sams84 's review for:

The Garment Maker's Daughter by Hillary Adrienne Stern

4.0

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When I first downloaded this I wasn't completely sure what to expect other than some kind of historical fiction set across the first half of the 20th Century. What I got was a tale following two generations of the Rothman family, first with Lena as she arrives in America with her brother to start a new life, and the second with her daughter Rachel as she grows up in the Catskill Mountains and tries to find out more about her own and her mother's past. This is as much a love story as it is a historical fiction, which didn't completely ruin it for me but I did find it jarred with the strong characters of both Lena and Rachel as they fell into the same traditions as most women of the time, even if it did take them longer to do so. That aside, the story is really well written and engaging with clear research having gone into the events and attitudes of the time (don't even get me started on Will!). I'm impressed to learn that this is Stern first book given how good the story, characters and writing is, although this could be a double edged sword!