Reviewed by Emma Crowley
Provence, 1919. When Elodie Sinclair is sent from Boston to a glamorous finishing school for socialites in training, she is determined to do all she can to rebel. Setting up The Wildflowers Club with best friends Genevieve and Lucille, the women make secret plans to escape their insufferable conversation classes. But just weeks later, a terrible scandal leaves the women reeling. And Elodie Sinclair is presumed dead.
2025. Looking for a fresh start after her drawn-out divorce, Rae Morgan finds herself in a crumbling clifftop manor house in Provence. The mysterious elderly owner, Madame Devereaux, speaks of a glitzy charm school and the tragedy that closed its doors. Though she refuses to say any more… until Rae finds a slip of yellowed paper titled The Wildflowers Club Vows left with the keys. Intrigued, Rae knows there is more that Madame Devereaux wants her to uncover.
Elodie Sinclair’s diary is hidden somewhere within the walls of the tumbledown chateau. If Rae finds it, she’ll discover a devastating secret hidden for a generation, and a spirited woman desperate to escape…
Many thanks to Bookouture via NetGalley for my copy of The Club for Rebellious Ladies to review and to Sharon for having my review on the blog.
It’s very rare these days that I give five stars to books. In fact, I can’t actually remember the last time that I did but Siobhan Curham’s new book, The Club for Rebellious Ladies, certainly deserves five stars and much more. From start to finish it was a sublime read which only got better with each turn of the page. There were twists and turns aplenty right up until the very end which kept the reader engrossed and trying to guess what the eventual outcome would be. In her end notes, the author mentions that this was her first historical fiction book which wasn’t set during World War Two and that it was a departure for her. Well all I can say is this reader very much enjoyed the departure and would love more in this vein in the future. Based on the title I presumed this book would be about a club girls set up during World War One to try and do their bit for their country. But my assumptions couldn’t have been more wrong but in the best of ways for what I got was a rich, emotional and compelling tale which showed how Elodie was a woman ahead of her time and was someone who was determined to control her own destiny and not be led by others.
The story is told in the dual timeline format, of which I am a huge fan, and in this case it is done particularly well and it’s made even more enjoyable for the fact that it is set during World War One. I feel there isn’t enough books set in this era in the historical fiction genre and would love even more. The war is not the sole focus. It plays a very small part, in that a character goes away to fight and I was glad of this because instead the female characters and what they were going through and coming up against was allowed to be explored in great depth. The characters shone through throughout and yes there was a solid, intriguing and stable plot but without such fantastic character development it would have been all for nothing. The two balanced each other exceptionally well and those surprises and reveals that kept coming until the last possible moment only enhanced the story and kept even the characters guessing as well as this reader.
A brief prologue set in Provence in France in 1918, details a female teacher reading a diary that makes her angry, sorrowful and shocked. Reading of awful details of things she knew were going on but that she did nothing about makes her feel guilty. But what is the woman talking about and what could have been done? So starts the story proper and a story of romance, mystery, secrets, hardship unfolds and this reader couldn’t get enough of it. In September 1918,Elodie starts her diary to recount her time at the L’Ecole de la Rose Blanche, where she has spent the past twelve months. Her parents sent her there to learn how to be a lady so as to gain her entry into society and secure herself a husband. But Elodie is distinctly unhappy, she feels curtailed and restricted but the absurd rules and regulations enforced by the school not to mention the ridiculous lessons she has to endure. She is a person who longs for freedom and to dance to her own beat. These are two sentiments that she sticks to throughout the book as her story ventures through many phases. Her time at the school deeply affects her and is cut quite short through an incident which leaves her dead or so it is presumed.
Elodie was a brilliantly crafted character who refused to have her spirits broken by the ridiculous restrictions imposed upon her by the school. So writing in her diary allows her to express her thoughts and strengthens her will which she is determined will never be broken. She forms the rebellious ladies club of the title called the Wildflowers with two other girls who have become firm friends and are of the same mindset as her although it is Elodie who is the driving force. Their motto is ’The Wildflowers will grow wild and stride not glide and our stems will bend exactly how they please’. Elodie remains true to this sentiment throughout the most harrowing, disturbing and traumatic of times.
Elodie is passionate, free spirited and a rebel and I adored these qualities in her. She is all about female empowerment and was a young woman well ahead of her time. Meeting Etienne, the son of the local vineyard owner, is a moment of transformation for Elodie, the individuality the school has stamped out of her starts to return and for the first time love features heavily but briefly in her life as Etienne has to return to the front. Yet, the connection that is formed will form the later half of the book and when the story takes us to Paris a whole new world is opened up which again proved insightful and fascinating.
Elodie, endures an event that no woman should have to suffer, the details of which I won’t go into. Suffice to say it fuels her fire and passion even further. She knows she can’t allow other people to determine who she is and what she does and her art will come first and foremost although there are plenty of trials and tribulations sent in her direction. She is feisty and never goes down without a fight and as the truth to her life and many secrets are revealed through investigations in the present the depth to her character is revealed. I just became totally lost in Elodie’s world because the character was so well written and was someone who didn’t want to be starved into obedience. She was a light that needed to shine, a trail blazer and a woman who lived life on her own terms. Therefore she earned my admiration and respect and by the time I reached the end of the book I was sad to leave her and the characters behind.
In the modern day, Rae needs a break from California following legal wrangling with her husband Dave over their divorce. Now for the first time in years she is in control of her destiny and straight away the similarities between herself and Elodie start to appear. She heads to France to put her carefully constructed, restricted marriage behind her. Lo and behold she comes across the chateau once used by the school and Madame Devereaux the current occupant wishes to sell it. Rea, soon founds herself the owner of the chateau and sets about renovating it but when she finds the diary a mystery unfurls where she is transported back to France and Elodie’s time. Secrets begin to be revealed and an injustice uncovered. The many layers start to be peeled back and numerous comparisons can be drawn between the two strands of the story. I loved Rea’s aspect of the story as it was binding things together, but Elodie’s just edged it out for me ever so slightly. Rea has her own challenges to face in the present and alongside an unlikely ally she does her best to navigate them and reconcile the past with the present so justice, retribution and understanding can be found.
The Club for Rebellious Ladies is a book that I can’t recommend enough. I’ve previously said one of Siobhan’s more recent books was her best yet but this tops it and it’s the author at her very very best. Challenging societies expectations often begins with having the courage and tenacity to dream differently and Elodie proves that in spades. Friendship, hope and the enduring power of women are all strong themes that make this an excellent read.
No comments:
Post a Comment