Tiffany Girl By Deeanne Gist

I received this book from Howard Books for no charge in exchange for my honest review of this book. The opinions expressed here are my own.

Book Description: 

From the bestselling author of It Happened at the Fair and Fair Play comes a compelling historical novel about a progressive “New Woman”—the girl behind Tiffany’s chapel—and the love that threatens it all.

As preparations for the 1893 World’s Fair set Chicago and the nation on fire, Louis Tiffany—heir to the exclusive Fifth Avenue jewelry empire—seizes the opportunity to unveil his state-of-the-art, stained glass, mosaic chapel, the likes of which the world has never seen.

But when Louis’s dream is threatened by a glassworkers’ strike months before the Fair opens, he turns to an unforeseen source for help: the female students at the Art Students League of New York. Eager for adventure, the young women pick up their skirts, move to boarding houses, take up steel cutters, and assume new identities as the “Tiffany Girls.”

Tiffany Girl is the heartwarming story of the impetuous Flossie Jayne, a beautiful, budding artist who is handpicked by Louis to help complete the Tiffany chapel. Though excited to live in a boarding house when most women stayed home, she quickly finds the world is less welcoming than anticipated. From a Casanova male, to an unconventional married couple, and a condescending singing master, she takes on a colorful cast of characters to transform the boarding house into a home while racing to complete the Tiffany chapel and make a name for herself in the art world.

As challenges mount, her ambitions become threatened from an unexpected quarter: her own heart. Who will claim victory? Her dreams or the captivating boarder next door?


My Thoughts: 

Tiffany Girl is Deeanne Gist's latest book and it is fantastic. As a fan of Historical Fiction, I have read other books by Deeanne Gist and when I saw this one it really stood out to me.  In this latest book I learned about Tiffany Girls, women Mr. Louis Tiffany hired to complete his state of the art stained glass mosaic chapel for the World's Fair when the men went on strike. This was on the cusp of  "The New Woman" movement when women were breaking away from traditional roles of working at home to working outside the home, making her own wages.  Flossie Jayne is a "new woman". She is a budding artist with dreams of selling her paintings and being recognized as an artist. Flossie is one of the women chosen to be a Tiffany Girl for Mr. Tiffany's World Fair project. Against her parents protests, she leaves home to move into a boarding house closer to the Tiffany factory and hopes to find a family here at this boarding house. In this boarding house lives a myriad of people from single men and women to married couples to the widowed.  As Flossie works at Tiffany's and comes home to the boarding house to shake up the lives of the other boarders with different activities to bring everyone together, she still tries to paint and become the artist she desires to be. 

Tiffany Girl is a fantastic book. Deeanne Gist writes with authority about The World's Fair in Chicago, Tiffany & Co. practices and history, art during this time, and the climate of our world in 1893. I found myself drawn into this story from the start and could not put it down.  The cover of the book is just beautiful and really captures the book.  Throughout the book are pictures and drawings from 1893 that really accentuates what the book is about. I enjoyed all the characters in this book, especially going along with them as they grow and develop. I also enjoyed learning about Tiffany Girls and their influence in our world. A part of history I really never knew but am learning about. I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Christian Historical Fiction, you will not be disappointed. I cannot wait to read more from Deeanne Gist. I give this book 
5 STARS.