This was suppose to be a Historical Mystery Romance which in a way it was.
Had a hard time reading kept hoping I could get into it more.
The best part was the last couple chapters.
It just wanted for me.
Voluntarily reviewed.

This is a romantic, mystery, historical story. Fleur and Hugh meet, fall in love and get married within a short time. She knows her husband just five short days before he has to leave back to his east position. He fights for Australia. That is his country, his legacy.
Now she is summoned from London to Australia by his lawyers. Hugh has died and his inheritance needs to be taken care of. She is the sole heir. Fleur doesn't believe he is dead. She never received a telegram. She didn't receive his belongings or his tags.when she arrives in Australia, she is taken in by its wild and untamed beauty.. The lawyers are in fits not being able to find the paperwork for Hugh. They are in the midst of moving and everything is in boxes. The lawyer's wife has taken over till her husband gets back from official business, they are not sure when that will be. Meanwhile Fleur has heard of a mysterious opal that is in the family.
A no el that brings together the past and the present all intermingled into a great story.

Let’s just start by pointing out the obvious here—-this cover is gorgeous! And then I read the summary and couldn’t wait to dive in! A cursed gemstone set in WWI, sign me up is exactly what I said! Ok if I am being honest, I stopped reading the summary after ‘cursed opal’ because I was already sold on this book!

I haven’t read anything else by Tea Cooper but I know that she has written a ton of books, many of which sound interesting and fun so I felt confident giving this one a shot.

Especially given that this book promised romance, mystery, and intrigue. All the things I love in historical fiction. Not to mention I couldn’t stop staring at the cover of this book!

Summary
A cursed opal, a gnarled family tree, and a sinister woman in a green dress emerge in the aftermath of World War I.

After a whirlwind romance, London teashop waitress Fleur Richards can’t wait for her new husband, Hugh, to return from the Great War. But when word of his death arrives on Armistice Day, Fleur learns he has left her a sizable family fortune. Refusing to accept the inheritance, she heads to his beloved home country of Australia in search of the relatives who deserve it more.

In spite of her reluctance, she soon finds herself the sole owner of a remote farm and a dilapidated curio shop full of long-forgotten artifacts, remarkable preserved creatures, and a mystery that began more than sixty-five years ago. With the help of Kip, a repatriated soldier dealing with the sobering aftereffects of war, Fleur finds herself unable to resist pulling on the threads of the past. What she finds is a shocking story surrounding an opal and a woman in a green dress. . . a story that, nevertheless, offers hope and healing for the future.

This romantic mystery from award-winning Australian novelist Tea Cooper will keep readers guessing until the astonishing conclusion. (summary from Goodreads)

Review
Sigh, what did I just read? This was a wonderful novel. I read it in only a couple of sittings because I was captivated! This would be a great read for book clubs as there is a lot to discuss and think over. It was a great read and I am so glad I discovered this new to me author!

The only thing that I was a little disappointed by was I thought there would be a little more romance than what was actually given in this book but at the end of the day it didn’t really matter because I found the other plots (mystery etc) compelling and interesting.

I love duel timeline stories and this book executed that plot device really well and I found myself equally invested in both timeline and characters. I especially loved Fleur’s story though. She is a great character, full of life and color!

This book is always well researched and I loved learning about new things like opal mining and taxidermy. This author is an Australian writer and I loved learning about that part of the world especially during that time period. It was interesting and I felt like I was reading something new and refreshing simply from the setting alone but the author takes it to the next level and invites readers into Australian history with exciting characters and a mesmerizing plot.

I can’t wait to read more books by this author and am thrilled to recommend this book to all my family and friends! A great read especially if you love historical fiction! I was entirely swept away!

Book Info and Rating
Paperback, 352 pages
Expected publication: June 16th 2020 by Thomas Nelson (first published December 17th 2018)
ISBN 0785235124 (ISBN13: 9780785235125)
Free review copy provided by publisher, Thomas Nelson in partnership with HFVBT, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and in no way influenced.
Rating: 5 stars
Genre: historical fiction

This book was not for me. I like the author’s style, and her use of detailed descriptions and figurative language is superb, but the dual plot did not work for me. The 1919 plot was interesting, but the 1853 one was confusing, and I could not get interested in it at all. I would have tried to finish the book to find out how it all worked together, but language that I deemed inappropriate and had not expected to find spoiled it for me.

