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About the Author:

Tea is an award winning Australian author of  historical fiction. In a past life she was a teacher, a journalist and a farmer. These days she haunts museums and indulges her passion for storytelling. She is the bestselling author of several novels, including The Horse Thief,The Cedar Cutter, The Currency Lass, The Naturalist’s Daughter, The Woman in the Green Dress and The Girl in the Painting.   Her historical fiction is published by Harper Collins.  Tea is a member of the Historical Novel Society of Australasia, The Australian Society of Authors, Hunter Romance Writers, the Australian Romance Readers Association and Wollombi’s Pencil Orchids. She is currently working on her next historical mystery.

What I Thought…

I enjoyed this tale set in the mid-19th century and alternating with a later storyline in the early 20th century.

I won’t retell the plot points here but it is interesting and what I would describe as realistic.   This would have been a five star review but I had a few issues with characterization.  Before I get to that, a bit more is needed to understand the premise (more than what is listed in the blurb above).

Michael Quinn comes to Australia with his five-year-old sister in the mid 1850s.  His parents have already established themselves on the continent.  He has high expectations upon his arrival but they are dashed.  He has to leave his young sister with strangers as he travels to the goldfields to figure things out.  Michael becomes a respected leader in Australia and is truly a self-made man.

Elizabeth Quinn is the sister.  To say she’s endured hardships is an understatement.  She is a very intelligent soul and is able to help Michael immensely with his business.   There’s some emotional baggage that she has to delve into to literally find herself.

Jane, the math genius and ward of the Quinns, is presented early on as almost a savant with little social skills. I kept thinking of The Queen’s Gambit. As the book progresses, even though Jane is gifted with numbers, that first description of the girl in the orphanage is gone. It felt like Cooper was stretching it a bit as Jane grew older when she had her thinking about patterns.  I know she matured and was definitely nurtured by Michael and Elizabeth, but she presented as a different person. I did respect Jane’s dedication to the Quinns.

I just couldn’t wrap my head around Elizabeth. Yes, she had some loss in her life but I wonder how she lived to her fifties without ever having a flashback, yet it was brought about by some semi-Impressionistic paintings?  It was just a bit too contrived.

In hindsight, I wanted more of the life Elizabeth and Michael were living in the present (1906-1916) and a little less of how they got there, even though it did have everything to do with Elizabeth’s “dilemma.” I was glad that this situation was due to her childhood and not that she was going through menopause!

The tale is told well and I would recommend this book to others, especially if you like historical fiction with a lot of twists and turns.  Women’s rights and the plight of Chinese workers are alluded to in the novel.  A rendition of the real girl in the painting from the artwork that prompted Elizabeth to remember would have been a better front cover.

The Food:

This is not a food-centric book by any means but there’s a lot of tea times (in the English tradition via Australia), Chinese food, and simple meals.   Elizabeth also enjoys kedegree for breakfast a couple of times.  (There was no way I was diving into that!) Iced VoVos were mentioned a couple of times as well.   Not being Australian, I had to look that one up.

I was struck by a couple of scenes revolving around the young Elizabeth longing for her brother.  When he arrived for visits, he would treat her to strawberry ice.   He also takes her on an outing to see Prince Albert and strawberries are included in that picnic.   Jasmine tea (also associated with Elizabeth) reminds her of her first love.  

As I was rustling through the freezer recently, I found a bag of frozen crushed strawberries, ready for jam.  I decided to combine the strawberries and the jasmine tea from Elizabeth’s early life into a preserve.   This preserve would be perfect at tea.

I used a hodge-podge of jars including one antique Atlas one.  Since I’m still kind of hoarding canning lids, I used some larger jars and recycled some.   Please note that the “recycled” jar here will only be stored in the refrigerated.   After the other appropriate canning jars with lids are water-bathed, they will be stored in the pantry.  I also used one freezer container.  We will eat from it first.

It had been a while since I had made strawberry jam so this was a real treat.   I’m anxious to see if the jasmine flavor intensifies while it sets in the jar.