Lost Roses

Lost Roses by Martha Hall Kelly    448 pages

 

Have you read “Lilac Girls” by the same author who wrote this book?  If you haven’t, I highly recommend it!

 

Martha Hall Kelly’s second novel, “Lost Roses,” is not quite as good as Lilac, but it’s a great read. I had trouble getting into it, but once I got to about page 50, it took off like a rocket.

 

The story begins in 1914 and ends in 1921. It’s less about World War I and more about  the Russian Revolution.  The story focuses on three women. First there is Eliza Ferriday. A real-life heroine, Eliza, spent many years doing her best to help the “White Russians,” immigrants from Russia who had been aristocrats, but who lost everything when the Bolshevicks came into power. Eliza organized the American Central Committee for Russian Relief by finding them homes, including her own New York City apartment and Southhampton cottage.

 

Eliza’s BFF is Sofya Streshayva. While not a real-life person, she is a combination of many of the former aristocrats Hall Kelly researched in writing this novel. Her part of the story is the most compelling. Her distant relation to the Romanov family isn’t helpful during this time period. The scenes were she and her family are captured by the Bolshevicks are intense and some rather disturbing.

 

The third woman, and my least favorite, was Varinka, a Russian peasant with ties to the Red Army. At first she is a sympathetic character, but when she takes the one thing Sofya loves the most, she becomes the novel’s antagonist, along with the Russian Revolution. Varinka is completely fictional.

 

Ultimately this story is about friendship, love, and loss during one of the most turbulent times of the 20^th Century. I enjoyed the different voices of the three women. I found them easily distinguishable. This, to me, is another one of the forgotten stories of human beings and the bonds they forge during difficult times. “Lost Roses” receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.