A 20^th century mission of travel, love, art, and journalism inspired by a trailblazing 19^th century female journalist who broke a world record (Paris, Venice, Austria; 1937): They’ve done it again! Bestselling historical fiction authors Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb have once again collaborated on an historical novel that sweeps you away. This is the second of the duo’s combined efforts reviewed here (see https://enchantedprose.com/meet-me-in-monaco/) that reflects a synergy and brand that promises to charm.

Though not all can be charming given the novel’s 1937 timeframe when Hitler’s blitzkrieg plans were palpable, yet he hadn’t – yet – invaded the three countries the novel is set in. (Austria was the earliest occupied, in 1938.) We’re made aware of the impending peril through the journalistic lens of Maddie Sommers, a budding journalist who dresses “like a man” and is fiercely independent, contrasting with her make-no-waves, finely dressed sister Clara. Estranged for the past year since their father died, they’re brought together by their beloved, bohemian-spirited, wealthy, dying grandmother Violet, who asks them to deliver three letters – in Paris, Venice, and Vienna – to say goodbye to three people who meant the world to her, unknown to the sisters at the time.

Honoring Violet’s three wishes for three months of travel is a testament to love and family. When they arrive at each of the destinations, they can open her tender instructions that explain why each person matters so much to Violet, who writes beautiful missives about her memories, loves, and the historical context.

Clara and Maddie used to be so close. In their hearts they still are, but the journey is fraught with disagreements and rivalries.

Violet lives in a seaside estate on East Hampton’s South Fork of Long Island, New York. The richest of the richest. Expected to still be alive when Clara and Maddie return, she may take up the least number of words and chapters (written in alternating voices), yet her zest for life is ever-present and totally delightful. The sisters spent privileged childhoods here. Their mother is essentially out-of-the-picture. Violet runs this show, full of surprises.

She’s thought of everything to make her granddaughters’ journey as luxurious, inspirational, and state-of-the-art as possible. Irresistible for them, and for us. While she has three wishes for three special people in her life, her fourth is to bring Clara and Maddie back together before she departs. Transporting them and us to three great and different European cities, the novel “glistens” and “sparkles” like the sun and the landscape by the Atlantic Ocean does.

Pay attention to the historical figure mentioned on page 1 – Nellie Bly, the groundbreaking woman who had a major influence on journalism. Bly is inspiration for the novel, Violet’s ambitious mission, and Maddie’s journalistic passion. Clara’s passion is Art.

Nellie Bly’s voice and spirit are introduced in the epigraph:

“I took off my cap and wanted to yell with the crowd, not because I had gone around the world in seventy-two days, but because I was home again.”

Nellie Bly, in turn, was inspired by Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days. Violet’s dear friend, she told her “we must sometimes leave the places and people we love the most so we can return to them and love them all the more.”

Violet told Clara and Maddie all about Nellie, Aunt Nellie to them. Maddie, the most affected by her daring, is constantly aware of her European surroundings, keeping up with the news and writing observations in a journal. Her goal is to become a highly respected journalist who makes a difference, like Nellie did. You’ll see how she works to pull that off, and what the consequences are for her and Clara. Whatever one sister does, the other is affected in some way. Including flirtatious dalliances and romantic notions.

The romance we know most about and first is Clara’s as she’s engaged to be married to wealthy businessman Charles Hancock. Maddie sees him as an “opportunist” and “ruthless,” a source of consternation between the two. Clara is the opposite of her sister: she has a “cautious outlook on life” whereas Maddie’s is “laissez-faire” and risk-taking. Maddie believes Clara has chosen a shallow man who doesn’t understand nor care about her heart and passion for art, but could provide a protected life, yet smothering and sacrificing her desires. What Clara believes is in doubt; her passions put to the test in a glorious city that’s inspired artists for generations. Her fiancé may not be physically present but he makes his overbearing presence known every step of the way. This is a timeless feminist novel.

Both sisters are struggling with their self-worth and aspirations. Maddie had some indication she could be a fine journalist before she left; Clara too, as her art teacher Edward Arnold astonishes her with new watercolors and paintbrushes as she’s ready to set sail, giving her a boost of confidence.

Clara is the “radiant” one; Maddie the “difficult” one. Their relationship twists and turns, but it’s the three wishes and letters that drive the story. So much so you may think while reading, as I did, the book’s title is three wishes for goodbye. What are the Three Words?

To get to the first leg of their trip, we get to come on board the first Queen Mary, Cunard’s grand ocean-liner that docked in Cherbourg, Normandy during its inaugural voyage a year before Clara and Maddie sail from New York’s harbor to that French port city. An interesting piece of history we learn is the ship had a “Jewish prayer room, a stance by the shipping line against anti-Semitism.”

After arriving in France, they hopped on a train to Paris. Not the fabled one they took from Paris to Venice: the Orient Express, noted for its “artful elegance.” To arrive home, Violet booked the maiden voyage of the Hindenburg, a “hydrogen-filled airship,” also called a zeppelin since it was made by Germany’s Zeppelin Company (funded by the Nazis). We know this doomed flight was included in the sisters’ transportation itinerary on page 17, so you read this story thinking it will end in catastrophe. Does it?

One takeaway is that how you travel is part of the journey, so make it special. Which explains the arrangements Violet made for Clara and Maddie to experience Paris and environs from the skies before they left for Venice. They traveled to a Parisian suburb, Vaugirard, where a famous balloon factory was founded in the late 19^th century and sought by balloonists from around the globe, another interesting piece of history. You can already guess Clara doesn’t want to go, that Maddie does. Clara seeks out elegance and beauty, Maddie “drama and danger,” so the reader gets both.

Characterizing art “as much about what is left out as what is added,” saying “it is often what is left unsaid that conveys the clearest message” is as much a statement about art’s elusiveness as it is about defining love. Love is central to this novel, which asks “if it is really possible to fall in love with more than one person?” 

Left more unsaid than said is a message Violet learned the hard way and Clara and Maddie will confront: don’t be afraid of going after what you want. IF you can figure out what that is. Gaynor and Webb don’t make their choices easy, but sure do make their journeys entertaining.

Lorraine