The Tea Rose - Softcover

Donnelly, Jennifer

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007155565 ISBN 13: 9780007155569

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2003

Synopsis

Set in Whitechapel in 1888, The Tea Rose is a tale of a love lost and won, of a family's destruction, of murder and revenge -- and one young woman's quest to escape the poverty of her childhood and make her fortune in the tea trade. Fiona Finnegan is the spirited, ambitious daughter of an Irish dock worker. She longs to break free from the squalid lanes and alleys of Whitechapel, where she has a job in a tea factory. With the love of her life, Joe Bristow, she dreams of escaping the poverty and opening her own tea shop. But one by one her dreams fall apart as her father is killed in a dock accident, Joe is seduced by another woman, and her mother is viciously murdered - a suspected victim of Jack the Ripper. Devastated, her life in tatters, Fiona flees to New York where she sets up home with her alcoholic uncle. Slowly she builds his small grocery shop into a thriving tea house, and her new life flourishes. After years of hard work, she establishes herself as the head of her own powerful tea empire. But she cannot forget London - or Joe. Convinced that her father was murdered by his brutal employer, Fiona vows to seek revenge and ruin him once and for all. Making her way back to the streets of her impoverished childhood, Fiona must start her fight again. From the bleak poverty and filthy back streets of London to the glossy sophistication of Fifth Avenue, from East End dock workers to New York socialites, The Tea Rose is a charming, heart warming and ultimately life-affirming novel.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Following in the footsteps of such beloved epics as A Woman of Substance, The Thornbirds, and The Shell Seekers comes this towering story of murder and revenge, of love lost and won again, and of one determined woman's quest to survive and triumph...

The Tea Rose
East London, 1888-a city apart. A place of shadow and light where thieves, whores, and dreamers mingle, where children play in the cobbled streets by day and a killer stalks at night, where bright hopes meet the darkest truths. Here, by the whispering waters of the Thames, Fiona Finnegan, a worker in a tea factory, hopes to own a shop one day, together with her lifelong love, Joe Bristow, a costermonger's son. With nothing but their faith in each other to spur them on, Fiona and Joe struggle, save, and sacrifice to achieve their dreams.

But Fiona's life is shattered when the actions of a dark and brutal man take from her nearly everything-and everyone-she holds dear. Fearing her own death, she is forced to flee London for New York. There, her indomitable spirit propels her rise from a modest West Side shop-front to the top of Manhattan's tea trade. But Fiona's old ghosts do not rest quietly, and to silence them, she must venture back to the London of her childhood, where a deadly confrontation with her past becomes the key to her future.
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"Full of warmth and rich period detail, The Tea Rose begs for a comfy, overstuffed chair and plenty of time to keep turning those pages." -Dallas Morning News

"Steeped in melodrama, revenge, and a maddeningly star-crossed romance...a fine yarn." -People

About the Author

Jennifer Donnelly is a tea enthusiast and amateur rosarian. She lives in Brooklyn and Callicoon, New York, with her husband and two greyhounds. "The Tea Rose "is her first book.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0007155565
• ISBN 13: 9780007155569
• Binding: Paperback