TITLE/AUTHOR: The Nature of Fragile Things, Susan Meissner
PUBLISHER: Berkley
YEAR PUBLISHED: 2021
GENRE: Fiction / Historical
FORMAT: eGalley PP/LENGTH: 384pp
SOURCE: NetGalley download
SETTING(s): San Francisco, CA
ONE SENTENCE SUMMARY: A compelling story of marriage based on convenience and deceit and the great SF earthquake of 1906.
BRIEF REVIEW: Sophie is a young woman who has immigrated from Ireland to New York City in 1906 in hopes of a better life. Her living conditions in NY are deplorable and she is desperate to get out of her current situation. She decides to respond to an ad for a "mail order bride," to a handsome widower with a five year old daughter who lives in San Francisco. Traveling to San Francisco alone, she and Martin Hocking are quickly married.
Martin is polite and provides a nice place for the three of them to live but, her marriage isn't as she had imagined. They have separate bedrooms, he is very short with his answers about his family and work and he is frequently away from home. Despite this, Sophie loves being a mother to young Kat, a girl who rarely speaks and seems traumatized by what has happened in her short life. Just as Sophie begins to piece together secrets about Martin's past, a stranger appears at Sophie's door and she soon realizes that her only option is to leave but, at the same time a massive earthquake hits the area.
Without giving out spoilers, and there are plenty out there if you read the reviews, this is a page-turning, character driven novel with a nice mystery element. Rich in historical detail of early 1900's, S.F., I rooted for Sophie all the way. She is a strong, determined, resilient young woman who has been through so much. She made a beautiful friend, neighbor and replacement mother for Kat. I loved the writing and how the secrets were slowly revealed. Try this one, even if historical fiction really isn't your thing, it's a story that will stick with you
RATING: 4.5/5 stars
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