The Forgotten Seamstress

An heirloom patchwork quilt hiding a scandalous royal secret is the link between the generations in Trenow’s (The Last Telegram) solid second novel. The novel pairs the stories of the young women a century apart: Maria Romano, an orphan whose artistic needlework gets her placed in a royal household where she has a dalliance with the Prince of Wales, and Caroline Meadows, whose own artistic talents and ambitions jump-start her career as a contemporary interior designer. Caroline finds the quilt and begins an investigation into it’s provenance. Flosnik treats each character, major or minor, with a sense of distinction and identity. The narrative enthralls as it weaves back and forth between Caroline’s and Maria’s stories—a haunting tale of past and present voiced with grace and beauty. A Sourcebook Landmark paperback. (June)