The Guineveres by Sarah Domet

Four girls, each named Guinevere, are all one another have after their parents have tragically abandoned them at The Sisters of Supreme Adoration convent and have left in the care of Sister Fran. The Guineveres, better known as Vere, Gwen, Ginny, and Win are bound together by their name and stand together through all of the circumstances of their plain lives at the convent. Together they learn about God, history, and contrary to the nuns' wishes, sex. With nobody to rely on but themselves and the dream of life outside the convent, the Guineveres form a tight bond and assuage their longing for the family members that have abandoned them. In this coming of age story, the Guineveres struggle to maintain their essence while exploring both their faith and their dreams.

The Guineveres is the first novel from new author Sarah Domet. With beautiful prose the insular world of Catholicism is alluringly detailed. With alternating chapters on less likely known saints, Domet does a wonderful job of illustrating the role of saints in the Catholic church, explaining the importance of Communion, and the flaws of those within the church. 

Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford

Jamie Ford, author of Hotel On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, returns to his Seattle roots in his second novel Songs of Willow Frost.  First we meet William Eng, a lovable Chinese American orphan who lives at the Sacred Heart Orphanage.  All of the boy orphans are given the same birthday when they arrive at Sacred Heart- September 28^th: coronation date of the honorable Pope Leo XII.  On this day, all of the boys are shepherded downtown to see a motion picture as a special birthday treat.  This year (1934) the boys are taken to a showing of Cimarron.  William hunkers down in his seat to share his popcorn and Orange Crush with his best friend when something unthinkable happens.  During the Follies reel, the audience meets a new actress with a sweet, sad voice: Willow Frost.  William is stunned.  Though he can’t explain how, he knows that the woman on the screen is in fact his mother whom he hasn’t seen in five years.  Shaken, William tries to ply information out of the sisters at Sacred Heart but to no avail.  He know his Ah-ma wouldn’t have abandoned him and believes that if he can just get out of the orphanage long enough to see her in person at an upcoming show, she’d take him home again.

Life in the orphanage is not easy.  But William knows that he has it a lot better than many orphans- some roam the streets begging, others are sent off to labor farms or to work in factories.  And while he feels the strong pull to run away from the orphanage in order to find his mother, he knows that if he is caught, he probably won’t be sent anywhere as nice as Sacred Heart.  Bolstered by his best friend, the adorable but blind Charlotte, the two hatch a plan to escape from the orphanage and trek to the 5^th Avenue Theatre to see Willow. 

Charlotte and William manage to sneak out of Sacred Heart and even see Willow’s show.  Afterwards, they wait with a line of other admirers outside the Stage Door.  William gets Willows autograph and calls her Ah-ma and when the actress begins to cry William knows that he’s finally found his mother.  But she is whisked off in a taxi and William is left sitting in the alley for hours.  One of the performers takes pity on William and Charlotte and gives them backstage tickets for the next performance.  There, William gets a chance to speak with Willow before her next performance.  Unfortunately, Sister Briganti arrives to take the two orphans back to Sacred Heart before William can get all of the answers about his past.

Will William find Willow again?  Will he ever find out how he wound up at Sacred Heart?  But most importantly, does Willow still want her little boy?  Songs of Willow Frost is an interesting tale about the bond of parent and child, duty to society and the history of early motion pictures.  While it does not combine the number of issues as did Ford’s first novel Hotel On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet,  Songs of Willow Frost is not a Sophomore Slump of a book.  Ford brings new life to a new era in Seattle and the reader is more than happy to go along for the ride.

Check out Songs of Willow Frost @ the library!