Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

For me, this book was everything I'd hoped THE BOSTON GIRL, by Anita Diamant, or BROOKLYN, by Colm Toibin, would be! But instead of being the story of young immigrant women that just passively accept their fates and let life happen to them, these young women – based on actual historical figures – work to shape a new American life for themselves. The Saturday Evening Girls is the story of four resilient, determined girls from Italian and Jewish immigrant families, all residing in the North End of Boston at the turn of the 20th century. Though they have different ethnic backgrounds and different religions, Caprice, Maria, Ada, and Thea are united by their participation in The Saturday Evening Girls Club. And despite their status as second class citizens – both because they are immigrants and because they are women – each girl refuses to be the victim of her circumstances. Caprice works toward establishing her own hat shop in a time when women business owners were anything but common. Ada secretly takes college classes, having to hid her brilliance from her traditional father while trying hard not to fall in love with a boy with a different ethnic and religious background. Maria, renowned throughout the North End for her beauty, heads down a dark path in an attempt to escape her alcoholic father and her fate to follow in her mother's footsteps. And Thea struggles with wanting to be a modern girl, while still wanting to hold on to old world traditions. Through it all, the four girls are united by The Saturday Evening Girls Club and find ways to be pillars of support for each other despite their difficult circumstances. This historical novel is clearly based on extensive research about Boston's North End and The Saturday Evening Girls Club, as well as two of the club's founders Helen Osbourne Storrow and Edith Guerrier. Healy was able to bring to life these girls in a way that enables the reader to step into their world – experiencing not only the sights and sounds of the North End as it was a century ago, but also the joys and sorrows of being an immigrant in a fast changing new world.