It’s always refreshing to find a historical fiction that doesn’t take place during WWII. This story follows the great San Francisco earthquake and Vera, who makes a life for herself in the wake of destruction. It was enjoyable, but a bit slow.

I am very late with doing the review on this book, but this was a very entertaining story about the earthquake in San Francisco in 1902. The story centers around Vera the story is told as seen through her eyes but the way it is told is what grabs the story. Once you start this book you will not want to put it down a very good story with excellent characters that give you the feeling that you are in that time. Very much worth the read.

This was a really good historical fiction fix. Set in San Francisco in the early 1900's, Vera is a young girl who discovers her strength.

#Vera is by author # Carol Edgarian and has a young heroine that discovers her strengths. Her mother Rose, is the proprietor of San Francisco’s most legendary bordello.Vera only 15 and illegitimate has grown up in two worlds. The second being the family paid to raise her….
Thank you for the advance copy,
# Netgalley, # Carol Edgarian,and # Scribner 💜🐾🐾

Very enjoyable read! A part of our history I had not heard about! Loved the story! Thank you for the ARC!!!!

This is a story set around the San Francisco earthquake of 1902. Vera is a lyrical book - the descriptions are fluid and build around the story of the lead strong character who is an outcast/misfit, but a survivalist. Simply beautiful and impossible to put down. My thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When you’re the daughter of a famous madam named Rose, being raised by a woman who didn’t care for her, you feel unloved. Become hard. This is the case for Vera. But a few days after her fifteenth birthday, the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 occurs, and Vera has to use her toughness to survive.

I loved Vera. She was so real, and I couldn’t help but care about her, ache for her. The world of San Francisco was so well-written you could hear the noises, smell the dirt. This book was fabulous. You should read it.

Vera is a firecracker at 15 years old - the illegitimate child of Rose, a madame at the city's famous bordello, who is sent to live with another woman and only sees her mother three times a year. When the great earthquake of 1906 hits, Vera world is turned completely upside down and she will need to do everything it takes to survive. This coming of age story showcases Vera's strength and wit as she navigates life the year after the earthquake with one true goal: her mother's love and a family of her own. All of the characters are very well developed in Vera and was really drawn to Pie, her stepsister. Unfortunately, i felt the ending wrapped up quickly and I was left wanting more.

Thank you NetGalley and Scribner for the ARC in exchange for an honest review,

I enjoyed this book, but it was a little too character driven for my taste. I did really liked the time period and Vera had a lot of gumption that I really enjoyed.

In 1906 San Francisco, 15-year-old Vera hovers on the edges of the movers and players. The secret daughter of a notorious brothel madam named Rose who almost never sees her, Vera longs for her mother’s affection. Her sharp wit is her only hope–and is the key to her survival when the earthquake rips through the city, leaving it burning.

With her adopted sister, Pie, Vera makes her way to Rose’s mansion on the hill. Determined to find her missing mother, she assembles with a rag-tag group to determine their path forward, with both the fires and the crack-down on the city’s corruption closing in.

Vera is a singular character, vivid and memorable. In fact, Edgarton creates an entire cast of memorable characters here. Some of them are real historical figures, and my only quibble was a bit of Forrest-Gump like awkwardness in bringing Vera close to so many of them. Nonetheless, this was fast-paced, character-driven historical fiction with a unique perspective on a major event that shaped San Francisco. I loved it.

Vera is a just a girl when the massive earthquake and fire of 1906 destroy the city of San Francisco. How Vera and her sister manage to survive and help others do the same is the heart of this book. Vera's resourcefulness and courage are extraordinary, and seeing her rise to the occasion again and again is inspiring. This is ultimately a heart-warming story of the strength of a people, and the fearlessness of a young woman in the face of unspeakable tragedy.

I was really excited to read this story and the synopsis described it really well, but for some reason I thought it fell short of my expectations.

An illegitimate daughter of a famous (or I should say infamous) bordello owner who purposefully holds her daughter at arms length, the earthquake to end all earthquakes in San Francisco and a community trying to figure out what to do in order to survive, a cast of characters that are complex, but relatable... sounds like the perfect story.

I don't know exactly what it is, but I couldn't connect with Vera. I can't describe it, something about her can-do attitude that made her seem obnoxious rather than strong and intelligent. Maybe it has something to do with her being fifteen... then again, I've known a few teenagers and remember what I was like as a teenager and can relate.

I still recommend, maybe another reader can offer a different kind of insight into this story. Something I may be missing.

I was pleasantly surprised by this coming-of-age novel. I’m a sucker for good historical fiction, and this novel ticked all my boxes: interesting characters, great attention to detail, and effective engagement of the senses. I could imagine the chaos during and after the catastrophic 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the scenes, the smells, the horror. A sign of a well-constructed historical piece is how often I googled for more information, and I found myself online often learning more about the plethora of historical characters and the setting. I liked this tenacious teenager who was rejected at every turn, yet picked herself up, literally dusted herself off, and thrived despite her dire circumstances. It’s a heartbreaking book, plodding at times, and the author made some grammatical missteps, but I enjoyed it very much. 4 stars.

This is a novel of a city and adventure and family. It was a slow start, but I'm glad I kept going. Even now, I can't quite put my finger on why I didn't love it as much as I wanted to. The characters were intriguing, as was the setting and the major events.

As a middle school librarian, I will not be purchasing this for my library but would recommend this to my book group and adult friends. Historical fiction lovers will thoroughly enjoy this book set during the SF earthquake. Vera is such a character that I want to lead me in a disaster. Recommended for upper high school readers and above. Thanks to Net Galley for providing the ARC for this book!

