The Wicked Redhead – TLC Blog Tour
The Wicked Redhead (The Wicked City series; Volume number 2) by Beatriz Williams
William Morrow Paperbacks – December 10, 2019
*Book Review copy provided by TLC Book Tours & the publisher in exchange for an honest review*
I’m on a blogging roll this week and I have another great book to share with you. If you’ve spent any time on #bookstagram you may have seen Beatriz Williams’ book pop up from time to time. I was not aware of her work until quite recently and was amazed to see how many avid fans she has! So obviously I jumped at the chance to read her latest book!
About the Book
The dazzling narrator of The Wicked City brings her mesmerizing voice and indomitable spirit to another Jazz Age tale of rumrunners, double crosses, and true love, spanning the Eastern seaboard from Florida to Long Island to Halifax, Nova Scotia.
1924. Ginger Kelly wakes up in tranquil Cocoa Beach, Florida, having fled south to safety in the company of disgraced Prohibition agent Oliver Anson Marshall and her newly-orphaned young sister, Patsy. But paradise is short-lived. Marshall is reinstated to the agency with suspicious haste and put to work patrolling for rumrunners on the high seas, from which he promptly disappears. Gin hurries north to rescue him, only to be trapped in an agonizing moral quandary by Marshall’s desperate mother.
1998. Ella Dommerich has finally settled into her new life in Greenwich Village, inside the same apartment where a certain redheaded flapper lived long ago…and continues to make her presence known. Having quit her ethically problematic job at an accounting firm, cut ties with her unfaithful ex-husband, and begun an epic love affair with Hector, her musician neighbor, Ella’s eager to piece together the history of the mysterious Gin Kelly, whose only physical trace is a series of rare vintage photograph cards for which she modeled before she disappeared.
Two women, two generations, two urgent quests. But as Ginger and Ella track down their separate quarries with increasing desperation, the mysteries consuming them take on unsettling echoes of each other, and both women will require all their strength and ingenuity to outwit a conspiracy spanning decades.
My Thoughts
I totally see why so many readers love her work! Williams has a fantastic way of sucking you into an intriguing story line and I really enjoyed the 1920s setting that she built. This is a dual story line book, which doesn’t always work for readers, but I felt like each character had a distinct voice. While I gravitated toward Gin’s perspective more, I felt like Williams did a great job with the two POVs.
I will note that I have not read the first book, The Wicked City, and after reading book two I think it would have been beneficial to read that book first before jumping into this story. It felt like I jumped into the middle of an ongoing plot (which I did). This is definitely a user error and nothing against the author! I would recommend starting with book one, which I plan to return to.
This is an engrossing book and if you are a fan of a chunky historical fiction, perfect for this time of year in my opinion, you’ll really enjoy this book. My interest is piqued and I want to read more of Williams’ work, however, I will check if there is a series order first!
