It’s 1885, and all Nora Shipley wants, now that she’s graduating from Cornell University as valedictorian of the entomology program, is to follow in her late father’s footsteps by getting her master’s degree and taking over the scientific journal he started. The only way to uphold her father’s legacy is to win a scholarship, so she joins a research expedition in Kodaikanal, India, to prove herself in the field.
India isn’t what she expects, though, and neither is the rival classmate who accompanies her, Owen Epps. As her preconceptions of India–and of Owen–fall away, she finds both far more captivating than she expected. Forced by the expedition leader to stay at camp and illustrate exotic butterflies the men of the team find without her, Nora befriends Sita, a young Indian girl who has been dedicated to a goddess against her will.
In this spellbinding new land, Nora is soon faced with impossible choices–between saving Sita and saving her career, and between what she’s always thought she wanted and the man she’s come to love.
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Summary
From: Rebecca Maney
Book Title: A Mosaic of Wings
Book Author: Kimberly Duffy
What do you like about this book:
4.5 stars
"Bees are interesting creatures. . . . . Bumblebees will travel miles from their hives in order to do what they need to do. They don't stay close to home."
Her father's tender words trickle through her memory, meaning . . . . . what, exactly? Do they mean that entomologist Nora Shipley should be forced to marry a man whom she hardly knows and who would certainly never indulge her love of scientific discovery? Or do they mean pursuing a coveted scholarship, thus providing a way to further pursue her education, so that her now deceased father's beloved scientific journal can escape ruin? Perhaps those words mean that Nora must gather the necessary courage to travel half-way around the world to the land of India, accompanied by another student of entomology, whose future is also dependent on the coveted Cornell scholarship. Owen Epps; could there be more to her university nemesis than meets the eye?
Layers; so many layers wrap themselves around this enchanting story that it becomes nearly impossible to unravel one, without dismantling all the others. Like the beautiful sari that Nora indulgently experiences for a brief moment, once unbound, this story exposes an authentic core that everyone longs for . . .unconditional love. Nora had it, Nora lost it. Nora gave it, Nora gained it . . . . for after all, according to Owen, "I think you just need someone to keep you from falling out of trees".
What a courageous premiere into the world of historical fiction!
I received a copy of this book from the publisher. The opinions stated above are entirely my own.
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