The Magnolia Palace

Fiona Davis is one of my favorite authors. She writes historical fiction about the people and buildings of New York at the turn of the century.

The Magnolia Palace is a fascinating novel about one of the fabulous buildings still standing with a historical history in New York City.  This time Davis takes the Frick Mansion and a few actual facts about the building and the Frick family and weaves a beautiful, romantic amazing plot around those facts to flesh out the story.

In the book a young beautiful girl known as Angelica becomes the muse for many artists and sculptors.  Her likeness becomes famous as she posses for different statues that will be displayed all over New York.

When her mother dies and she is accused of a crime she insists she did not commit, she is forced to find a way to avoid jail time.  Running away and ending up on the stairs of the Frick Mansion just as the daughter, Helen is looking for a private secretary seems like the perfect solution.

Angelica is creating a new life for herself as Miss Lilly, the efficient secretary to Helen Frick who is turning her father's incredible art collection into a library of the art and its Provence .

There are so many amazing twists and turns as this plot develops.  The relationship between Helen and her father, mother and brother.  The interplay between Helen and Lillian.  Then Lillian and all the characters who pass through her life.  Failed romance and true love plays heavily in this novel and even just the love between family and employee and boss are complicated relationships.  A very compelling read.