I received a copy of this book in e-book form from the publisher via netgalley but am under no obligation to write a positive review. All opinions are my own.

Ah this book was so frustrating! The premise was great and I really cared about Fleur, but by the time I was really into the story...bam it was over. The whole book from Australia onwards felt rushed and underdeveloped. This book could have been brilliant if it were double the length and the author put as much effort into the second half as she did the first.
For me this was a frustrating and ultimately disappointing read after a promising start.

Particularly large and/or valuable gems often have legends attached to them. Or curses. Or both. Generally both. Based on its history, the Hope Diamond is probably safest in the Smithsonian, rather than around the neck of someone who might be the victim of its curse. Although its owner during the 1920s seems to have made a habit of letting her Great Dane wear it!

The gem at the heart of this intricate work of timeslip fiction would have been a magnet for myths, curses and thieves had it ever existed; a great, big, beautiful opal, the first of its kind to be discovered in Australia, at a time when Queen Victoria had made the wearing of opals all the rage. In spite of their previous reputation as unlucky.

Or cursed.

But the opal, cursed or otherwise, kind of acts like a brooch that pins this story together. A story that takes place in two separate time periods, 1853 and 1919. This is, after all, a timeslip story, so it’s the past that is unveiled in the 1853 timeline that needs to be resolved in the 1919 “present”.

And it’s a doozy.

Australia in 1853 is not too distant from its penal colony roots. Just distant enough that the emancipationists – the deported convicts, while still looked down upon, do have a chance of making a new life for themselves. Equally, they have a chance of getting up to their old tricks. Or perhaps a bit of both.

Australia is also a vast country much like the American West, where the white “settlers” were doing their level best – or should that be absolute worst – to push the continent’s original owners out of their ancestral lands – and even to the brink of extinction if it can be managed. But at the same time, it’s a big place and there are still, at least in 1853, places where the whites have not encroached much – at least not yet – and where the unique native flora and fauna still thrive. Although all are under threat.

And that’s where the earlier portions of this story begin. With a young woman who does her best to protect the native people she views as friends and fellow stewards of the lands around her. A woman whose job, whose art, is to preserve the native fauna at least through expert taxidermy, as her father did before her.

At least until her home and her life are invaded by a young man from Austria, on a journey to visit the sites that his mentor visited 20 years before. Together they find themselves caught up in a search for that fabulous missing opal, only to dig up way more than they bargained for in family secrets – and murder.

In 1919, Fleur Richards learns that her husband of just a few months has been killed in action in the closing days of the Great War, and that he has left his grief-stricken wife an inheritance she never knew he had. She thought that the dashing Australian soldier, Hugh Richards, was a young man with an eye to the future, but no more or greater financial prospects than her orphaned and impoverished self.

But the inheritance she does not want spurs her to travel halfway around the world to discover just who her husband really was, in the hopes of finding someone more deserving of his fortune than she believes herself to be.

She finds more than she bargained for. A cursed gem, a locked and abandoned shop of curios and wonders, the solution to a long-ago mystery. And a home.

Escape Rating A-: I have to say that The Woman in the Green Dress gets off to a bit of a slow start, hence the A- rating. Somewhere past the first third of the book the story takes off and develops all sorts of lovely twisty-turny plot threads that keep the story zipping along from there to the end.

But it takes a while to get there, approximately the amount of story it takes for Fleur to get to Australia and get fed up with the runaround she’s getting in Sydney. And on the historic side, the amount of time for Della to meet Stefan and decide to take her life back in her own hands by returning to Sydney to discover what changes her Aunt Cordelia has made in the shop that Della owns.

And I’ve just realized the juxtaposition, that Della’s story takes off when she gets to Sydney, and Fleur’s gets its wings when she leaves it. Not that Fleur doesn’t return fairly quickly, but as the two heroines start moving – so does the story.

Both the past and the present stories are wrapped around secrets. Della has to uncover the secrets that her Aunt is keeping – before those secrets get her killed. Not that they haven’t already left a trail of bodies in their wake. Fleur needs to uncover the secret of who her husband really was, and to learn the truth about the legacy he left behind for her to unravel and resolve.

In the end, it’s a story about the truth setting them both free. And about a beautiful, captivating opal that was both lost and found.

But that woman in the green dress – she’s pure poison. Her story, however, is as delicious as her tonic is deadly.

