If you have the opportunity to visit Ellis Island
and/or the Tenement Museum in Lower Manhattan this summer or just take a Virtual Tour, you’ll discover those visits are well worth your time. Walking through Ellis Island where so many of our ancestors knew they’d either be accepted and find the opportunity to begin a new life or rejected and sent back across the ocean sent chills up my spine.
Exploring the reproduced tenements during the tour in Lower Manhattan and hearing stories born of poverty created a journey into the past and opened wide the world of Band of Sisters for me. It helped me better appreciate the challenges and hardships our immigrant ancestors endured in order to create lives in this new world.
Band of Sisters
Maureen O’Reilly and her younger sister flee Ireland in hopes of claiming the life promised their father over twenty years before.
But after surviving the rigors of Ellis Island, Maureen learns that their NYC benefactor, Colonel Wakefield, has died, and his family, refusing to own his Civil War debt, casts her out.
Alone, impoverished, and in danger of deportation, Maureen connives to obtain employment in a prominent department store. But she soon discovers that the elegant façade hides a secret that threatens every vulnerable woman in the city.
Despite her family’s disapproval, Olivia Wakefield determines to honor her father’s debt, but can’t find Maureen. Unexpected help comes from a local businessman, who Olivia sees as more than an ally, even as she fears the secrets he’s hiding.
As women begin disappearing from the store, Olivia rallies influential ladies in her circle to help Maureen take a stand against injustice and fight for the lives of their growing band of sisters. But can either woman open her heart to divine leading, or the love that might bring?
Band of Sisters is available online and can be ordered wherever books are sold.
Until next time, God’s blessings, and happy reading!
Cathy
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