Vera is the daughter of the powerful and wealthy Rose, the most famous madam in all of 1906 San Francisco. Rose has paid a widow to raise her daughter away from the brothel, and she only visits her child a couple of times each year. On those meeting days, Vera and her mother spend time at Rose’s personal home which is situated in a nice neighborhood. But Vera yearns for Rose to really be her mother - more than twice a year.

When the earthquake hits, all of San Francisco is in upheaval. The home Vera lives in is destroyed, and so she sets out for Rose’s home as a refuge. The house has suffered damage but is still standing. Now Vera is determined to find her mother and she ventures into the disaster zone to search for her. Every day the fires consume more and more of the city, and soon it might reach as far as Rose’s house.

Vera’s resiliency is key to the story. She won’t let the disaster crush her and she won’t give up on her mother. Edgarian writes painfully of the horrors the residents of San Francisco faced. The vivid descriptions of the impact of the earthquake are portrayed in excruciating detail. This is a survivalist story of a young girl who is fighting to make it through a horrific natural disaster. She is scrappy and distant, as the result of being raised by a mean woman, and kept apart both physically and emotionally from her real parent. There is a strength to Vera that is admirable but it also keeps her closed off from others. For readers interested in learning about the toll the earthquake took on the residents of San Francisco, this will provide a real insight into the horrors the survivors faced.

4.5 stars. There were a lot of things to love about this novel and I found it very enjoyable.

There are a lot of historical fiction books out there, but there are not a lot who focus on this particular part of history. I find the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire quite an interesting subject, both in terms of the time period and the magnitude of the event. Having it presented in such a creative fiction narrative was both exciting to me and rewarding in the read.

The atmosphere in this novel is fantastic. I am a former San Francisco resident, and having the specific sections and streets of the city described were so much fun for me. I loved being able to see the city through this lens, reflecting on both the present state of those areas and the way they existed in the past. It was colorful, entertaining, and well-executed.

The characters were quite diverse and...spirited. I found their stories engaging and their interactions mostly credible and natural. Vera is appropriately written for her age, though her story was at times a little overly dramatic. The presentation of the racism present in the town was both well-done and uncomfortable to read. There were some moments that felt like the supporting characters were a bit stereotyped, but this was the exception rather than the rule and I still enjoyed the overall construction of the characters as well as their individual story arcs. Vera's journey from child to more-or-less self-sufficient young lady was full of missteps and learning moments that made sense, made the story more complex, and created a great narrative. There was one particular side plot that felt a little forced, but I cannot mention it here without spoilers. Suffice it to say that it was enough of a minor part of the plot to be mostly forgiven.

Though the story is primarily character driven, there were still interesting movements in the plot that kept things moving at a very comfortable pace and pushed the momentum of the book forward continuously. The pacing as a whole was good, though there were some moments of lull in the middle that could be problematic for some readers. For me, I was so mesmerized by the atmosphere of the novel that I still easily moved through these pieces because I wanted more.

This was a fantastic historical fiction novel that I found to be both a fun and emotional read. I have already recommended it to friends and will continue to do so. It is not a perfect novel, but it is a darn good one and one that I will likely find myself rereading in the future.

* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. *

ONE SENTENCE SUMMARY: Not the engaging piece of historical fiction I was hoping for.

BRIEF REVIEW: When I read that Vera was set around the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and resulting fires, I couldn't wait to read it. I recently read another historical novel set around the 1906 earthquake, The Nature of Fragile Things; Susan Meissner which I loved. Unfortunately, Vera was a bit of a disappointment for me.

Vera Johnson is a fifteen year old girl just trying to find her place in the world. Her real mother is Rose, who runs San Francisco's most famous brothel and, it is only a few times a year that she actually gets to see her. The olive-skinned, Vera lives with a widowed foster mother Morie, a light-skinned, Swedish woman who Rose pays to care for her illegitimate daughter, Vera. Morie also has another daughter, eighteen year old Pie. The two girls are quite different, where Pie is easy going and innocent with simple dreams, Vera is far more complicated, bold and determined. When the 1906 earthquake and resulting fires hit the city just days after Vera's fifteenth birthday and Morie ends up dead, Vera and Pie must do what it takes to survive a city in chaos. As they make their way to Rose's Pacific Heights mansion they find out that she isn't even around. Not sure whether Rose is dead or alive, it's here that Vera's strength and determination is needed most.

While I'm sure that the author did her research while writing this novel about the 1906 earthquake, I felt the plot was way more involved and complicated than it really needed to be. The characters were plentiful yet very few were memorable for me.


RATING: 2.5/5 stars

This story follows Vera, daughter of a brothel madam and raised by a desperate alcoholic, in the aftermath of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. This novel starts out SLOWLY - the first part took a long time to get through and then it seemed to move much faster after that. I will say that it was difficult for me to connect with any of these characters, although there were definitely times I rooted for each. I wanted something more from this story - more character development, more direct earthquake aftermath, maybe longer in general? It was a good book but I'm not totally sold on recommending it to others.

This is the story of Vera, a 15 year old daughter of Rose, who owns the most prominent bordello in all of San Francisco. Rose has never really cared for Vera and has thrown her off on others to raise due to her personal love of money and greed. When an earthquake strikes, strong-willed Vera rises up and takes action. Quite frankly, the first 40-50% of the book was a complete blur and absolutely nothing happened until the earthquake. In the second half of the book you start to see Vera find herself and build herself up and that's when it gets better, but then it's over. If the book would have started with the second half, the story would have been great. Thank you to Netgalley and then publishers for the ARC.