The Woman in the Green Dress by Tea Cooper is a historical novel told with alternating points-of-view. The main POVs are Fleur Richards from 1918, Della who lives on a farm in Mogo Creek in 1853, and Stefan von Richter in 1853. I had trouble with the alternating point-of-view. When it jumps around, I cannot get into the story (and it is confusing in the beginning). The second half of the story was better and easier to read. The Woman in the Green Dress is what I call a slow starter. I would have liked a better introduction to our main characters instead of just thrown into the story. The Woman in the Green Dress has Fleur Richards wanting to learn more about her husband, Hugh. They married quickly and then he was off to fight. She had no idea that he had property in Australia. When Fleur arrives in Australia, she sets out to learn about Hugh Richards and his family. I like how everything tied together in the end. The Woman in the Green Dress has a good premise, but I wanted more depth, feeling, and details. The Woman in the Green Dress is a story about greed, deceit, murder, jealousy, taxidermy, secrets, a curio shop, a cursed opal, and one determined woman.

The Woman In The Green Dress by Australian author Tea Cooper is just a delightful fun mystery with dual time lines in 1853 and 1919. We are put into both the wild lands of a young Australia as well as the beginnings of the modern city of Sydney.

Fleur Richards is a young widow who finds herself boarding a ship from London to Sydney to find out about her inheritance from her husband Hugh who she only knew a few weeks before he perished during WWI. When she discovers she is now the owner of a boarded up taxidermy curio shop and farmlands deep in the Australian wild she sets out to find any in laws still alive and her husband's history.

We are taken back to 1853 where Hugh's family begins along with all their secrets including a lost priceless opal, a sneaky hotel concierge, the suspicious death of high society men and the mysterious woman in green who runs the curio shop and her family's taxidermy business.

I really enjoyed all the mysteries as they unfolded and though I figured a few things out there were still plenty of surprises along the way. I learned about Australia's history including that they had internment camps for Germans during WWI.

The beginning was a bit slow and confusing but it picked up and quickly came together. The writer was able to bring Australia to life during these historical times and I loved the clothing, the lands and the many distinguishable characters in this story pact with detailed descriptions.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

I was searching for a book, preferably historical fiction when I came across this edition from NetGalley. I read a lot of WWI and WWII historical fiction; I find the stories fascinating.

The Woman in the Green Dress is the tale of the Australian opal.

The Woman in the Green Dress Book CoverAt the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the Great War ends. Newlywed Fleur Richards is celebrating Armistice and the return of her husband Corporal Hugh Richards. Though married a short while before his departure into combat they had mapped out exciting plans for their life together. It included a return to Hugh’s beloved Australia and farming life on Mongo Creek. However, Hugh does not return. His new wife cannot confirm his whereabouts, even through military channels. She refuses to believe he is dead. Yet when the Ministry of Information requests her presence and presents her an inheritance from her husband’s estate she must face the truth. Thus begins the incredible tale of Hugh Richards’ family and the growth of their wealth through opal mining.

Picture of Opal
Classes of opal: precious and common. Precious opal displays play-of-color, common opal does not
What makes the book so interesting is how it interweaves several character journeys toward a rather compelling conclusion. We follow for some time in the footsteps of Stefan von Richter, whose fascinating story begins in 1853 in Sydney. His job is studying the native plants of Hawkesbury, and transcribing his reports for the New Holland Journal. Also, von Richter receives a commission to retrieve the first known Australian opal and return it to the Austrian royalty.



Tea Cooper spins a tale of twists and turns that lead through the plains of the Darkinjung land. Her writing leads you through native raids, obsessions with local artifacts, and the hunting of exotic animals. It is a brilliant book and gives a glimpse of what we refer to as the outback.

You will learn a great deal about opals in the book, but underneath there is another current flowing; the use of arsenic. This tentacle within the story affects the outcome of more lives than the primary mineraloid.

Arsenic
Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal.
If you have read or watched any Poirot mysteries, you know that (once upon a time) arsenic was used in rat killer and insecticides, and was a favorite substance of the poisoner. What you may not know, is that it was an element in many women’s products (for several centuries) to ensure a translucence of the skin, and in old wallpaper. Arsenic is also used to create a popular color of green; the dye creating a hue that was in vogue during Victorian times. It is an interesting thread of dialog in this book and the result (as so often with the chemical) is deadly.

Tea Cooper’s The Woman in the Green Dress is an unpolished jewel in the rough, so to speak. I have discovered her other books and hope to read one soon. Enjoy.

