The Paradise Petition by Carolyn Brown
Historical Romance
Publisher: Montlake
Published: 7.15.25
Pages: 283
Rating: 4.5 stars
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Sellers: Amazon
ADD TO: Goodreads
GoodReads Synopsis:
In nineteenth-century Texas, two tough-minded women dare to challenge the status quo in a warm, witty, and adventurous historical romance by New York Times bestselling author Carolyn Brown.
Daisy Lindberg and Lily Boyle traded a colorful past for a fresh start as seamstresses in Autrie, Texas, and their aim to spark a women’s rights movement is raising eyebrows among the town’s dumbfounded men. But among the ladies? Tired of being treated like possessions, they have two Amen, sister!
Beulah, a sassy shop owner as formidable as a cannon shot, is on board. So is Alma, a timid preacher’s wife who hit her breaking point. Before long, a courageous female posse has a liberating petition of demands. Surprisingly, they also have an empathetic ear in sheep rancher Matt Maguire, who’s as keen on women’s independence as he is on Lily.
As Daisy and Lily make waves in the small town, their secrets threaten to come out. But they haven’t traveled this far to let their past define them. In fact, with love and the forging of new lives on the line, they’ve never felt more defiant.
Sophia Rose's Review:
After enjoying the Sisters in Paradise series, a contemporary romance series, I was tickled as could be when Carolyn Brown announced she was going to take things back to past and tell the stories of those earlier Paradise ladies. The Paradise Petition was my first historical from Carolyn Brown and I found it possessed all the writing goodness of the contemporaries and women’s fiction I’ve enjoyed over the years.
The Paradise Petition opens with two former shady ladies who are going respectable getting off the train in a small south Texas town where they plan to set up a seamstress shop. Daisy and Lily are forced to live a lie about their pasts, but they step out smartly when it comes to standing up for the cause of women. They not only want to see women get the vote, but all the daily shows of equality and respect as well. They get some blow back from the insufferable hotel manager, the local judge, a preacher and some other townsfolk, but find kindred spirits with the general store owner, Beulah, and a few other astonishing women who aren’t what they appear on the outside.
As the ladies work to settle in, adjust to the new life, and take up their first big acts for Women’s Rights, they also learn that attraction and romance with good men is possible if they can work through the fear of being rejected for their checkered past.
This was as much women’s fiction as romance if not more so as Daisy and Lily’s life in town and among the women with whom they take their stand takes the limelight with the gentle romances building slowly in the background. This worked well for me because they knew they were living a lie and had to come clean with Matt and Claude if they wanted anything lasting.
The conflict was good arising from both the men and women of the town drawing lines in the sand and the suspense of if/when Daisy and Lily’s pasts would come out and how they would get treated.
The Paradise Petition had a completeness when it finished and yet, I can’t help that the rest of the Paradise women and maybe a few others in the town and neighborhood will get their stories, too. Again, I recommend this to those who like a blend of women’s fic and sweet historical romance.
Author Bio:
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Carolyn Brown was born in Texas and raised in southern Oklahoma. These days she and her husband make their home in Davis, Oklahoma, a small town of less than three thousand people where everyone knows everyone, knows what they are doing and with whom, and read the weekly newspaper to see who got caught.
A plaque hangs on her office wall that says I know the voices are not real but they have such great ideas. That is her motto and muse as she goes through the days with quirky characters in her head, telling their stories, one by one, and loving her job.
She has been married almost half a century to a retired English teacher that she calls Mr. B and he does not read her books before they are published because she cannot afford a divorce. They have three grown children.—and enough grandchildren to keep them busy and young.
When Carolyn is not writing she likes to sit in the back yard and watch the two tom cats protect the yard from all kinds of wicked varmints like crickets, other cats, spiders and blue jays.
https://www.carolynbrownbooks.
Sophia’s Bio:
Sophia is a quiet though curious gal who dabbles in cooking, book reviewing, piano-playing, and gardening. Road trips and campouts, museums and monuments, restaurants and theaters are her jam. Encouraged and supported by an incredible man and loving family. A Northern Californian transplant to the Great Lakes Region of the US. Lover of Jane Austen, Baseball, Cats, Scooby Doo, and Chocolate.
As a lifelong reader, it was inevitable that Sophia would discover book blogs and the joy of blog reviewing. Sophia is a prolific reader and audiobook listener which allows her to experience so many wonderful books, authors, and narrators. Few genres are outside her reading tastes, but her true love is fiction particularly history, mystery, sci-fi, and romance. Though, sorry, no horror or she will run like Shaggy and Scooby.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophia.rose.7587
Twitter: https://twitter.com/sophiarose1816
GoodReads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13418187.Sophia_Rose
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