Moyer’s historical novel charts love, loss, heartbreak, and new beginnings against the backdrop of bustling San Francisco during the latter years of World War II.
It is 1944, and 20-year-old Irene Mary Cleary, abandoned at the Mt. St. Joseph’s orphanage when she was but a week old, is the new proprietor of her own seamstress shop. The shop and its accompanying upstairs apartment were unexpectedly left to her by her recently deceased employer and mentor, Anna Orlova. On Saturday evenings, Irene and her best friend since childhood, Trixie Dubuque, volunteer as junior hostesses at the USO, where servicemen on leave are invited to relax for a few hours, dancing, playing pool, or simply enjoying refreshments in a safe environment. The war is creating its own set of homefront dramas in San Francisco, a city that is changing and growing by the day with the influx of sailors and entrepreneurs. Irene Cleary is about to find herself in the center of a complicated high-society quadrangle of love and betrayal that will threaten her reputation and burgeoning business enterprise. Moyer’s engaging and glossy melodrama bulges with colorful fabrics and elaborate clothing designs. The novel captures the unique beauty and diversity of San Francisco and its plethora of local attractions as the city navigates major wartime upheavals. Especially intriguing are the sections that detail Irene’s involvement in the costuming for the premiere of a ballet that had never been produced in its entirety in the United States: The Nutcracker, soon to become a holiday staple. Despite the novel’s indulgence in an abundance of emotional angst, Irene, Moyer’s likeable narrator, ably conveys her coming-of-age experiences in a voice that alternates between poignancy and exuberance, depicting her innocence, determination, and emerging independence (“A twenty-year-old woman with her own business doesn’t want to look any younger than she is, which was why I’d chosen my most sophisticated hat”).
An engaging homefront war novel featuring a sturdy female protagonist.