Per Thomas Nelson Fiction I am posting this disclaimer: “I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.”

Per my sensibilities, I am wondering: “Has information become so distorted and unreliable we must now add a disclaimer to everything these days?”

A touch of the macabre, tragic on many levels, and so distinctively Australian!

I fairly raced through this tale, although I hesitated. I felt it was going to be complex. I was right. Atmospheric, at times oppressive, this is a dynamic historical read with mysterious overtones.
Unknown to us the story is woven around the supposed discovery of the first opal in Australia. To my mind that takes a secondary place, and yet it bubbles along under the surface almost as a raison d'être. Stefan von Richter journeys to 1853 Sydney to trace the opal and have its authenticity verified for his former mentor.
The action shifts between 1853 and 1920's Sydney and the Hawksbury region. (I am reminded that the marvellous Kate Grenville writes historical fiction centered around this region) Della Atterton spends her time on the family property at Mogo Creek out beyond Wisemans Ferry and St Albans in the Upper Hawksbury region of New South Wales, practicing her taxidermist craft. Living on land important to the Darkinjung people. We time shift constantly from Della the taxidermist's daughter to the widowed Fleur Richards.
1918 London and Corporal Hugh Richards married Fleur. Hugh dies in the war and Fleur discovers that she has inherited property in Australia. Distraught, after a momentous inner struggle she embarks for Australia to investigate.
As we move between the two women's stories Fleur's investigations reveal Della. I was so present when Fleur followed in her footsteps.
I was caught up in Della's concern for the traditional owners of the land that encompass Mogo Creek. She seems to understand the link of the Aboriginals with their traditional land. Her distress at their treatment by Cordelia's men who stole artifacts and more was heartfelt, as is her love of Mogo Creek.
Hunting down a lead in the area and anxious to meet up with Cordelia's men, Stefan von Richter finds Della, at an opportune moment. Della's aunt Cordelia runs Della's taxidermist shop, the Curio shop, in Sydney. From the outset there is something is off here. Who is the woman in the green dress? When Stefan first meets Cordelia at the shop he thinks her as "bizarre and unusual" as in turn is the shop. He notes the "virulent green of her dress; Scheele’s Green." "Virulent!" A curious descriptive to use! Malignant and Scheele's Green? I looked it up. A poisonous pigment apparently. Here the color green is associated with arsenic used in taxidermy, also for ensuring a particular green for wallpaper, or to hold that color in young woman's dresses. "There’s a reason they’re called drop-dead gorgeous. They are dancing in a cloud of arsenic powder."
Della's world will come crashing down after her meeting with Stefan and the actions of Cordelia's men.
A complex story that weaves history and fiction in such an amazing way. Cooper's writing is a gem, the story is darkly powerful. The way other characters and their descendants are given place in the tale is amazing.
My attention was grabbed from the beginning. Normally I dislike time shift novels but Cooper's handling of the time divisions, as one informs the other, is brilliant.
Reading this against the current events of BLM movement sweeping the world, I am once again reminded of the stained undercurrent of Australia's poor record with regard to Indigenous Australians, inhabitants of the land for over 60,000 years.
Cooper's acknowledgement of the indigenous owners of the land in the Hawksbury region where part of the story was set is fitting
"I would like to acknowledge the Darkinjung and Eora people as the Traditional Owners of the land on which I live, work, play, and have set this story, and pay my respects to Elders both past and present."

A Thomas Nelson ARC via NetGalley

I did not finish this book at 10 percent. Sorry, the changing perspectives and formatting was too much for me to overcome. I really liked the synopsis which is why I chose this book and just felt let down in the end. I noticed a lot of reviewers mentioned the slowly moving story and honestly I just kept going this is boring, this is boring, who is this, and this is boring.

"The Woman in the Green Dress" follows Fleur Richards. Fleur is waiting for her husband Hugh to return from The Great War (World War I) when she receives news of his death on Armistice Day. She supposedly leaves England for Australia (I didn't get that far).

What didn't help me while reading though is that we follow so many characters in this (and I only got to 10 percent). We are introduced to a character named Della. I still don't know what she was about since the formatting made it hard to "see" who was speaking. And then we followed Fleur and there was a male character whose name is eluding me right now.

