Book review: The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly

I don't know about you, but I was an avid reader growing up. However, you reach your later teens and you start going out and drinking and socialising more and more every night and reading kind of takes a back seat. I fell out of the habit and then went to Uni, went travelling and started working in a stressful job and I just read the off book here and there. However, I am really enjoying being back in the swing of reading one book after the other and one of my oldest and closest friends recently bought be a great one.

The Tea Rose is by Jennifer Donnelly, an author I was not aware of and was shocked when I read she was from the US as the book is based in the underworld of East London where Jack the Ripper is looming and the divide in social classes is worse than ever. It follows the life of Fiona Finnegan, the daughter of Irish immigrants, struggling to make ends meet. Most people are slaves to the tea industry and the large tea merchant that is controlling them is Burton Tea, run by a ruthless dictator with no sense of compassion for his workers. The book follows the social and economic struggle of Fiona and those around her but then the struggle to adapt to a new life she finds that is rich in luxuries... but not love.

The book is gripping and although slightly on the fairy-tale side, takes you on an emotional journey with visual description throughout. There is also two sequels to read: The Winter Rose and the newly released The Wild Rose.