NEWS! Josephine’s Daughter is a winner of the Independent Press Award in Women’s Fiction for 2020!
NEWS! The Price of Compassion has been named a Distinguished Favorite for the Independent Press Award, 2020!
In March, The Art of Love was selected a reader favorite in the genre of historical fiction by the fans of Manybooks.net.
It’s the first book in The Golden City series, which chronicles the lives of characters in America during the Gilded Age. To see the entire list, go here: https://manybooks.net/articles/books-of-the-month-march-2020
Josephine’s Daughter has received a review from Publisher’s Weekly!
Michael’s fifth book in the Golden City series (after The Price of Compassion), offers a vivid portrait of San Francisco’s Gilded Age through the eyes of Kit Firestone, an impassioned nurse who was born into high society. The story opens in 1893 with 13-year-old Kit angry with her well-meaning but controlling mother, Josephine. Fast forward to age 18, and Kit has a romantic and sexual encounter, learning afterward that her beau had syphilis and has infected her friend, Cecily, and gotten her pregnant; Kit’s insistence on a prophylactic spares her. After caring for Cecily, unconventional and spirited Kit eschews marriage and becomes a nurse. She begins a complicated relationship with Tom Justice, a young surgeon, that intensifies in tandem with dramatic events—the 1906 earthquake, Tom’s arrest for “willful murder” while treating earthquake victims, and her mother’s diabetes. Through alternating narratives of Kit and Josephine, readers learn of Josephine’s youthful involvement in the Black Veil Society, which publicly shamed men who assaulted women, and sense how Kit follows in her mother’s footsteps as an advocate for women’s rights. Michaels is adept at handling medical practices of the time and women’s health topics, such as sexually transmitted diseases and birth control, with sensitivity and intelligence. Part family drama, part romance, Michaels’s tale will satisfy both fans of the series and newcomers alike.
“…a vivid portrait of San Francisco’s Gilded Age. — Publisher’s Weekly
Josephine’s Daughter has received a review from Kirkus Reviews!
In this fifth novel in Michaels’ (The Price of Compassion, 2018, etc.) Golden City series, set in 19th-century San Francisco, an intrepid young woman rebels against her parents and refuses to conform to high society’s expectations.
The story opens in 1893 at the home of young Katherine “Kit” Firestone as she and her friends, Cecily Anders and Bea Marshall, play in a tree while their parents socialize. From up in the branches, the girls overhear Cecily’s father and Bea’s mother discussing an extramarital affair. The story quickly jumps five years forward, when 18-year-old Kit allows a secret courtship to turn physical. She soon realizes that her feelings for the young man, Easton Challis, are fleeting. She agonizes over how to let him down easy, but then she’s shocked to learn that he’s proposed to her old friend Cecily. Worse yet, it appears that Easton has already impregnated Cecily and infected her with syphilis. (He’d used a prophylactic with Kit.) As Kit attempts to nurse Cecily back to health, her desire to help her friend sparks a passion for practicing medicine and protecting women’s rights. The narrative shifts back in time repeatedly to show Kit’s mother, Josephine, as a young woman. Due to tragedies in her youth, Josephine also found solace in helping female friends and championing feminism. Rather than recognizing their mutual activist spirits, Kit and her mother only butt heads. Indeed, readers are likely to wonder whether it’s possible for Kit and Josephine to stop arguing long enough to realize their similarities and use their mutual passions productively. Still, the novel’s fast-paced narrative and engaging dialogue will draw readers in from the start. It’s full of intriguing details about San Francisco near the turn of the last century, and it also provides engaging information about the evolution of medicine—and women’s health care, in particular. There are a few too many distracting subplots and tangents, and the book might have fared better if it were split into multiple volumes. Even so, the various threads remain compelling, and the novel as a whole provides a titillating journey through history.
A solidly entertaining, feminist tale that’s also well-suited for medical-history buffs. — Kirkus Reviews
The Price of Compassion has received a stellar review from the Historical Novel Society! Check it out below, or follow this link: https://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/the-price-of-compassion-the-golden-city-book-four/
The Price of Compassion is part of A. B. Michaels’ The Golden City series, though the five books do not need to be read in order. In this fourth installment, Michaels focuses on the early 20th-century story of Dr. Tom Justice. Hailing from a farm in Nebraska, Tom attends the University of Michigan and then Johns Hopkins medical school. After visiting his good college friend, Jimmy “Panda” Wong, in San Francisco, Tom remains in the Golden City to treat patients in Jimmy’s clinic in Chinatown. Here, Tom constantly crosses paths with Katherine “Kit” Firestone, who challenges him and frustrates him, and who, of course, he ultimately loves. In the midst of this, the earthquake of 1906 hits San Francisco, and in the destroyed and fire-ravaged city, Tom and Katherine use their medical training to help survivors. Framing the book is a legal trial that finds Tom accused of his cousin Eli’s murder, which occurred during the aftermath of the earthquake. Katherine, desperate to help Tom, hires him a lawyer so that he will hopefully be acquitted.
