Overview

Set in the Washington DC’s National Gallery of Art in the 1950’s McCarthy Era, Clemence learns about herself and through Elissa, learns what it means to be gay; Helena sets out to succeed in the business world of 1980’s New York City. She finds herself and her true love Billie in the heart of a Jewish merchant dynasty. All four women have so much in common...

Older blurb:

Rosenstein's... bastion of glamour and elegance, acme of the fashion world. The great store's founder, legendary Leah Rosenstein has been dead for twenty years, but her spirit still pervades the conservative, old-fashion establishment.

Now, bowing to compelling competitive pressures and the need to modernize, the Rosenstein family has brought in talented Helena Worrall to be manager of Rosenstein's to be the first woman on its executive board since the death of Leah.

Helena meets young Billie, a third generation Rosenstein who has inherited Leah's passion for the store. Love quickly grows between the two women. But Helena's personal presence is unwelcome in the Rosenstein family. She is an outsider, a Gentile... and she faces implacable opposition from Billie's mother. And Helena herself has learned that there is another reason why she was brought in to manage Rosenstein's, the true reason.

Romantic intrigue and the intricate politics of a warring family form the heart of Sarah Aldridge's ninth and most fascinating novel.

From the Publisher

Following the recent death of writer/publisher Anyda Marchant (pen name, Sarah Aldridge), at age 95, A&M Books of Rehoboth Beach is making available all 14 of the classic and groundbreaking Sarah Aldridge novels. Written between 1974 and 2003, the novels represent a melding of history, feminism and lesbian romance. The first novel was published by the fledgling Naiad Press, which went on to become the largest and most successful lesbian/feminist publisher in the country. Marchant was Naiad president from its founding until 1995.

In 1995, Marchant and Muriel Crawford, (her partner of more than half a century) withdrew from Naiad and founded A&M Books of Rehoboth Beach, DE. The last Sarah Aldridge book, O, Mistress Mine , was written and published when the author was 92 years young. A&M Books, continuing under the leadership of writer Fay Jacobs (Author of As I Lay Frying – A Rehoboth Beach Memoir ) is set to carry out the legacy begun by Marchant and Crawford - making all of the Sarah Aldridge titles available once again and continuing to give women writers a voice.

From the Author

"Publishing is not about the money, it’s about giving women a voice to tell their stories – and every book is an ambassador."
Anyda Marchant (Sarah Aldridge) 1911-2006