Author: Leah Fleming
ISBN: 978-1-4711-4135-5
RRP: $32.99
Lucky for me I picked this book up on a Saturday, and we went for a drive as a family (and I read) and then we came home and I had nothing too pressing that HAD to be done so I read for a bit, then I did dinner and then I read some more….. and missed my bedtime but finished the book. If only I could have had a similar day today… but never mind, it was productive.
Leah Fleming is an author I was unfamiliar with before The Last Pearl but she has quite the back catalogue, perhaps something I need to look into when I have some time.
The Last Pearl is set in the last quarter of the 19th Century, beginning in both York and Perthshire before an oceanic crossing to America.
Fleming weaves the stories of the wealthy beautifully with those of the poor and some of our leading characters have the opportunity to live at both ends of the scale.
Greta Costello is a happy and hardworking girl who is always thinking of her family and trying to better their situation. They haven’t always been poor but when her father died young the family fell of hard times. Greta will do all that she can to help her mother support them, and her two younger siblings, as long as she can keep her reputation. Greta works in the market on the weekends, helps her mother with laundry and helps out an older widowed jeweler with some cooking and cleaning.
Her dedication pays off and the jeweler starts teaching her a little about repairs and pearls, skills that will help her throughout her future because there will always be work for a good pearl stringer. Greta knows enough to know that life doesn’t always run smooth so when her employment with the jeweler is cut short she is determined to find something new, away from the laundry.
Greta was a character that I loved, she was dedicated, hard working and determined to find a better life for her family. She recognised all her mum did for them and wanted to change their circumstances to make her life easier. In most of her decisions she put the needs of her family first, a sacrifice which she didn’t realise the depth of at the time.
Jem Baillie is a hardworker in Perthshire with his parents. He and his dad work in forestry and fish for pearls. The last pearl they found together was a beauty, a Queen of pearls, and one that Sam Baillie wanted no-one to find out about, not even his wife. He wants to put it aside for Jem’s education so that he can make something better of himself but a shifty pearl dealer manages to swindle it and Jem vows revenge.
The Last Pearl places a lot of emphasis on the importance of family; doing right by the family and respecting your family at every turn. All of the families featured in the book are very different; socially, economically and religiously but they all share deep bonds of love.
The Last Pearl is very much a history lesson about pearls as much as a tale about the characters. We learn a lot about the superstitions surrounding them along with their history. It is clear to me that Fleming has done her homework on pearls and managed to tie it all together with relevance to the story. I had never given much though to pearls really but this look at the hows, the whys and the quality was fascinating.
There were characters I loved and characters I loathed. Fleming has written a great book with secret motivations and everyone having their reasons for what they do, and most of those were quite noble but the ones that weren’t were abominable. If it was a reaction she was after I sure had one.
All of the characters are well rounded, they are multi faceted and there is more to them than what you first see and I love that about the character development. Eben was a scoundrel, of that there was never any doubt, and the further in we got the more I despised him. Over time we discovered a little more about his past and that helped explain some of his quirks but it didn’t make me sympathetic to him as is sometimes the case.
Greta certainly gained my sympathies, she only ever chose what she thought was best for her family; always putting what she might like last. Leading her to America where she had to settle in a strange place on her own without a single ally. Her strength and initiative saw her right and no matter what obstacles arose to trip her Greta managed to fight her way back up and gain strength through the hardships.
In all The Last Pearl was a fascinating and exciting journey into the past, spanning decades and continents, and allowing us a glimpse into a past I would never have imagined.
The Last Pearl is available now through Simon & Schuster, Booktopia, Angus & Robertson Bookworld and where all good books are sold.
Leah can be followed on Facebook, her Website
Thanks to Simon & Schuster 30 of our Beauty and Lace Club Members will be reading The Last Pearl so please be aware there may be spoilers in the comments.
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!
Argh! Some of these characters I could throttle! I know an interesting way to start a book review but an honest one! Over the book I developed a very strong love/hate relationship with some and others, well I just couldnt get enough of!
This is an amazing story of how families can rise above tragedy and achieve amazing things that they never thought they could or should. I felt a real connection to Greta (a child who loses her father) as this was something that happened to me and only in my adult years do I truly understand the sacrifices my mother made, and how hard she worked to make things happen. Greta, understands that to be successful she can not wait for things to happen but is open to pursuing opportunities when they come (or are created).
Hard work and determination are her friends and despite the sacrifices she makes her focus is always to do the best for her family.
Great read and one worthy of reading again and again.
Let me start by saying, I read this book in two nights! It is not a short book, but a gripping one.
The Last Pearl is a beautifully written and complex story about living life and trying to improve your fortunes for both yourself and your family. The books central characters have strong moral compass’ and I believe a strong desire to do the right thing by their families – often to their own detriment.
I pride myself on being able to predict plot twists (it’s a talent) but there were many surprises that I am sure most would not pick. Some of the characters are very relatable, others are downright horrid.
The story is set in a time that is very different from my own, but I would say the constant struggles of family loyalty remains relevant.
I would highly recommend The Last Pearl.
The Last Pearl by Leah Fleming is set in the late 1800’s, and spans for almost 20 years throughout its tale.
One of the main characters is Greta Costello, a young woman with a lot of determination and courage, who uses these qualities to help her family survive after her father’s death. We see the family struggle financially, and Greta does all she can to overcome the difficulties they face. Throughout the book, as the years pass, we see these qualities of determination and courage shine through in Greta over and over again.
We are also introduced to another main character, Jem Baillie, who helps his father fish out a very rare pearl from a river in Scotland. Without giving too much away, this pearl is to have a huge importance in this saga, right til the very end.
There are a lot of characters in the book, and the one I despised was Eben. He was pure evil!!
