The Tiffany Girls by Shelley Noble

 genre: historical fiction

At the turn of the century, Emilie has grown up in a world of art but it has not been a happy upbringing. With scandal making staying in Paris an impossibility, Emilie escapes to New York to follow her dream to work with the great Mr. Tiffany and his glass. Creating art with the Tiffany Girls would be a dream come true but it means staying goodbye to all she’s known.

This isn’t just Emilie’s story, we also see from the point of view of Grace, who has her own ambitions to bring a political cartoonist and Clara, who works as not just as artist but a designer. All of these women are living and working in a New York that values women only to the extent that they can can be controlled but where opportunities can be found for the lucky and very determined. I found myself googling a lot in this story in which Mr. Louis Comfort Tiffany plays a large role. I didn’t always believe the arc of his character, but I liked learning about him and his genius all the same. The truth is that the writing in this book is rather pedestrian. Near the end I got pretty frustrated by a “romantic” plot thread that did not fit and honestly just didn’t even make that much sense to me. What I did like was the time period, the boardinghouse and workroom life and the World’s Fair as something anticipated. Otherwise, it was a bit clunky overall and a bit dramatic at the end. I’ve just read much better historical fiction.