The Writing Desk by Rachel Hauck ~ Book Review

Writing is in Tenley Roth's blood.  At least that is what she is hoping.  Her great grandfather, grandfather and father were all writers.  And Tenley is now a runaway bestseller awarded with the very award that is named after her grandfather.  Under pressure from her publisher, Tenley now sits with writer's block.  No matter how hard she tries, she can't even begin a second novel.  The first was her heart poured out in grief over the death of her father, who raised Tenley alone since she was 5.  Who does she think she is trying to follow in his footsteps?

Then out of the blue, Tenley hears from her estranged mother who wants her to come care for her while she goes through chemo.  Tenley can't believe the gall of the woman who abandoned her so many years ago but under pressure from both her writing, or rather lack of it, and her "fiance" to go to Paris, Tenley takes a chance and goes to Florida in the hopes of restoring some kind of relationship with her mother and gaining some sort of inspiration to write.  There she finds an old antique desk in her mom's family home that she quickly hopes will become her spark.  But when a guy named Jonas Sullivan tries to take it claiming her mother sold it to him, Tenley literally falls all over it.

A century before a young woman named Birdie also had wrote at the desk.  She grew up in the Gilded age and was the daughter of very rich parents and a mother who arranged a marriage for Birdie so that she herself could climb the heirarchy of New York.  But Birdie has a dream to be a writer but does she have the courage to make those dreams come true?

This was my first story by this author.  I must admit that it was the cover that totally drew me to this book.  It is beautiful.  I did enjoy this duel time line historical romance.  The stories of both women were engaging and drew me right in, though I must admit the whole nature of the attitudes of the gilded age made me want to throw the book at times(not because the author didn't write it well, she certainly did).  How could people have acted like that?  Yeesh.  But the author did a lovely job in describing the time.  You could tell it was well researched and I really felt for Birdie who was a young lady ahead of her time.  I also felt for Tenley and the pressure she was feeling and could totally relate to her way of handling it.  I kinda really loved the way Tenley and Jonas related to each other, in a bit of a sarcastic tone, and laughed aloud a few times with their dialogue.  I did, though have a couple of eye roll moments with some of the attraction thoughts wondering if that is really how young people think nowadays.  LOL.  But it was a really nice double time line story and I loved how the author connected the two women and their stories.

I gave this a great 8.5/10