For a young society woman seeking a favorable marriage in the late 1890s, so much depends on her social season debut. Clara Carter has been given one goal: secure the affections of the city’s most eligible bachelor. Debuting means plenty of work–there are corsets to be fitted, dances to master, manners to perfect. Her training soon pays off, however, as celebrity’s spotlight turns Clara into a society-page darling. Yet Clara wonders if this is the life she really wants, especially when she learns her best friend has also set her sights on Franklin De Vries. When a man appears who seems to love her simply for who she is, and gossip backlash turns ugly, Clara realizes it’s not just her heart at stake–the future of her family depends on how she plays the game.
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Sexual Content - 1/5
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Violence - 1/5
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Language - 0/5
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Drugs and Alcohol - 2/5
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Summary
I suppose it is human nature for people to romanticize the past. However author Siri Mitchell deftly avoids this trap and crafts a story around the moretrue¬to¬life attitudes and behaviors of late nineteenth century New York socialites. Through the telling of Miss Clara Carter's and her social equals' debuts, Ms. Mitchell reveals the lengths many of these girls went through to secure a profitable marriage. Pretension. Sabotage. Turning a blind eye. These appear to be the expected behaviors of the day. It was all about appearance then, as it is today. And we somehow think this is a modern moral problem. While the novel is revealing in its more realistic handling of this era, it isn't written in the style of a harsh \"tellall\". Ms. Mitchell's gift is in crafting a tender story out of the more realistic events of the setting in which she writes. You come away from the story having enjoyed the plot and her fictional characters, yet being better educated regarding the true social climate of the day. This book could lead its readers to contemplate what contemporary behaviors we as a culture indulge in and justify as a means to an end¬¬though knowing very well these things are immoral and ghastly in nature.
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Drug & Alcohol: In regards to popular tonics of the day which often contained alcohol, cocaine, opiates.