This historical novel of fiction, set in the jazz era of the 1920’s, prohibition, women’s suffrage, post war and the attraction of two souls, is intended for young adults and adult/women’s fiction. Think The Great Gatsby meets Little Orphan Annie by way of Murder on the Orient Express. Chocolate for Lilly has 58,070 words and is complete. A sequel is planned.

It’s 1919 and women’s lives are about to change but before Emmaline can figure out that future, she must find her sister that she never knew she had. Robert has just finished college studies and already has a sizeable portfolio noting his inventions. These childhood friends meet up at the perfect moment in time, and decide to help one another, setting off on an adventure only the spirited would undertake. Pretending to be married they board the train from New York City, and first up is the idyllic setting of their childhood summer homes in North Carolina. What they find in their secret pool alerts them to nearby bootleggers but they are on a journey to find her sister, that didn’t perish in the burned out orphanage, and he to showcase his prized paper inventions to none other than Thomas Edison. A train strike doesn’t stop them, a party at the Vanderbilt estate, a shootout nor two opposite coasts of business. They even meet an undercover Washington D.C. reporter, who delivers the chocolate for Lilly, willing to help them as he is after the hit men and their bosses. Her long lost sister, Lilly, gets out just in time on the east coast, and the couple, Robert and Emmaline, who are on the west coast share a first kiss while rowing out from the shores of Edison’s winter retreat.

In the end the two sisters, Emmaline and Lilly, are united with all the family present in North Carolina and Robert has partners to back his ventures. This may be a series going forward with the story of their inventions and hotel business in Florida.

Caroline Clemens

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