The Gilded Hour by Sara DonatiBook Review

Synopsis

The year is 1883, and in New York City it’s a time of dizzying splendor, crushing poverty, and tremendous change. With the gravity-defying Brooklyn Bridge nearly complete and the city in the grip of anti-vice crusader Anthony Comstock, Dr Anna Savard and her cousin, Sophie – both graduates of the Women’s Medical School – treat the city’s most vulnerable. Even when doing so puts all they’ve worked for in jeopardy . . .

For Anna, her role as a surgeon has placed her in the path of four children who have lost everything. Faced with their helplessness, Anna must make the unexpected choice between holding on to the pain of her past
and letting love into her life.

My Thoughts

In 2019, I participated in a blog tour for Sara Donati’s Where the Light Enters, the sequel to The Gilded Hour. At that time I didn’t think I would be able to read the prequel and meet the deadline, so it was added to my must read list for 2020.

Once again I’m astounded how such a long book (750+ pages) was a quick and entertaining read. Of course, I had met most of the characters before and knew a lot of their back stories. What I really wanted from this novel was to learn how the relationship between Anna Savard and Detective Jack Mezzanotte developed and how the family came to adopt the Italian orphans.

Aside from these two threads, there is an ongoing police investigation into multiple murders. This part of the plot was not fully resolved by the end of the novel and I can see why to some readers it felt unfinished, not knowing there would be a sequel to tie up all those loose ends. For that reason, I recommend the series be read in order, although The Gilded Hour does quite well as a standalone.

My comments regarding Where the Light Enters equally apply to this novel. The scope is impressive and, once again, I was totally engrossed in the lives of the characters and New York of the 1880s.