Greta’s mum, the old jeweller Saul Abrahams, and Greta’s sister Kitty, were some of my favourite characters. They were very supportive of Greta’s decisions, and I really admired them for that.
This book really resonated with me as it focuses a lot on the importance of family, and the loyalties that lie within each family.
I could definitely tell that Leah has researched the history of pearls very thoroughly, and I found that it was very interesting to read about. One of the joys of reading is being educated on subjects that I usually wouldn’t necessarily know much about. In this instance, it was learning about the history of pearls.
I really enjoyed this book. The ending felt a little rushed for me, but it was still a nice ending. I would gladly recommend this book.
Thanks Beauty and Lace and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read and review this book.
The Last Pearl is a very well written book.
Family loyalty and is the main story of this book with the Greta the main character going to all lengths to ensure her family is safe and secure.
Not everything goes her way as we find as the story progresses through time and spans continents.
There is love, tragedy and revenge that will enthral you and make this book so easy to read.
Leah Fleming has done her research into the history and myths of pearls and this shows through.
I enjoyed the ending and can see there is room for a sequel which I would certainly be looking out for.
I really enjoyed The Last Pearl.
It was set in Scotland, England and America in the late 1800’s. The pearling industry was a common theme between all places.
This was a story of Greta who was from a poorer area and wanted more for her family. The way this happened was a blessing and then a curse. It affected her life in so many ways and had her life intersecting with that of Jem, in a similar position with a similar tale of trying to better his life.
It was a gripping tale of the pearling industry and how times were also changing.
I really admired Greta and her attitude and ability to change with her life circumstances. Her family were a wonderful support and the fringe characters really came to life for me.
I took a lot from this book and would highly recommend it.
Love my pearls so couldn’t wait to start reading The Last Pearl and it didn’t disappoint.
It is a wonderful story about a perfect rare pearl and the lives of Jem Baillie a lad from Scotland whose father fished for pearls; Greta Costello, a poor girl struggling in life with her mother, sister and brother in York and Eben Slinger a pearl dealer who sets up his shop in York.
Jem returns home from work one day to hear his mother tell him that she has sold the pearls that she found among her dead husbands belongings to a cheating pearl dealer. The one perfect pearl was ‘THE ONE’ his father had found before he died and was to be Jem’s inheritance. Jem has vowed to find the cheat that ‘stole’ his perfect pearl.
Greta is living with her family in poor conditions and work is difficult to find. She is eventually lucky enough to find work with Saul Abrahams in his jewellery shop and her eye for detail and love of pearls sees her become an apprentice pearl stringer. She is indebted to Saul for giving her hope but sadly he leaves her life.
Eben then enters Greta’s life after he has established the Pearl Emporium in York and Greta can’t believe her luck in securing yet another position with pearls.
The three lives become entwined across years and continents. It is a story of hope, loss, revenge and the courage of a young woman.
The characters are well developed and we can’t help feeling for Greta and the hardships she goes through.
A great read and a very interesting look at the pearl industry.
Thank you to Beauty and Lace for choosing me to read The Last Pearl and thank you to Leah Fleming for writing such a superb novel. Right from the start The Last Pearl drew me in and enthralled me. It was written so well, it ebbed and flowed, became my life for such a short time and led me on a fine journey.
I only grew to like Pearls now I am in my mid forties so it was interesting for me to learn so much about them, get a different perspective on their worth to people and how they create characters such as Eben. Leah has a wonderful talent for creating characters and bringing them to life. I also thought i knew what would end up being the finale but it didnt, then it did (without giving too much away) but I feel the ending was bit lack lustre, not the usual feel for the rest of the novel and a little bit rushed but that in no way takes from the book overall. One I will look forward to picking up again when I have the need to read on a cold wintery weekend.
May you write many more novels Leah Fleming!
Really enjoyed this book, not just the way Leah seamlessly went from one character to another but it was interesting to get a glimpse of the background of both pearling and the retail side after. Three different lives with so many ways they could go.
Greta builds up a shell around herself, just like a pearl and I found myself waiting for her true beauty to shine, she made some hard decisions especially to marry for security but no one could blame her. Greta’s story is so much like her admired pearls starting for nothing building up layers and becoming in the end a wondrous pearl
Typical of Leah’s writing possibly a rushed ending but would recommend it as a easy reading weekend project snuggled up in front of the fire.
Again thanks for the opportunity to review
I just knew I would thoroughly enjoy this very well written book and I was right. The Last Pearl by Leah Fleming is a wonderful story which embraces the great strength in a young woman whom has endured much loss and heartache in her life.
Greta is that of a very interesting character that you will come to admire with a mind that is witty but yet somewhat hardened. She encounters a pearl dealer who and had opened his own Pearl Emporium in York where Greta finds work. Is this a new brighter beginning of a life for her? After what Greta had been through in life who would knew what life had in store for her and what decisions she would make along with paths she would take.
The Last Pearl by Leah Fleming is a truly wonderful story of hardship along with the positive and negative changes that can come.
This story takes you on a real journey giving you a fantastic insight into the history of the pearling industry and the reality that can come along with it.
I can absolutely say this book left me with a great lasting impression followed by many lasting thoughts. I can certainly recommend you to take the time to read “The Last Pearl” by Leah Fleming.
Thank you Beauty and Lace for giving me the opportunity to review this absolutely terrific book.
The Last Pearl was a wonderful book once I started to read was hard to put down,
Greta is an amazing woman she faces many difficulties but overcomes them thought her strength and determination
This book has all the elements love hate sadness and tragerdy
The history of the pearling industry was very interesting to myself
The ending was not at all what I expected
Thanks for allowing me to read