Although the story of these women reads like fiction it is based on true characters and events. Martha Hall Kelly brings each of these three women totally to life within the pages of her book and she does it with such sweeping grandeur that the novel can not be called anything less than epic. All of this takes place in a period shortly before America entered World War I.

Sofya is a wealthy woman who lives in Russia, Varinka is a young woman who comes into the employ of Sofya’s family. Eliza is a wealthy woman who lives in America. LOST ROSES tells the stories of three female characters – Sofya, Eliza and Varinka. I should have grabbed a copy of LILAC GIRLS as soon as it was published. However I do wonder how I ever managed to overlook a writer as talented as Kelly. That is because LOST ROSES, Kelly’s newest novel, is a prequel to LILAC GIRLS and I want to read the books in order. In her newest powerful tale told through female-driven perspectives, Martha Hall Kelly celebrates the unbreakable bonds of women's friendship, especially during the darkest days of history.Let me say at the start I have never read LILAC GIRLS by Martha Hall Kelly, and in some ways I am pleased I haven’t. Petersburg and aristocratic countryside estates to the avenues of Paris where a society of fallen Russian ‚migr‚s live to the mansions of Long Island, the lives of Eliza, Sofya, and Varinka will intersect in profound ways. But when Sofya's letters suddenly stop coming, she fears the worst for her best friend. On the other side of the Atlantic, Eliza is doing her part to help the White Russian families find safety as they escape the revolution. In need of domestic help, they hire the local fortune-teller's daughter, Varinka, unknowingly bringing intense danger into their household. But when Austria declares war on Serbia and Russia's imperial dynasty begins to fall, Eliza escapes back to America, while Sofya and her family flee to their country estate. Now Eliza embarks on the trip of a lifetime, home with Sofya to see the splendors of Russia: the church with the interior covered in jeweled mosaics, the Rembrandts at the tsar's Winter Palace, the famous ballet. The two met years ago one summer in Paris and became close confidantes.

Petersburg with Sofya Streshnayva, a cousin of the Romanovs. Eliza Ferriday is thrilled to be traveling to St. It is 1914, and the world has been on the brink of war so often, many New Yorkers treat the subject with only passing interest. Categories Adult Fiction, Historical Novels

Lost roses series