A.B. Michaels presents a sweeping and epic drama during the Gilded Age of the United States and takes the reader from Tom’s early farm life in Nebraska and medical school in Baltimore to San Francisco’s Chinatown, a train hospital in Texas, and William Muldoon’s hygienic center in New York State. It is immensely readable, with romance, medical history, natural disaster, and a murder and legal trial. The reader is in for a treat with Michaels’ tale of a gifted doctor whose mental state will ultimately affect his body and his romantic life. This book is highly recommended for those who love Barbara Taylor Bradford and John Jakes.
And from Kirkus Reviews…
The Price of Compassion: BOOK 4 IN THE GOLDEN CITY SERIES
Michaels (The Promise, 2016, etc.) offers a historical novel about a surgeon who’s accused of murder after mysterious events at a medical clinic leave a man dead. In 1907, attorney Jonathan Perris visits Tom Justice, a doctor imprisoned in the Ingleside County Jail in Northern California. After Tom was arrested for killing his cousin, Eli Porter, his friend Katherine Firestone hired Jonathan to prove his innocence. But when the lawyer asks Tom whether he committed the crime, he answers with a cryptic response: “perhaps I did.” With his client providing little assistance, Jonathan takes it upon himself to delve into Tom’s past and determine whether he is, in fact, guilty. As the attorney tries to uncover the truth, he interviews various characters who’ve come into contact with Tom throughout his life. The author takes readers back to Tom’s childhood on a farm in North Platte, Nebraska, where he spent summers with Eli. Tom’s relationship with his cousin is complex, and the two often fight; later, things get more complicated when Eli falls for Tom’s college sweetheart. Tom later enters medical school and hones his professional skills, but Eli takes a different path, moving back to Nebraska and settling into the life of a family man. Tom ends up running a clinic for Chinese-Americans in San Francisco. As Perris collects information through his interviews, the author effectively drops clues along the way for the reader, painting a picture of what might have happened to result in Tom’s incarceration.
This novel, the fourth in Michaels’ The Golden City series, is chock-full of details about California in the earliest part of the 20th century, and it showcases the rampant prejudice against Chinese immigrants that pervaded the West Coast during the period. In accessible and absorbing prose, the author also describes the arcane medical practices of the era. Although the numerous characters and subplots can get confusing at times, there are a sufficient number of high-stakes moments to keep the tale suspenseful and engaging throughout. A well-thought-out legal drama, full of intrigue and duplicity. —Kirkus Reviews
The Depth of Beauty was a 2017 RITA finalist in the category of general fiction. It was also named a 2016 “Notable Indie” by Shelf Unbound and was a finalist for Chanticleer Reviews’ “Goethe” Award, which recognizes historical fiction set in time periods after 1750. The Depth of Beauty takes place in and around San Francisco at the turn of the 20th century.
The Art of Love was selected as a 2015 medalist for the New Apple Awards in the category of romance. And The Lair won a medal in the suspense/thriller category. Not bad! You can see the entire list of winners here. In addition, The Art of Love has won a Silver Ippy Award in Romance.
The Madness of Mrs. Whittaker has received a review from Kirkus Reviews!
In the sixth volume of Michaels’ Golden City series, a recent widow confronts a spiritualist cult and a manipulative, dominating mother-in-law.
As the story opens in 1907, Mae Byrne Whittaker is tending to her dying husband, Albert St. John “Sinjun” Whittaker II. Raging with fever, he extracts a reluctant promise from her to continue his missionary work under the guidance that he says she’ll receive from his spirit. The passionate, devout Sinjun had brought her and their son, Liam, to Panama to spread the word of God. Now, malaria threatens to put an end to his aspirations. Mae brings Sinjun and Liam to their native San Francisco in the hope of saving her husband’s life, but he dies a day short of arriving home. He leaves his entire estate in trust to young Liam, and as a result, Mae is effectively penniless. Ida Whittaker, Sinjun’s mother, convinces her to spend the summer with her and Sinjun’s sister, Claire, at the family retreat in Glen Ellen, north of the city. Then Claire implores Mae to attend a meeting of her spiritualist cohorts, led by a medium known as Mrs. Springvale, who claims to be able to contact the spirits of deceased loved ones. However, Mae’s decision to accompany her sister-in-law will eventually lead to Mae’s being committed to a private mental institution. So begins a dark historical melodrama in which almost no one is quite whom they seem. Despite the story’s spiritualist trappings, the malevolent forces that propel the narrative are anything but ethereal. However, Michaels is an able and articulate storyteller who skillfully weaves some bright spots into the tale, including a potential romance for the protagonist. The characters of Cordelia Hammersmith and Dove Rebane, who pursue their best friend, Mae, when she goes missing, provide welcome relief from wretchedness of the institution and the evil machinations at Glen Ellen. Mae also becomes an inspiration for other oppressed inmates as she plans her escape.
An evocative period piece with compelling drama and a satisfying final twist. — Kirkus Reviews