First published 2024
Frances Perkins arrives in New York City at the century's turn, parasol in hand and revolution in her blood. She works with children in Hell's Kitchen tenements by day and mingles with Greenwich Village's artists and activists by night. Her circle includes millionaire socialite Mary Harriman Rumsey, writer Sinclair Lewis, and reformer Paul Wilson, who captures her heart. At a tea dance, she meets young lawyer Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She sees a privileged dilettante trading on looks and lineage. He sees a preachy reformer and tiresome do-gooder. Neither suspects they will forge a partnership that reshapes America. Over twenty years, Frances rises through a male-dominated political world. She becomes FDR's most trusted ally, fighting the Great Depression from the White House while juggling marriage and motherhood. Political enemies attack and personal losses mount. Frances must choose what she will surrender to rescue a struggling nation.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, biographical-fiction, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Greenwich Village, Hell's Kitchen, New York City
Period: 20th Century
528 pages · Hardcover · Berkley