I just have to say my first impression of Fleur was she was weak as anything. She literally hides and doesn't speak to anyone and the book jumps to a character in Australia who I assume is important later. I think Cooper didn't set up enough time for readers to even care about Fleur's predicament. She throws us right into Armistice Day and then Fleur sees the Queen of England and then runs home to bad news. The book would have been better to show Fleur and Hugh in love so that you at least care when she receives news of his death.

I think the writing wasn't doing a lot for me. The dialogue that I managed to get through felt stiff and forced. The book felt slow and also at the same time not as developed as it should have been. I know this is an ARC, but it was hard to get through this with the formatting being all over the place too.

Historical fiction with a bit of mystery. On the negative side, it was a bit confusing now and then. There were some characters that I really didn't like at all! On the positive side, it was interesting, and about a time in history that I don't read a lot about. Some of it is based on real historical characters! I love reading stories based on real history.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ebook. The review opinions are, of course, my own.

After a whirlwind romance, London teashop waitress Fleur Richards can’t wait for her new husband, Hugh, to return from the Great War. But when word of his death arrives on Armistice Day, Fleur learns he has left her a sizable family fortune. Refusing to accept the inheritance and hoping that it's a mistake and Hugh is still alive, she heads to his beloved Australia in search of the relatives who deserve it more.
In spite of her reluctance, she soon finds herself the sole owner of a remote farm and a dilapidated curio shop full of long-forgotten artifacts, remarkable preserved creatures, and a mystery that began more than sixty-five years ago. With the help of Kip, a repatriated soldier dealing with the sobering aftereffects of war, Fleur finds herself unable to resist pulling on the threads of the past. What she finds is a shocking story surrounding an opal and a woman in a green dress. . . a story that, nevertheless, offers hope and healing for the future.

Split between Fleur's time at the end of The Great War and 1853, this novel stars slowly but gains momentum as she becomes more interested in Hugh's background in Australia. Her part of the story isn't quite as interesting as the 1853 sections. I really enjoyed Bert. He added so much to the scenes he was in. Della is also a very sympathetic character and you feel for her as she becomes aware of what her aunt has been doing while running her parents's shop. Good solid historical fiction.

What I Loved:
I loved the location of this story. Every time I come across a story set in Australia, I find myself just succumbing to the lovely descriptions of the land and people. Tea Cooper did a fabulous job of placing the reader in the setting. It was written beautifully.

How I Felt:
The Woman in the Green Dress is told through two timelines. One in 1853, and one in 1919. I really enjoyed the perspective of the story from these two different times. I felt like the author did a fabulous job of transitioning between the two periods.

This story offers the reader two absolutely fabulous female main characters! We meet Fleur Richards in 1918. Her story takes her to Australia as she goes to claim her unexpected inheritance. I found her story to be incredibly interesting. I loved the mystery surrounding her plot.

We meet Della Atherton in 1853 as she searches for the first opal in Australia. She finds that she may be getting mixed up in things far greater than she could have imagined. Tea Cooper’s character creation is wonderful. Along with these two wonderful women, there was a great group of supporting characters that had interesting personalities, and made the story great!

The plot was filled with mystery and romance, and I found it extremely exciting. There are so many questions to answer, and I couldn’t wait to find out what had happened/was happening! I did find this a bit slow to start, but a little way in, I was not able to put it down. So, if slow starts are hard for you, just stick with it! This one is worth it!

Overall, I really enjoyed this story. I liked the characters and found the mystery to be really intriguing. I liked that this was told through two timelines, and felt it was the perfect way to tell it.

To Read or Not To Read:
I would recommend The Woman in the Green Dress to readers that enjoy a historical fiction they can savor with an exciting mystery!

I was provided a gifted copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.

My full review of this book will post to my blog on 6//20. All of my reviews can be found at https://shejustlovesbooks.com/all-book-reviews/

I loved this historical. Split time narratives can be hard to manage, but Cooper did a beautiful job with this one. The two timelines (1850s and 1918ish) were both deeply evocative and completely distinct from each other. I could always tell just ‘when’ I was. I’ll be reading more from Tea Cooper!

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC copy for my review.

As a book reviewer, I have always tried to be honest with my reviews. Books that may appeal to me may not to another, as it should. Everyone is unique. Thus my need for a rating scale, but it is still skewed and bias towards my reading preferences.

I am saying this as I am at odds about my latest review. It was not my favorite read, but the creativity and the intrigue are commendable. Please read my review with that in mind and if it interests you, read and let me know your own thoughts!


The Woman in the Green Dress follows the story of three characters.

