Cover Image: The Magnolia Palace

The Magnolia Palace

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Member Reviews

Thank you to PENGUIN GROUP Dutton and to NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

I love books by Fiona Davis and have read many of them. And loved them all, This book was no exception.

This book was part Historical Fiction and part Mystery, and I loved every minute of it. Also, all of her books take place in New York City which I also love.

This book was great from start to finish and I would highly recommend it!

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A remarkable story well told. Fiona Davis makes her characters seem so real and this story kept me interested from cover to cover. I highly recommend this book. Her use of real places makes history come to life.

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Love me a mansion/family with secrets! Especially if murder is one of them. This one is more historical fiction and mystery, but Davis really builds suspense with her writing.

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Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this book! I can't believe it took me this long to properly write a review, but I adore every single book Fiona Davis writes. Her details and descriptions and characters are perfect and enjoyable, and I look forward to her stories. She paints New York as a romantic, beautiful place with hidden and important histories that need to be shared.

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Fiona Davis is an awesome author. I am not a huge fan of dual timelines, but this book worked! Wonderful characters and descriptions.

I recommend you read this book!!

Thank you to Net Galley for providing me with a e-book copy in exchange for my honest review!

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I absolutely love every aspect of a Fiona Davis novel and The Magnolia Place is a perfect example. The way she weaves the historical New York landmark and the story of the people involved with a more current second timeline is always a fantastic ride for me. She is one of my favorite and most recommended authors!

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Told in alternating perspectives in 1919 and 1966, a decades long mystery involving the Frick Collection and a mysterious diamond unfolds.

I started off really liking this creative historical fiction novel, but the pacing dragged by around the 40% mark for me. Some of Lillian's chapters started to get particularly lengthy and repetitive and had the book been 50 or so pages shorter it would have been perfect. Overall I liked the story and the characters and the conclusion was nice and tidy.

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Fiona writes the best historical fiction….set in such a beautiful setting, in such a vibrant city, what more could you ask..

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The Magnolia Palace is a fine read but it's not my typical choice. Most of the characters and relationships felt one dimensional so it was hard to get into the story. The romance subplots are underwhelming as well as the mystery over the stolen diamond and the murder. Wish this had been more engaging than it was.

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I saw this book advertised on BOTM and I knew that I wanted to give it a go. It is defiantly a winner for historical fiction fans! Thank you netgalley for this copy!

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Fiona Davis’ books are positively lovely tales with just the right amount of contemporary and historical elements. Both timelines are entertaining and engaging, which I feel is particularly important when it comes to the historical part of the story. I can’t wait for her next book.

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The Magnolia Palace is historical fiction, and features the Frick Mansion in New York City as the setting for this dual-timeline novel. The book starts over very slow, with not a lot of action until the middle of the book. I generally enjoy dual-timelines, but honestly I think that this book may have been better served if it only focused on one of the two timelines. The two characters and their stores just seemed too disparate - with the exception of the connection of the same setting - until the very end of the book, and then it feel like everything was wrapped up too neat and clean.

It was a bit of a bummer as this was the first book of Fiona Davis' that I have read, but I definitely think that I will give one of her others a try as I did enjoy the writing overall and I appreciated all of the effort and research she put into the historical elements of the novel.

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Thank you to NetGalley and Dutton for the gifted ebook of The Magnolia Palace! All opinions in this review are my own.

Fiona Davis is an auto-buy author for me. I love the way she weaves her two timelines together and how the past eventually plays an important role in the more current time period.

That being said, The Magnolia Palace was no different! I coulldn't put it down and ended up reading the second half of the book in one day. Davis has a habit of having the characters learn an important detail but not telling the readers and then beginning a new chapter in the other timeline. It kept me reading because I had to find out what happened next!

I also appreciate how detailed Davis's author's notes are because it demonstrates the time and research she puts in to make the story come alive. It's fascinating how the character of Lily is based on a real person and how from a few historical figures, Davis was able to create this engrossing story.

I can't wait to visit the Frick and read more of Davis's books based on historic New York City locations!

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This is not usually my genre, but I enjoyed this one. I typically enjoy Davis' books, so I'm not surprised. I loved the setting and felt like the characters were very dynamic.

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Fiona Davis is one of my favorite authors. She writes historical fiction about the people and buildings of New York at the turn of the century.

