Author: Tea Cooper
ISBN: 9781489270719
RRP: $29.99
Publication Date: 17th December 2018
Publisher: HQ Fiction
Copy: Courtesy of the Publisher
The Woman in the Green Dress is the hotly anticipated new historical release by Tea Cooper. I read The Naturalist’s Daughter this time last year, and we featured it as a much loved book club title. It was the first of Cooper’s books for me but it won’t be the last.
The Woman in the Green Dress takes us back to NSW in a time long past. We have dual timelines but they are both long past.
A story of two bereft women with stories that will somehow entwine through involvement with a property on the Hawkesbury.
1853 Mogo Creek, NSW
Della Atterton, bereft at the loss of her parents, is holed up in the place she loves best: the beautiful Hawkesbury in New South Wales. Happiest following the trade her father taught her, taxidermy, Della has no wish to return to Sydney. But the unexpected arrival of Captain Stefan von Richter on a quest to retrieve what could be Australia’s first opal, precipitates Della’s return to Sydney and her Curio Shop of Wonders, where she discovers her enigmatic aunt, Cordelia, is selling more than curiosities to collectors. Strange things are afoot and Della, a fly in a spider’s web, is caught up in events with unimaginable consequences…
1919 Sydney, NSW
When London teashop waitress Fleur Richards inherits land and wealth in Australia from her husband, Hugh, killed in the war, she wants nothing to do with it. After all, accepting it will mean Hugh really is dead. But Hugh’s lawyer is insistent, and so she finds herself ensconced in the Berkeley Hotel on Bent St, Sydney, the reluctant owner of a Hawkesbury property and an old curio shop, now desolate and boarded up.
As the real story of her inheritance unravels, Fleur finds herself in the company of a damaged returned soldier Kip, holding a thread that takes her deep into the past, a thread that could unravel a mystery surrounding an opal and a woman in a green dress; a green that is the colour of envy, the colour buried deep within an opal, the colour of poison…
Now I am even more excited to read the story and I can’t wait until it makes it to the top of the list.
Tea Cooper can be found on Facebook, Twitter and her Website.
The Woman in the Green Dress is published by Harlequin and is available now through Angus & Robertson Bookworld, Booktopia and where all good books are sold.
Thanks to Harlequin 15 of our Beauty and Lace club members will be reading The Woman in the Green Dress so please be aware there may be spoilers in the comments below.
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!
Lovely! One of the best books I’ve read in a long time, I couldn’t put it down. The mystery of how the two timelines were linked kept me guessing and I didn’t put it all together until the last couple of chapters.
Tea Cooper never disappoints!!
The Woman in the Green Dress is a beautifully written story swapping between the 1800’s And the 1900’s. With mystery, romance and murder this is a page turner.
Della has lost her family and is now a little lost too. She trusts her Aunt to look after her family’s business in Sydney, but was it the right thing to do?
Fleur has just lost her husband in the war and she has inherited all his fortune, but her journey is not as straight forward as it seems.
These two ladies journeys are not easy and from different times meet lots of challenges and hurdles.
Can there be a happy ending for Della and Fleur?
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The Woman In The Green Dress is the eighth novel from Australian author, Tea Cooper. The stunning cover with the vivid green dress immediately caught my eye and I was eager to read it when I learnt that it was historical fiction. I was interested to note that it is a story based on people from the past…..Tost and Rohu were two people who opened a taxidermist shop while Baron Charles von Hugel, Johann Menge and the Darkijung Indigemous people did exist. In Coopers’ version, she uses a split narrative structure to link the lives of Della Atterton in 1853 and Fleur Richards in 1919. What do these two women have in common?
Della Atterton is not your typical lady and one who I had great admiration for. Residing in rural Mogo Creek, NSW, she is an independent young woman who is comfortable within herself. Della is an earthy woman who is at one with a nature that is both wild and harsh. With her big heart, Della’s loyalty is strong as is her relationship with the native Australians, the Darkinjung people. No matter a person’s race or creed, she is helpful and stands up for the rights of other people. Cooper sensitively deals with the plight of the Indigenous people as she reminds us of the treatment they received hundreds of years ago. She also reminds us that there were people such as Della who were kind and respectful of the Indigenous way of life. Captain Stefan von Richter was another character who didn’t agree with the treatment of the Indigenous and who Della had a delightful romance with. He is the opposite of Della in that he has been raised as a gentleman yet they make a good couple because they both have good hearts. When fate brings them together, Della and the Captain embark on a journey to Sydney, NSW, for two very different reason and where the Curio Shop of Wonders awaits them. Passed on to Della after the death of her parents, she returns to the city to find out what has happened to the store that is now under the care of her Aunt Cordelia.
Fleur Richardson is a lady that is typical of the time. When I first met Fleur, she was living in England a year after the great war. Fleur receives news that her husband, Hugh, has been killed in the battle. I felt for Fleur as she was unable to come to grips with the new situation she found herself in. Now a widow, Fleur must deal with the secrets that Hugh has kept. This was not at all surprising as Fleur and Hugh had only known each other for five weeks before they married and he left to fight! Everything that Hugh owned has now been passed onto Fleur, including land in NSW. Fleur surprised me by deciding to move to Australia by herself to unravel Hugh’s secrets. I didn’t think that she would survive the boat journey, let alone living in a new country, but she did. With the help of the local community, Fleur showed that she could arise in the face of adversity, that she has a hidden, inner strength. Will Fleur discover her husband’s secrets?
With themes of war, class, women, family history and the Indigenous people this is a historical fiction read that is unique to the plethora in the market.
Thanks to Beauty and Lace for the chance to read this book.
#AWWC6#
This is the first book I have read by Tea Cooper, and I can guarantee that it won’t be my last!
The Woman in the Green Dress is a historical fiction novel set in Australia’s past. The dual timeline switches between Della in the 1850’s and Fleur in 1919, and explores the connection between these two women in very different times, through a Hawkesbury property.
Beautifully written, Tea Cooper has a flair for words and seamlessly switches between timelines without confusing the reader. Well-developed characters and descriptive settings will draw you into the story. The cover art is stunning and eye-catching!
Thank you to Beauty & Lace and Harlequin for providing me the opportunity to review this gorgeous novel.