Lilies in Moonlight

Title: LILIES IN MOONLIGHT
Author: Allison Pittman
Publisher: Multnomah
April 2011
ISBN: 978-1-60142-138-8
Genre: Inspirational/historical

Lilly Margolis is a door-to-door saleswoman, trying to sell cosmetics—though to the upper class they are cheap, not-worth-the-money junk, but to the working class, they are overpriced, luxurious items they can’t afford. Still, one very kind rich woman bought the entire contents of her suitcase, but that doesn’t stop Lilly from quitting her job.

After a roaring night on the town, fun-loving flapper, Lilly twists her ankle and falls in the backyard of the same wealthy lady who bought her wares. But this home is still enduring the effects of the Great War. Cullen Burnside is a disillusioned and disfigured veteran, and his mother Betty Ruth, suffers from dementia.

Lilly is a light in Betty Ruth’s day, rejuvenating her and Cullen’s sad, disconnected lives. But—Lilly is hiding… and when Cullen insists about returning her to her faraway home, their budding friendship seems destined to die on the vine.

I grew up reading Grace Livingstone Hill books and in those books, flappers were always portrayed as the “bad girl” and definitely not the heroine. So, I was a bit surprised to find the heroine in LILIES IN MOONLIGHT is a flapper. Lilly was someone the more conservative folks frowned at, dressing in short, fluttery dresses, and wearing the short bobbed hair, but still she harbored a hurt spirit that made the reader care. Cullen was a more confusing character. It took quite awhile for me to get him. He didn’t approve much of Lilly at first, but then… neither did I. He was a man of few words, very protective of his mom, and even more so of himself.

LILIES IN MOONLIGHT is full of hurting, flawed characters, but ones that you grow to care about. It was hard for me to wrap my mind around a flapper heroine. But this was a good read and well-written. Discussion questions are included at the end of the book. 3.5 stars. $14.99. 344 pages.