Book Review — THE MAGNOLIA PALACE by Fiona Davis
Eight months since losing her mother in the Spanish flu outbreak of 1919, twenty-one-year-old Lillian Carter’s life has completely fallen apart. For the past six years, under the moniker Angelica, Lillian was one of the most sought-after artists’ models in New York City, with statues based on her figure gracing landmarks from the Plaza Hotel to the Brooklyn Bridge. But with her mother gone, a grieving Lillian is rudderless and desperate—the work has dried up and a looming scandal has left her entirely without a safe haven. So when she stumbles upon an employment opportunity at the Frick mansion—a building that, ironically, bears her own visage—Lillian jumps at the chance. But the longer she works as a private secretary to the imperious and demanding Helen Frick, the daughter and heiress of industrialist and art patron Henry Clay Frick, the more deeply her life gets intertwined with that of the family—pulling her into a tangled web of romantic trysts, stolen jewels, and family drama that runs so deep, the stakes just may be life or death.
Nearly fifty years later, mod English model Veronica Weber has her own chance to make her career—and with it, earn the money she needs to support her family back home—within the walls of the former Frick residence, now converted into one of New York City’s most impressive museums. But when she—along with a charming intern/budding art curator named Joshua—is dismissed from the Vogue shoot taking place at the Frick Collection, she chances upon a series of hidden messages in the museum: messages that will lead her and Joshua on a hunt that could not only solve Veronica’s financial woes, but could finally reveal the truth behind a decades-old murder in the infamous Frick family.
Published: January 25, 2022
My ThoughtsI love when a book transports me to a different era, immersing me in a specific setting. Fiona Davis makes me feel like I’ve traveled back in a time machine. I was living these other lives vicariously through the characters.
The Magnolia Palace is told via dual timelines. Our main story takes place in 1919, where Lillian Carter, a young model, finds herself alone and adrift in a society that loves art but not the women who pose for it.
Our secondary story takes place in 1966, where another young woman trying to make it as a model lands at the mansion where Lillian once took refuge.
These two timelines eventually converge in an unexpected way, giving me all the feels.
The Magnolia Palace is loosely based on the real-life Frick family and their mansion, which is now a museum. The author discusses this in her Author’s Note at the end of the book.
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