End of World War I, 1918
After the death of her soldier husband, Fleur Richards discovers he has left her a large inheritance. Feeling unworthy, Fleur travels to his home country of Australia to find closer relatives. However, her trip is not as easy as she first thought, and the mystery behind her husband and the legacy of his family only builds the longer she remains.

Australia, 1853
Stefan von Richter travels to Australia in the hopes of recovering a rare and prestigious opal, the first in Australia.

After the death of her parents, Della Atterton works as a skilled taxidermist in the countryside of Australia, but when she learns that her aunt has made unsavory changes to her father’s store in Sydney that is by name Della’s, she must travel back in hopes of restoring her family’s legacy.


I personally had the hardest time getting into the story. I was lost for the first few chapters on what was actually going on. I felt like I was missing large chunks of information and background information. Almost as if there was a previous book that I had missed. I had to leave my family to read in private so that I could concentrate and better understand. The storylines seemed to me like three separate strands of thread. Not touching. The only connector being the continent of Australia. However, about halfway through I began to get into the book and was doing my best to make my own guesses as to the answers Fleur was seeking.

There were many curveballs to the story that left me on the edge of my seat and I was partially satisfied by the result. Not everyone receives a happy ending. There are times when I finish a book that I wish the author would continue throughout the character’s life as I hope the characters live “happily ever after”. In this instance, I wish she hadn’t. I was left thinking for days and pondering the repercussions of our decisions. If we had only done this or that, had we only said yes instead of no, had we only been more insightful instead of impetuous. But, really isn’t a happy ending subjective? For me, it may mean one thing while to another, it means something completely different.

Now, you may ask, if I felt that I did not enjoy the story, why am I so conflicted? Well, the characters were compelling and as the reader, I was often confused on who was good or bad, but regardless, I did feel connected emotionally to Fleur, Stefan, and Della. Second, although I had a harder time understanding the book, it was creatively written and the storyline was intriguing. It was unique and a nice additive to my typically reading list. With that in mind, I am giving the book half a star for Well-Written and half a star for Unable to Stop as it was only halfway through the book that I began to feel the sentiment.

My father put it nicely when I told him about my confliction. He said a book like that is similar to watching a movie that you know will win many awards, commendable in its creativity, but you did not necessarily enjoy.

The Woman in the Green Dress will be released on June 16, 2020.

I was given a free copy of the book, but the opinions in this review are completely my own.

The Red Review: ❤️❤️❤️
*** 3 Stars: Compelling Characters, Well-Written (.5), Interesting Storyline, Unable to Stop(.5)

Although this was an interesting concept I had a hard time getting through this one. I may be able to come back to at a later time. This just wasn’t the book for me right now.

I received this from Netgalley.com for a review.

"This romantic mystery from award-winning Australian novelist Tea Cooper will keep readers guessing until the astonishing conclusion."

The blurb was kind of misleading . The story felt flat to me, I had a hard time getting into the story and staying connected with the characters.

2 stars

This was a very difficult read for me, but I did finish it because I wanted to find out what would happen. It was a slow start and didn't pick up for me until about 60% of the way through, so while I wanted to like it, I couldn't help being discouraged by the slog. Also the story jumps between two different characters in different place in time, I personally found this really hard to follow, and it felt choppy. Though marketed by Thomas Nelson, this is not a Christian book, though it could be categorized as a morality tale about the destruction that can stem from greed. I did like the interesting quirk of the main character taxidermy. In the end this book wasn't for me, I didn't enjoy it, and in the end I felt that there was very little reader payoff for sticking it out and reading it to completion.

Title: The Woman in the Green Dress
Author: Tea Cooper
Genre: Historical fiction
Rating: 4.0 out of 5

Usually I have a preference for one timeline over the other in a dual novel like this one, but this time I didn’t. I enjoyed both thoroughly! I will say, I don’t think I’ve ever read a book about a taxidermist, much less a female one, so that was an interesting twist.

Della was quite an intriguing character and I enjoyed how her story intertwined with Fleur’s. I have to confess, I enjoyed the secondary characters the most, and I loved their character development as well. I did not like finding out what happened to the characters in the earlier timeline from Fleur’s viewpoint, but that’s my own preference. This was an enjoyable read, although it started off a bit slow.

Tea Cooper is an award-winning author. The Woman in the Green Dress is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of Thomas Nelson in exchange for an honest review.)