Review and Giveaway: Bethlehem by Karen Kelly

Title: Bethlehem
Author: Karen Kelly 
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publish Date: July 9, 2019 (Today!)
Source: Publisher

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "A young woman arrives at the grand ancestral home of her husband’s family, hoping to fortify her cracking marriage. But what she finds is not what she expected: tragedy haunts the hallways, whispering of heartache and a past she never knew existed."

My Two Cents:

"Bethlehem" is a story told in two parts: one part in the 1920s and one in the 1960s in Central Pennsylvania and involves one of the families synonymous with Bethlehem Steel, one of the most powerful companies in the early 1900s. The book opens with a ghost story and whispers of people in the past. In the 1960s, Joanna moves to her husband's family home hoping that they can find happiness for her family when it seems like it might all be crumbling down. In the 1920s, Susannah is growing up in a rather idyllic life as the child of one of the storied families of the industrial powerhouse that is Bethlehem at the time.

I have been looking forward to this book for quite awhile. My husband was raised in Pennsylvania and in fact, we just learned that his grandfather once worked for Bethlehem as a typist at one time. I have been fascinated by some of the big names of industry but knew little about Bethlehem and the people behind it. You don't get much of that in this book but you do get a taste.

This book is much more character-driven and driven by the family secrets that seem to be buried throughout the book. You all know that I love a good family secret! The book has a large cast, which sometimes made it hard to follow what was going on and the roles that everyone was supposed to be playing. I did like the detail that the author gave in order to give the book a good sense of time. Overall, this was a solid read that whetted my appetite to read more about the titans of industry.

Giveaway:

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