The Roaring Days of Zora Lily by Noelle Salazar begins in the present day at The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. A costume conservator has discovered a mysterious label on a well-known dress worn by Greta Garbo. The costume conservator, Sylvia, wonders who is Zora Lily and why is her tag on this dress. She devotes all of her time and energy to uncovering the true story.
In 1924, Zora Lily was Zora Hough. She was a talented seamstress spending her time helping her mother take care of the many siblings and doing some alterations to bring in money. The family was struggling to survive. After a tragedy, Zora takes a job as a live-in nanny for the Harringtons in order to support her family.
She also has more free time to watch her best friend, Rose, dance at a downtown Seattle club. While attending the shows, Zora helps the dancers fix their costumes. This leads to another side job as a seamstress for the club.
She also meets the love of her life, Harley Aldrige, at the club. He’s British as well as charming, handsome, and wealthy. This relationship angers one of her co-workers, Elsbeth, who is ruthless and vindictive.
The romance doesn’t go as expected but not totally because of Elsbeth’s actions. They are separated by extenuating circumstances for quite a while. Most people would have followed Harley but Zora decided not to go with him.
Zora takes an offer to work for a movie studio as a seamstress. Rose and another friend are also going to be working for the studio as dancers. At first, the job does not involve designing as she was led to believe.
When the lead designer quits, Zora finally has a chance to design the movie wardrobe for Greta Garbo. The job should catapult her chances of becoming a famous designer but it doesn’t go as planned either.
Will Zora recover from her disappointments in love and career choices? Will her family always be struggling to put food on the table? What’s going to happen with The Smithsonian’s exhibit? All will be revealed after reading the book, which I recommend doing.
If you like historical fiction set in the Roaring 20s or fashion design, then you might love The Roaring Days of Zora Lily. Vindictive people with jealousy issues may not enjoy the book quite as much as they should.
- I received this ebook from NetGalley. This is my honest review. All opinions are my own. Obviously.
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