The Magnolia Palace does justice to one of the few remaining opulent structures from Old New York and its Gilded Age. Since Veronica was stuck in the museum, she figured she would have to let Joshua in on this game and solve the clues together. She flees her apartment, the opportunity to become Helen Frick’s secretary lands in her lap, and it gives Lilly a place to stay and time to work out what she’s doing to do? As she ran for her life, Angelica happened to stumble upon an employment opportunity at the Frick Mansion.

He blinked a couple of times, as if he wanted to say something more, before going back to the clay study. As with all Davis books, they center around a New York City landmark, that I usually know nothing to very little about, and this particular book surrounds The Frick Museum and the life of Helen Clay Frick, a woman whom I had not heard of 72 hours ago, but I wish to learn more about fiercely, because in this novel that woman is a true spitfire, and I just completely fell in love with the way Fiona wrote her. We get to see what daily life was like inside the Frick mansion in 1919 with the demanding Henry Clay Frick and the difficult Helen Frick.

Suspicions abound, and an iconic New York City landmark stands poised to reveal a page-turning tale of wealth, family dynamics, and long-held secrets. She was protected by her mother and worries about supporting herself as she is no longer the muse for artists now that she’s not in her teens.

Shortly thereafter she finds she is not alone – Joshua – a part time employee joins her and they spend the time in the mansion finding clues that have been hidden for many years. Two storylines, one in 1919 and the other in 1966, follow two women whose lives are changed when they enter the historic mansion. Things don't go as planned though and she ends up sulking at the museum and consequently finds some hidden old papers. She wished more than anything to be able to once again witness the infinite ways her mother used to drive her batty: the tinny laugh, the way she hummed under her breath as she dried the dishes. But the longer she works as a private secretary to Helen Frick, the daughter of industrialist and art patron Henry Clay Frick, the more deeply shes pulled into a tangled web of romantic trysts, stolen jewels, and family drama.With the hope of earning enough money to head west to Hollywood to try and start a career in the movies, Lillian finds her way into to the mansion of industrialist Henry Clay Frick. Henry Clay Frick launched the Frick Collection in the Frick Art Reference Library and still considered "one of the most hated men in America", which led to an attempted assassination on him. The Magnolia Palace tells the story of two different women whose lives are changed at the Frick mansion, giving readers the chance to soak in dual eras of history all while great love, epic loss, dazzling fortunes, and foul play are afoot.

While the Frick family seemed to have it all, the unveiling of secrets and schemes within their house was interesting. Veronica encounters these hidden papers and with Joshua, the archivist's, help, they realize the importance of them. You will fall in love with Lillian, the penniless young artist’s model surviving the Spanish Flu of 1919, and Veronica, the young mod model of the 1960s, and Davis’s deftly written and beautifully woven feminist storytelling. Lillian is mistaken for that person and allows herself to be taken in for an interview whereupon she gets the job having no experience whatsoever. Davis walks us across an unexpected bridge of thought that spans from 1919 after the Great War and its impact on society to the Mod Years of the 1960's and beyond.The dual story involves another model who arrives in what was the Frick family home in the 1960's but now an impressive museum. The colliding narratives and comprehensive descriptions of the historic mansion make for Davis’s best work to date. But alternating between the two women's narratives creates a delicious tension that kept me turning the pages. Once you read this book, you’ll want to visit The Frick, but note that the mansion is undergoing a major renovation so check for info on its reopening.

Together they completed the scavenger hunt and discovered something that had been thought lost or stolen for decades. It unfolded slowly where readers could experience the dramatic woes of love, heartbreak, redemption and new beginnings.I found it hard to follow the story, which was nothing special and couldn't connect to anyone in this novel. also, since my reading tastes have changed so much over the last few years, I thought I would give this one a go as a litmus test of sorts. Since he'd only recently taken over a studio in the popular Lincoln Arcade building on the Upper West Side, he hadn't had time to learn from the other, long-term tenants that she was, at the ripe age of twenty-one, washed up. Fifty years later, 60’s fashion model Veronica Weber, on assignment from England has her own employment opportunity with Vogue, at a shoot taking place at the Frick Museum.