TLC Book Tours Book Review: The Wicked City

About The Wicked City

• Hardcover: 384 pages

  • Publisher: William Morrow (January 17, 2017) 

  New York Times bestselling author Beatriz Williams recreates the New York City of A Certain Age in this deliciously spicy adventure that mixes past and present and centers on a Jazz Age love triangle involving a rugged Prohibition agent, a saucy redheaded flapper, and a debonair Princetonian from a wealthy family. When she discovers her husband cheating, Ella Hawthorne impulsively moves out of their SoHo loft and into a small apartment in an old Greenwich Village building. Her surprisingly attractive new neighbor, Hector, warns her to stay out of the basement at night. Tenants have reported strange noises after midnight—laughter, clinking glasses, jazz piano—even though the space has been empty for decades. Back in the Roaring Twenties, the place hid a speakeasy. In 1924, Geneva "Gin" Kelly, a smart-mouthed flapper from the hills of western Maryland, is a regular at this Village hideaway known as the Christopher Club. Caught up in a raid, Gin becomes entangled with Prohibition enforcement agent Oliver Anson, who persuades her to help him catch her stepfather Duke Kelly, one of Appalachia’s most notorious bootleggers. Headstrong and independent, Gin is no weak-kneed fool. So how can she be falling in love with the taciturn, straight-arrow Revenue agent when she’s got Princeton boy Billy Marshall, the dashing son of society doyenne Theresa Marshall, begging to make an honest woman of her? While anything goes in the Roaring Twenties, Gin’s adventures will shake proper Manhattan society to its foundations, exposing secrets that shock even this free-spirited redhead—secrets that will echo from Park Avenue to the hollers of her Southern hometown. As Ella discovers more about the basement speakeasy, she becomes inspired by the spirit of her exuberant predecessor, and decides to live with abandon in the wicked city too. . . .

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Review: If you are a fan of Downton Abbey or the era of the 20s and 30s you need to check out a book by Beatriz Williams. Her novels are stunning, much like the covers of her books. Oh and this book is going to be part of a series, so for me that gets a big squee.

This book tells the story of two women; Ella, a soon to be divorcee living in the recent past (1998) and Gin Kelly a flapper living in the 1920s. The speakeasy Gin goes to was in the basement of the apartment that Ella now lives in. The speakeasy sort of haunts the tenants. Though not in the "this is a ghost story" kind of way that you might be thinking

I have to say that the more historical part of the story is the part that interested me the most. Speakeasys, gangsters and flappers, oh my! Ginger's story is really what this book was about, though as you get closer to the end you'll learn more about the connection between Ella and Ginger.

Ginger comes from a poor town called River Junction in Maryland where her step-father is a king pin for bootlegging. Duke Kelly is pure evil as you see more and more. He does a good job of making himself look good, but he does a lot of harm along the way.

Ginger is really quite the gal. She's been there and done that and she definitely has a good reason to hate her step father. Enter Oliver Anson a prohibition agent that wants to shut Duke down. He's full of secrets too.

I'm not sure what Ella's life is going to have to do with this series, if we will see her again at some point of time, because her story, while interesting wasn't quite finished. I needed to know more about her and her soon to be ex and Hector as well. There was a tie in to Ginger with Ella's workplace too. I'm hoping some of these little plot hole will be addressed at some point.

This was a beautifully written novel with exquisite attention to detail. You really get transported back to the twenties when you immerse yourself in this story.

Rating: 5 flowers

About Beatriz Williams

A graduate of Stanford University with an MBA from Columbia, Beatriz Williams spent several years in New York and London hiding her early attempts at fiction, first on company laptops as a communications strategy consultant, and then as an at-home producer of small persons, before her career as a writer took off. She lives with her husband and four children near the Connecticut shore. Find out more about Beatriz at her website, and connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.