I was reading along happily, wondering if a lot of the sex scenes were gratuitous but otherwise without complaint; then, three quarters of the way through the book, Julia gets into her Baker Electric, dons goggles,
grabs the wheel, then can't hear the conversation over the roar of the engine.
No "roar" in an electric car, no goggles required, no steering wheel (a tiller, instead.) Well, that was it for verisimilitude for me. I had already questioned a couple of things the author wrote about the Panama Canal, but this clinched it. The era was insufficiently researched. Like the author, I just rushed through the next 40 years, disappointed.

Lois' book 'Storyville' will always remain my favorite of all her books. Even after reading it four times, I always come away feeling like it should be made into a movie.

A lifelong New Englander, I've never had much interest in any story set in the South. However, this book was one of the few exceptions...

It's 1898, and two very different women find their paths collide. Julia Randsome, the forty-something wife of a wealthy blueblood, seeks endless causes to validate her own existence. Having been raised in a serious-minded Northern family, she finds it odd and shattering to exist among silly society women who only care about getting married to the most eligible bachelors and who's wearing what to the next party.

Julia's latest cause is Storyville, otherwise known as "The District." She finds prostitution shameful and appalling, and starts a petition to get the district shut down at once. Little does she know that her husband owns one of the houses...

...in which Kate, a 15-year-old abandoned by a man who promised to marry her, is the latest sensation. Prostitution was the last thing she ever saw herself doing; but after being abandoned and not having a home to which she could return, Kate finds herself with little other options. She convinces herself it's not a bad life; it's little work, she's got a full stomach and the madam's almost like a mother to her.

Then Julia's son Lawrence comes into the house, towed by a friend. He and Kate immediately fall in love, but that's hard to explain to wealthy parents and friends when the object is a prostitute. Plus, Lawrence has just enlisted to fight in Cuba...

Just like "War Brides," Battle has done an excellent job researching and depicting a rich and colorful period in America's history. A thoroughly enjoyable read!

I see that most people here didn't much care for this book. I really enjoyed it. It took me almost a week to get through it, but I looked forward to each chance I got to read it. I (unlike some other people here apparently) read the flap and knew going into it that this book was mostly about the legalized prostitution in New Orleans from 1898-1917.

It's the story of two very different women and lifestyles. Kate, a young girl who was seduced and brought to NOLA by a sleazy traveling salesman, and then abandoned in a hotel room, finds that her only chance at making any real money to make a better life for herself is to work for Molly Q., a well known madam in 'The District' who is all to happy to have Kate join her house of women.

Then there's Julia. Married to Charles Randsome, and very wealthy, Julia is a Yankee who was forced to move to NOLA from Boston 20 years earlier because it's where Charles is from, and where his business is. Julia's days consist of going to dinner parties, hosting dinner parties, and trying to teach the shallow, uppity society women in town about women's rights, why they should be allowed to vote, and shutting down 'The District' to keep 'women of ill repute' out of their city, and away from their husbands.

Though Kate and Julia are from two completely different worlds, they will come together in a most unexpected way...and while one will greatly disappoint the other, she will have given her a gift that changes her life forever. I had a really tough time putting this book down, and my only critique (and the reason for 4 stars) was the ending. Not the ending itself, but just how rushed it felt. 40 years flew by in a matter of 5-6 pages. Aside from this, I loved it. I absolutely recommend it...but you should know that there's a lot about prostitution in it (some people here just seemed surprise...read the cover!).

This book has been on my 'list' for several years and I finally got around to reading it recently. I might have saved myself the time - both in anticipating it and reading it. I found none of the characters to be sympathetic. Instead they were all somehow - how is it possible to be both? - boring caricatures. It felt like reading a book that was being written while what the author really had in mind was a movie. The sex was gratuitous and the so-called action felt forced. Above all the author may or may not still live in the South, I'm not sure, but it seems odd that she found this bit of real history and place intriguing enough to write about and yet a true contempt for New Orleans and Southerners comes screaming through.