The Phoenix Crown

December 18, 2023
Quinn (The Diamond Eye) and Chang (The Porcelain Moon) team up for a stirring story involving opera, prized antiquities, and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Gemma Garland, a soprano in New York’s Metropolitan Opera, is hoping to revive her lagging career. Shortly after her arrival with the Met’s traveling company in San Francisco, where she’s slated to perform with Enrico Caruso, Gemma meets and falls for charming railroad magnate Henry Thornton. Soon, she’s singing at his house for members of high society. Her affection for Henry curdles, however, after she learns about his dark side from Chinese embroiderer Suling Feng, whom Henry has hired to mend a damaged robe from a Beijing palace. Among his other collectibles is an ornate crown, also taken from the palace. It turns out Suling’s lover Reggie has disappeared, and she tells Gemma that Henry is to blame. The women confront him just as the earthquake hits, after which Henry and the crown disappear. The authors ably develop the two main characters as they discover a shared sense of independence and join in common cause while reckoning with the mixed blessings of a powerful man’s patronage. Readers of historicals with strong female leads will savor this.

Starred review from January 1, 2024
In 1906, opera singer Gemma Garland moves to San Francisco to take her place in the chorus for a performance by the great Caruso, hoping to room with her old friend Nellie Doyle. But when she arrives, Nellie is nowhere to be found, though her housemate, botanist Alice Eastwood, encourages Gemma to stay. Meanwhile, 19-year-old Suling Feng dresses as a boy to help deliver her family's laundry, doing brisk business with hand-embroidery on the side. She is desperate to escape an arranged marriage, and she's also trying to forget her white lover, Reggie, who disappeared without a trace. One of Suling's hustles is serving champagne at the parties of industrialist Henry Thornton, who becomes taken with Gemma and offers to become her patron. But it's mere days before the devastating San Francisco earthquake and it will draw the women together in surprising ways. Quinn and Chang have teamed up to write a powerful and surprising triumph of historical fiction. From the bustling streets of Chinatown to Henry's lavish mansion, the set pieces will transport readers as they are pulled into the women's stories. Lushly detailed, richly imagined, and utterly satisfying, The Phoenix Crown will entrance readers.

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