Blog Tour: BLYTHEWOOD

At seventeen, Ava Hall is already orphaned and working at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory when her life is turned upside down by the horrific fire that kills her best friend and leaves her questioning her sanity.  After a summer locked away in a mental institution, Ava is sent to Blythewood, the boarding school where Ava's mother spent the happiest years of her life.  But Blythewood is no ordinary finishing school for young ladies:  it's a training ground for magical warriors who form the mortal world's only line of defense against the evil world of Faerie.

As Ava develops her own powers, she seeks to solve the many mysteries in her life:  Who was the handsome young man who helped save her from the fire-- and why does she remember him having wings?  Why did her mother commit suicide?  Who is the sinister stranger who's been following her from the city, and what's his connection with the deaths and disappearances that are plaguing Blythewood?  When evil broadens its scope beyond the Blythewood campus to impact world events, Ava must decide whom to align herself with, and figure out how to stop the dark forces, even if that means going against everything she’s been taught.

Set in New York's Hudson Valley in the early 1900s, the gothic Blythewood Trilogy vividly portrays a world-- both real and imagined--on the brink of change, and one girl's quest for the truth about her world, her school, and herself.

Welcome to the BLYTHEWOOD blog tour! At seventeen, Ava Hall is already orphaned and working at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory when her life is turned upside down by the horrific fire that kills her best friend and leaves her questioning her sanity.  After a summer locked away in a mental institution, Ava is sent to Blythewood, the boarding school where Ava’s mother spent the happiest years of her life.  But Blythewood is no ordinary finishing school for young ladies:  it’s a training ground for magical warriors.

Welcome Carol!!

When most people think about the leading ladies of the Progressive Era, a period of intense political, social and economic reform stretching from the 1890s through World War I, names like Jane Addams, Carrie Chapman Catt and Ida Tarbell. With their impact on settlement houses, suffrage and labor, these women were activists who strove to create a more equal and fair society, regardless of race, class or gender.

Ava, as a survivor of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, a tragic but pivotal event in the progressive movement in which women’s rights, treatment of immigrant and safe working conditions all converged, is undoubtedly influenced by the historical circumstances that surround her. Initially unaware of her elite lineage, Ava experiences firsthand the brutal treatment of the urban poor and the prejudices against people of different backgrounds. So when she journeys to Blythewood, a place of privilege and security, she introduces a much-need progressive voice to the school.  Much like the progressive fight for tolerance, Ava is unwilling to judge others without knowing them, such as the darklings. Much like immigrants and women, different magical creatures are outsiders in the Blythewood community and Ava, like Addams, Catt and Tarbell, is able to use her gifts for the betterment of all, a classic progressive ideal.

You might say that Ava, resistant to authority, a bright and independent thinker with the strength to stand up for those without a voice, is the epitome of a progressive heroine, a muckraker in every sense.

About Carol Goodman:

Bestselling author Carol Goodman’s books have been nominated for the IMPAC award twice, the Simon & Schuster/Mary Higgins Clark award, and the Nero Wolfe Award. Her second novel, The Seduction of Water, won the Hammett Prize in 2003. Visit her at carolgoodman.com.

Thanks for stopping by Carol!

Happy Reading!