Historical fiction is one of my favourite genres. I love that I’m learning as well as reading at the same time and Irish Eyes was no exception. I loved it from start to finish and it taught me so much about the Irish immigrants at the turn of the twentieth century.
Irish Eyes is beautifully written, and in parts, you could almost believe you were reading something written by Austen or Bronte. Initially set in the depths of Ireland, we are quickly transported to America and New York City as Rose, a young girl, falls in love with an American ex-soldier and emigrates to be with Adam in New York.
However, things don’t go to plan and Rose is left alone and penniless with just a carpet bag containing her belongings. Rose is a fighter and as the years progress she goes from strength to strength, albeit with various hurdles along the way.
Irish Eyes is up there as one of my top reads for 2023 and I’d recommend this if historical fiction is your thing.
Thank you to Lume/Joffe Books and Insta Book Tours for the opportunity to read and review Irish Eyes by Hope C. Tarr.
About the Book
Aran Islands, 1898.
Rose O’Neill learns that her beloved brother Donal has died fighting in the Spanish-American war.
The news is followed by Donal’s comrade-in-arms, Adam Blakely, who arrives a month later on Kilronan’s scenic shores. He’s come to return Rose's letters. Letters that Adam has re-read a hundred times.
Two weeks stretch into two glorious months, then Adam’s father falls ill, and he’s summoned home to New York.
He leaves Rose with the memory of a beautiful night and the promise of marriage. Yet Rose’s eighteenth birthday comes and goes, and she doesn’t hear a word.
Unable to ignore the child growing inside of her, she leaves the only home she’s ever known, clutching Adam’s address. But in New York’s crowded harbor, she’s met with a cruel awakening.
Penniless, pregnant, and alone in a foreign city, Rose must ford through sweatshops, Lower East Side tenements, and personal tragedy, before she can let go of her first love and hope for a second chance with a good, steady man.
Then, just as Rose makes peace with her past, changes nobody could have foreseen threaten to topple the life for which she has sacrificed so much.
Spanning the turn of the twentieth century, World War I, and the early Roaring Twenties, this historical tale gives an immersive and poignant look into New York City life.
Hope C. Tarr is the award-winning author of more than 20 historical and contemporary romances and four screenplays including “Stolen Kiss” (in development) with Emmy winner, Linda Yellen. Hope has been featured in numerous entertainment news outlets, including NBC’s Today Show, Time Out New York, The New York Post, Irish Central, and AM NY. She is a founder and past curator of the popular Manhattan-based Lady Jane’s Salon® reading series (2009 – 2021).
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