother they never knew existed.Rose is the capable, serious sister and Ivy is the wild and spirited one. However, once they get to NYC, they seem to change personalities.The story was ok for me. I never really felt any connection to either Rose or Ivy. Suddenly "serious" Rose is out drinking alcohol and getting drunk and her sister Ivy is now irritated by her behavior. It did not really flow for me.I did like the setting of 1920's New York City. I wish more detail and research had been done and included in this story. This was an ok read for me, it just seemed to be lacking any real "meat" to the story.