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20-year-old Violet Hayes is distressed to learn that her father is remarrying-and that her mother, whom Violet believed lay recovering from a mysterious illness in a sanitarium somewhere, had in fact simply abandoned her family and filed for divorce. To escape a stepmother-to-be she can't... read more

Characters/People edit see section history

  • Violet Hayes: Main character who comes home from finishing school to find out that the mother she believed to have been ill in a sanitorioum all these years is actually alive and well in Chicago and has just formally divorced her father so he can remarry. She goes to Chicago in search of her mother and the answers to a lot of family secrets that no one seems to want to talk about.
  • Aunt Agnes: Violet's aunt who married a wealthy man and upon her arrival in Chicago, courted her around to call on all of her wealthy friends with bachelor sons. Tells Violet that love is something that grows over time.
  • Aunt Matt (Matilda): Violet's aunt who was never married and is working with the suffragist movement; continually tells Violet she does not have to marry because once a woman marries she becomes her husbands property and all of her assetts immediately go to him.
  • Lewis Decker: a missonary
  • Aunt Birdie (Bertha): Violet's aunt who's husband died in the Civil War but she believes is still alive and fighting; continually tells Violet to make sure she marries for love.
  • Grandmother: Violet's grandmother whom she stays with in Chicago
  • Aunt Birdie: Grandmother's somewhat batty sister
  • Mary Beckett: Herman's sister
  • Louis Decker: One of Violet's suitors who works with her grandmother helping the poor immigrants in Chicago's slums; believes everything that happens is God's will.
  • Herman Beckett: One of Violet's suitors from her hometown of Lockport, IL. He is her father's choice but she finds him incredibly boring and lacking of imagination.
  • Nelson Kent: One of Violet's suitors who stands to inherit his family's wealth and his father's banking empire upon marriage to a suitable woman.
  • Silas McClure: One of Violet's suitors who she feels drawn too but beleives to be a thief
  • Katya: A servant of the Kent's
  • Angeline Hayes: Violet's mother who left when she was a child.
Show all 14 characters
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Quotes edit see section history

  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • I'd like to make my way in life without all the fancy colors and be judged by who I am, not by what I look like from the outside.'
    Highlighted by 15 Kindle customers
  • We never lose our loved ones, because we always carry them in our heart. When we love someone as much as you loved him, we're changed. We become better people. That's how our loved ones always remain with us. We're different because of them.'
    Highlighted by 11 Kindle customers
  • whatever you do, don't make choices in life just to please somebody else. The only One you ever need to please is God.'
    Highlighted by 10 Kindle customers
  • He allows tragedies such as losing your mother in order to shape us into better people. It's not His will that we suffer, but He can bring good from it if you'll allow Him to.'
    Highlighted by 9 Kindle customers
  • 'Every married woman is an actress,' Aunt Matt continued. 'Each time she's with her husband it's as if she is onstage, playing the part that he expects her to play. The only time she can stop acting is when he leaves the stage.'
    Highlighted by 9 Kindle customers
  • Romance is fine when you're young, but you can't always trust the emotions that seem so strong in the beginning. Those feelings often fade, and you wake up one morning to find you have nothing in common with each other. Marriage is about maturity and creating a future together. It's not about romance.'
    Highlighted by 9 Kindle customers
  • God has a reason for creating each of us as individuals, with no two people alike. He has a unique place for you in His kingdom. Look how different my three sisters and I are-and we all have different callings. We would be wrong to judge each other or to expect each other to do the same work.'
    Highlighted by 8 Kindle customers
  • I wondered if God had run out of ideas after creating the mountain ranges and the mighty Mississippi River and had nodded off when He was supposed to be designing the middle portion of America. Was Illinois the result of an unfortunate catnap? Or perhaps, in a gesture of beneficence, the Almighty had delegated the task to a less imaginative underling. If so, I hoped the underling had been fired for his lack of creativity.
    Highlighted by 7 Kindle customers
  • Most women I know are very self-focused. They want the whole world to look at them, and in the process they miss seeing the world.'
    Highlighted by 7 Kindle customers
  • Contentment. I didn't have it. In truth, it sounded boring-like the last stage one reaches before falling asleep. House cats were content, and they slept all day.
    Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
Show all 14 quotes from this book

First Sentence edit see section history

I couldn't image more shocking news.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Lynn N. Austin (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Bethany House
Country: Add the country of publication.
Publication Date: September 1, 2007
ISBN: Add the ISBN.
Page Count: 432

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Classification edit see section history


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