White Gardenia

By Belinda Alexandra

Book Overview

From internationally bestselling author Belinda Alexandra comes a sweeping, emotional journey that "depicts vividly the powerful lifelong bond between mothers and daughters" (Paullina Simons, author of The Bronze Horseman).In a district of the city of Harbin, a haven for White Russian families since Russia's Communist Revolution, Alina Kozlova must make a heartbreaking decision if her only child, Anya, is to survive the final days of World War II. White Gardenia sweeps across cultures and continents, from the glamorous nightclubs of Shanghai to the austerity of Cold War Soviet Russia in the 1960s, from a desolate island in the Pacific Ocean to a new life in post-war Australia. Both mother and daughter must make sacrifices, but is the price too high? Most importantly of all, will they ever find each other again? Rich in historical detail and reminiscent of stories by Kate Morton and Lucinda Riley, White Gardenia is a compelling and beautifully written tale about yearning, longing, and the lengths a mother will go to protect her child.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1476790310
• ISBN13: 9781476790312
• Release Date: February 2015
• Publisher: Gallery Books
• Length: 496 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Not a perfect book but an enjoyable one

I was attracted to White Gardenias by some positive comments that Paullina Simons (one of my favorite authors) made about it, so I took a chance and ordered a copy. It pretty much delivers what it promises: a sweeping story spaning three continents and three decades. Interestingly, though there is romance, the crux of the saga is the relationship between the heroine Anya, and her mother Alina. Anya grew up in with her parents in Harbin: a Chinese haven for White Russian families after the Communist Revolution. When her father dies Anya and her mother do what they can to survive when the Japanese invade the country during World War II. However a personal vendetta leads to a heartbreaking choice for Anya's mother. Alina is forced to separate from Anya in order to save her. Anya finds herself lost and adrift in Shanghai, and at the mercy of the greed and vindictiveness of those she thinks she can trust. When once again she's forced to flee her home, Anya finds herself settling in Australia- a country that welcomes refugees in the aftermath of the war. Anya makes some deveoted friends and equally devoted enemies. She earns the love of two men, but never wavers in her desire to find her mother again. The book's weakness is that Alexandra doesn't develop the mother-daughter relationship sufficiently. A stronger sense of the ties between Anya and Alina would have helped the reader understand the urgency in finding one another. As it stands, we understand the love between them in a general sense: the love of a parent and a child. More development would help us understand the connection on a more individualized level: the love of THIS parent for THIS child. However the novel is an absorbing and entertaining read.