Flight from Fifth Avenue

Maida Jardine, daughter of a New York banker, bored with the social scene of 1911, flees home to avoid an arranged marriage and finds danger, romance, and family secrets working on an orphan train and at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory

Engaging characters, lively prose and unusual twists (including a surprise ending) breathe new life into the classic plot about a young girl rebelling against an arranged marriage. Rae's (The Ship's Clock) period piece is told in flashback by Maida Jardine, who, as the novel opens in 1962, is celebrating her 50th wedding anniversary. Fifty years earlier, however, the girl fled her family's posh Fifth Avenue home to avoid marrying an unattractive English nobleman selected by her royalty-obsessed mother. Aided by money from her doting father, the gutsy heroine takes on an alias and several jobs in her bid for independence (as a seamstress, she narrowly escapes death in the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire). A clandestine return to the family manse leads to several highly charged confrontations, a notorious trial and, years later, one family member's startling admission. Although Rae's attempt at period dialogue occasionally seems stilted and Maida's romance with the handsome lawyer who at first has no idea of her real identity, and later becomes her husband, lacks sizzle, this diverting melodrama compensates with nicely etched historical detail. .
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

When Maida Jardine tries to flee her family home in New York in order to escape an arranged marriage, her "intended," the repulsive Viscount Ormley, is thwarted in his plan to compromise her by sneaking into her bedroom while she sleeps. Nonetheless, Maida is forced to defend herself physically, and the Viscount is seriously injured. After seeking asylum at a foundling hospital, Maida gets a job on an orphan train and heads west, changing her name and living in fear that she will be discovered. After working at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory and in a private home as a translator of German, Maida is found and ends up facing the viscount in a courtroom. Disturbing family secrets are discovered, but all ends happily. This novel is light, somewhat melodramatic, and enjoyable without being memorable. Appropriate for large popular fiction collections.
Elizabeth Mellett, Brookline P.L., Mass.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.