The Magnolia Palace is a fascinating novel about one of the fabulous buildings still standing with a historical history in New York City. This time Davis takes the Frick Mansion and a few actual facts about the building and the Frick family and weaves a beautiful, romantic amazing plot around those facts to flesh out the story.

In the book a young beautiful girl known as Angelica becomes the muse for many artists and sculptors. Her likeness becomes famous as she posses for different statues that will be displayed all over New York.

When her mother dies and she is accused of a crime she insists she did not commit, she is forced to find a way to avoid jail time. Running away and ending up on the stairs of the Frick Mansion just as the daughter, Helen is looking for a private secretary seems like the perfect solution.

Angelica is creating a new life for herself as Miss Lilly, the efficient secretary to Helen Frick who is turning her father's incredible art collection into a library of the art and its Provence .

There are so many amazing twists and turns as this plot develops. The relationship between Helen and her father, mother and brother. The interplay between Helen and Lillian. Then Lillian and all the characters who pass through her life. Failed romance and true love plays heavily in this novel and even just the love between family and employee and boss are complicated relationships. A very compelling read.

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this was a nice piece of historical fiction, classic Fiona Davis writing and an interesting storyline/plot.

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One of my favorite Fiona Davis books. I enjoyed reading about The Frick Collection and the model whose image is all over NYC. After reading The Magnolia Palace, I was intrigued and read up on the model that the book was based on. It will also be great to visit the Frick Collection one day after the renovations are completed.

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I have read one other Fiona Davis novel and Magnolia Palace follow a similar style with dual timelines around a famous old building, in this case the Frick Museum. I thoroughly enjoyed the earliest timeline featuring Lilian, who was a model and inspiration for artists in and around 1919 and who, through a series of events, ends up as a secretary for the Frick family in their mansion. The second timeline revolves around another model, Veronica, in the 1960's who is drawn into past events involving Lilian through some clues she happens across while working a photo shoot at the Frick Mansion which has now become a museum. I'd like to say that the timelines mesh together to form a great mystery, but I felt that story bogged down a bit in the middle before settling into the resolution of the mysteries. My favorite part of the book, as with Davis' other book The Lions of Fifth Avenue, was the author note where we learn more about the history that led to the story. I will recommend this book to patrons who are looking for historical fiction. Thank you to Dutton/Penguin Group and NetGalley for the early copy in return for my honest opinion. 3.5 stars

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Thank you, Dutton Books, for the gifted copy of Magnolia Palace 🌸 {partner}

Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: New York, 1916 and 1966
Format: 🎧
Pub Date: 1.25.2022
Star Rating: ☆☆☆☆

“The rich think they’re protected, that they have magical powers, when in fact they’re only mortals, like the rest of us. Bodies break down, betray you. People you love die. Children die.”

Well folks, I finally got around to reading the Magnolia Palace after it sat on my shelf for a year. I don’t want to admit how many times I looked at the beautiful book and didn’t pick it up. But, I’m so glad I finally read it (well listened) because it was, in true Fiona Davis form, historical fiction at it’s finest.

I always love Davis’ books as she a beautiful way of bringing history to life through charming characters, familiar places and always a hint of a mystery. Which the more I think about it, the more I realized that the historical fiction + mystery mash-up may be my favorite trope.

My only two complaints that I had about Magnolia Palace are: I did not love Veronica’s character. She lacked the strong female protagonist that I could see her being and I also didn’t agree with the choices she made (even if she did try to make up for her actions). The other issue I have is that I thought the ended felt rushed and too easy.

If you choose to read Magnolia Palace, which you should, then I encourage you to make sure to read the Author’s Note at the end. It brought the whole story together and also shed some light on a woman from history that was neglected and forgotten.

✌🏼 Dual timeline (1916 + 1966)
🎭 Family drama with lots of secrets
🏯 Frick Mansion setting
🔀 Historical Fiction + Mystery genre mash-up

I recommend reading Magnolia Palace if you enjoyed reading any of Fiona Davis’ other books or are looking for a little history and mystery combination from your next read.

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I really enjoyed this. I think Fiona Davis is turning into one of my favorite authors. I love her worlds that she creates within Manhattan. I love the history that I learn while reading the book. I loved the relationship that developed between Veronica and Ms. Helen and the man who worked in the museum. This was a great book!

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