Virginia Carmichael

You can't always judge a book by it's cover, or the title, and it's certainly true of this book. At first glance, it appears it might be just a "light and fluffy" romance, but there is so much more substance to this story than that.

This story is set in Francisco, in the early 1900s.
Margaret Gilbert is the daughter of a wealthy railroad owner, but she repelled by the thought of marrying for status, and when she joins the Ladies Aid Society, she is appalled by the treatment of the Chinese immigrant laborers. She vows to expose the abuse, but she also knows that no one will listen to a woman like her.

When she meets Ezra Pendleton, editor and heir to a newspaper empire, she concocts a plan to expose the truth without incurring the wrath of her father, but she does not expect to fall for Ezra, and she has no idea that he is also hiding a secret of his own.

This was a well paced story and quick read; I really enjoyed it. I liked the quotes about newspapers and journalism at the start of each chapter, and how they related to what happened in those chapters. The author did her research well; even though this story is fiction, sadly, the abuse of the Chinese immigrants described in the book was true. The character of Margaret was also based on a real person, a social activist named Donaldina Cameron who fought for the rights of Chinese women and children.… (mais)