The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis

Title: The Stolen Queen

Author: Fiona Davis

Publisher: Dutton 2025

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 352

Rating: 3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Unread Shelf; Cover Lover - Headwear

Where I Got It: BOTM

Egypt, 1936: When anthropology student Charlotte Cross is offered a coveted spot on an archaeological dig in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, she leaps at the opportunity. That is until an unbearable tragedy strikes.

New York City, 1978: Nineteen-year-old Annie Jenkins is thrilled when she lands an opportunity to work for former Vogue fashion editor Diana Vreeland, who’s in the midst of organizing the famous Met Gala, hosted at the museum and known across the city as the “party of the year.”

Meanwhile, Charlotte is now leading a quiet life as the associate curator of the Met’s celebrated Department of Egyptian Art. She’s consumed by her research on Hathorkare—a rare female pharaoh dismissed by most other Egyptologists as unimportant.

The night of the gala: One of the Egyptian art collection’s most valuable artifacts goes missing, and there are signs Hathorkare’s legendary curse might be reawakening. Annie and Charlotte team up to search for the missing antiquity, and a desperate hunch leads the unlikely duo to one place Charlotte swore she’d never return: Egypt. But if they have any hope of finding the artifact, Charlotte will need to confront the demons of her past—which may mean leading them both directly into danger.

This book started out strong. I was hoping for an interesting deep dive into women in archaeology and the issue of artifact provenance. I wanted to get into a philosophical discussion. Instead, we quickly turn to a melodramatic family conspiracy featuring a meek main character, an overbearing mother, a potentially bad husband, a tragedy, and a caricature of a real person. It just all felt very cliche by 50% of the book. I keep reading hoping that we would get back into the interesting parts of the artifacts. But nope. And then we get the reveal about Charlotte’s husband and child and I just couldn’t care any less. Blergh. I think I really need to step away from historical fiction books for awhile. They are just feeling very tired lately.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Magnolia Palace by Fiona Davis

Title: The Magnolia Palace

Author: Fiona Davis

Publisher:Dutton 2022

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 340

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 

Eight months since losing her mother in the Spanish flu outbreak of 1919, twenty-one-year-old Lillian Carter's life has completely fallen apart. For the past six years, under the moniker Angelica, Lillian was one of the most sought-after artists' models in New York City, with statues based on her figure gracing landmarks from the Plaza Hotel to the Brooklyn Bridge. But with her mother gone, a grieving Lillian is rudderless and desperate—the work has dried up and a looming scandal has left her entirely without a safe haven. So when she stumbles upon an employment opportunity at the Frick mansion—a building that, ironically, bears her own visage—Lillian jumps at the chance. But the longer she works as a private secretary to the imperious and demanding Helen Frick, the daughter and heiress of industrialist and art patron Henry Clay Frick, the more deeply her life gets intertwined with that of the family—pulling her into a tangled web of romantic trysts, stolen jewels, and family drama that runs so deep, the stakes just may be life or death.

Nearly fifty years later, mod English model Veronica Weber has her own chance to make her career—and with it, earn the money she needs to support her family back home—within the walls of the former Frick residence, now converted into one of New York City's most impressive museums. But when she—along with a charming intern/budding art curator named Joshua—is dismissed from the Vogue shoot taking place at the Frick Collection, she chances upon a series of hidden messages in the museum: messages that will lead her and Joshua on a hunt that could not only solve Veronica's financial woes, but could finally reveal the truth behind a decades-old murder in the infamous Frick family.

I’ve enjoyed Davis’s books in the past and had to pick up her newest one this week. We get a study of the Frick Mansion in NYC with our two timelines. I’m not a huge fan of dual timelines when one is in the present, but thankfully this one has two historical timelines: one in post WWI and one in the 1960s. Lillian and the cast of characters in 1919 were fascinating. I loved peeking into the Frick family at the height of their wealth and privilege. The storyline set in the 1960s was less exciting, but we get the perfect plot to wrap up the mysteries from the earlier timeline. Overall a good historical fiction centered on a real place, but I imagine that I will forget this in a few months.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Dollhouse by Fiona Davis

Title: The Dollhouse

Author: Fiona Davis

Publisher: Dutton 2016

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 306

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Ebook

When she arrives at the famed Barbizon Hotel in 1952, secretarial school enrollment in hand, Darby McLaughlin is everything her modeling agency hall mates aren't: plain, self-conscious, homesick, and utterly convinced she doesn't belong—a notion the models do nothing to disabuse. Yet when Darby befriends Esme, a Barbizon maid, she's introduced to an entirely new side of New York City: seedy downtown jazz clubs where the music is as addictive as the heroin that's used there, the startling sounds of bebop, and even the possibility of romance.
 
Over half a century later, the Barbizon's gone condo and most of its long-ago guests are forgotten. But rumors of Darby's involvement in a deadly skirmish with a hotel maid back in 1952 haunt the halls of the building as surely as the melancholy music that floats from the elderly woman's rent-controlled apartment. It's a combination too intoxicating for journalist Rose Lewin, Darby's upstairs neighbor, to resist—not to mention the perfect distraction from her own imploding personal life. Yet as Rose's obsession deepens, the ethics of her investigation become increasingly murky, and neither woman will remain unchanged when the shocking truth is finally revealed.

My second Fiona Davis book and I do enjoy her focus on historical geographic locations. This book’s focus on New York City and specifically the Barbizon Hotel was such fun. I loved learning more about the actual history of the Barbizon Hotel while focusing on fictional characters. The story itself was good, although the tension sometimes was a bit much. Often there is a little too much melodrama in the story. I would have liked a little less from the chaos of Rose’s life and more focus on Darby and Esme. Ultimately, I did like the book and will read another Fiona Davis book.

Next up on the TBR pile:

The Masterpiece by Fiona Davis

Title: The Masterpiece

Author: Fiona Davis

Publisher: Dutton 2018

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 368

Rating: 4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library Love; Historical Fiction

For most New Yorkers, Grand Central Terminal is a crown jewel, a masterpiece of design. But for Clara Darden and Virginia Clay, it represents something quite different.

For Clara, the terminal is the stepping stone to her future. It is 1928, and Clara is teaching at the lauded Grand Central School of Art. Though not even the prestige of the school can override the public's disdain for a "woman artist," fiery Clara is single-minded in her quest to achieve every creative success—even while juggling the affections of two very different men. But she and her bohemian friends have no idea that they'll soon be blindsided by the looming Great Depression...and that even poverty and hunger will do little to prepare Clara for the greater tragedy yet to come.

By 1974, the terminal has declined almost as sharply as Virginia Clay's life. Dilapidated and dangerous, Grand Central is at the center of a fierce lawsuit: Is the once-grand building a landmark to be preserved, or a cancer to be demolished? For Virginia, it is simply her last resort. Recently divorced, she has just accepted a job in the information booth in order to support herself and her college-age daughter, Ruby. But when Virginia stumbles upon an abandoned art school within the terminal and discovers a striking watercolor, her eyes are opened to the elegance beneath the decay. She embarks on a quest to find the artist of the unsigned masterpiece—an impassioned chase that draws Virginia not only into the battle to save Grand Central but deep into the mystery of Clara Darden, the famed 1920s illustrator who disappeared from history in 1931.

Out book club selection for August (I read this one early). I really enjoyed this story, but there were a few sticking points for me. I loved the entire storyline set in the late 1920s involving Clara and the art school. I loved following her as she navigates being a struggling artists in a man’s world while also experiencing the beginning of the Great Depression. I loved Levon and Oliver and even Mr. Lorette. But then we get Virginia’s story in the 1970s. While I enjoyed the rediscovery of Clara’s art and the fight to save Grand Central Terminal, I did not like Virginia at all. I just didn’t love that character and wanted her to grow much more than she did throughout the story. And don’t get me started on Virginia and Ruby’s relationship. I wanted to strangle both of them at many points. Still, I enjoyed this book overall and have put some of Davis’s other works on my TBR list for the future.

Next up on the TBR pile: