Tea Cooper

Two compelling mysteries, two thrilling romances, & the unusual platypus all woven together to create one unputdownable read! This is my first book by Tea Cooper & I can’t wait to read more. I was immediately captivated by this historical dual timeline gothic mystery! Set one hundred years apart, two young women’s stories are connected by a notebook containing sketches of the remarkable platypus.

In 1808 Agnes Banks, NSW Australia, young Rose Winton follows her naturalist father as he show more documents the strange platypus. After years of correspondence with a prominent scientist, he’s invited to travel to England to share his groundbreaking scientific discovery with the Royal Society. But, when Charles is prevented from going, Rose goes in his place. Faced with shocking secrets, the mystery of her mother’s transport to Australia, & trying to convince the Royal Society to accept her father’s meticulous work, Rose finds her only ally is a handsome doctor.

In 1908 Sydney, Australia, Tamsin Alleyn enjoys working in the Public Library after the death of her parents. She’s been studying the correspondence of Charles Winton who’s believed to have been the first to document the platypus. When she’s tasked to retrieve a sketchbook rumored to belong to the naturalist, she soon finds herself embroiled in a mystery. In a race against time to prove the notebook is real, she finds herself at odds with an attractive lawyer & bibliophil who’s also interested in the notebook and trying to claim it for his client.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Part romance, part fascinating historical fiction, and part gothic mystery on the moors, this thrilling story kept me quickly turning the pages. I loved how both timelines were woven together. I’d never thought much about how controversial the platypus is & what a groundbreaking discovery it was. It was such an interesting story that I found myself googling the actual history. I enjoyed the romances in both time periods. Rose’s romance is an instant attraction & Tamlin’s is more of a rivals to lovers. The gothic mystery was surprising & I enjoyed how it fit into the story.

Highly recommend to historical fiction & mystery fans! Be advised that there are a few swearwords & a gothic mystery in the same vein as The Mysteries of Udolpho. I received an advanced complimentary copy from the publisher. All opinions are my own and voluntarily provided. show less

Lost girls, lost men and lost dreams!

It's 1923 Sydney. With her brother killed in the war, her father now dead, and lack of a job has Dolly Bowman leaves her small town home of Wollombi and heads for Sydney. She's lined up new employment as a maid at a boarding house, 54 Boundary Street. What Dolly doesn't know is that she's taking employment in a high class brothel where the step up from maid to whore is a forgone conclusion.
Her brother's best mate Jack Dalton hasn't been back to their show more hometown ever. Imagine his shocked surprise when Dolly, also a childhood friend turns up at Boundary Street and after a few shocks becomes the new singer in the club he part owns. Surprises all around, and how Dolly avoids the oldest profession in the world is another tale.
Then there's the problem of the cocaine trade in Sydney. Not that Boundary Street has anything to do with that.
A story with quite a few twists and turns about a time in Australia's history when cocaine was 'flooding Sydney with cocaine. Australia’s [had] the highest use in the world. It’s [wasn't] illegal to use it ... but [was] illegal to sell it, supply it.'
(The back story of course is that this is a time when the male population of small towns throughout Australia were decimated by the World War 1. A whole generation wiped out. The young men who never returned. Go to any Australian town, no matter the size and you'll see memorials to the fallen listing swathes of young men, often from the same families, who'd fallen in far off places. Add to that the injured who returned, including those who'd become addicted to cocaine after treatment in hospital and never regained themselves. With rife unemployment and the effect of the flu epidemic that savaged its way across the world, these were grim times. Ring any bells?)
I must admit that I found myself annoyed time and again with Dolly. She's just a bit too headstrong to the point of dangerous. She doesn't pick up on the clues around her that all is not as it should be. Is that because she's a country gal and has no street smarts? And Jack is supposedly shrewd but he's somewhat lackadaisical in many ways.
The two I enjoyed most are the secondary characters, Ted and Cynthia. They stole the show for me and took my original 3 star rating to 4 stars.
I was able to fully appreciate the dark places portrayed, and was buoyed by the light of the human spirit amongst even the most forlorn. Friendship, the sticking together, can be found in unexpected places.

An Escape Publishing ARC via NetGalley show less

Hidden pasts!

Tea Cooper has an uncanny ability to join a story by threads of happenstance across several generations. This time in Morpeth, NSW (Australia). The story is connected by the central idea of a delicate painting of the first discovery of the Wanderer Butterfly, painted and researched by Theodora Breckenridge(unacknowledged of course!)
Add into this the tragedy of baby farms, stolen children and a woman who orchestrated these things, and we have a stunning expose across time delving show more into just exactly what happened in the Morpeth community between 1868 and 1922.
In 1922 Verity Binks, a struggling reporter and the daughter of the a now deceased war correspondent, is invited to write a piece about a charity, the Treadwell Foundation. The mover behind the organization is David Treadwell, husband to Theodora’s sister Florence . It’s in Treadwell’s home that Verity first sees the stunning painting of the Wanderer Butterfly.
As the circle closes it appears Verity’s grandparents came from Morpeth where the butterfly was painted.
I love the way Cooper’s writing transverses the Australian historical landscape as she weaves her storytelling magic.
Sublime descriptions of gardens lush and heavy with perfumed anticipation contrast against the fractured lives of the women and babies that intrude into a harsh reality. Darkness hides amongst them. Mystery and tragedy beckons!
Another heart stopping treat from Tea Cooper!

A Harper Muse ARC via NetGalley.
Many thanks to the author and publisher. show less

When you stop to think of the historical men (and it's always men) the world over who strode off into the unknown to map places only known to indigenous peoples that lived there, the words that come to mind are a mix of impressed and appalled: brave and crazy, fearless and reckless, determined and foolhardy. And these words generally apply to both the successful and the unsuccessful surveyors. If these are the words we apply to men, what then are the words we would apply to the women who show more would also map and uncover the world beyond their own doors? Headstrong? Independent? Mad? Obsessed? Tea Cooper has written a sweeping story about two such women, Evie Ludgrove, who disappeared in 1880 chasing after the fate of famed Australian explorer Dr. Ludwig Leichhart, and her niece Lettie Rawlings, who tries to discover her aunt's fate 30 years later.

1911. Thorne Rawlings is killed in a freak accident. Still mourning her beloved brother, Letitia Rawlings volunteers to drive her Model T to Wollombi in the Hunter Valley to inform her Great-Aunt Olivia of the family's loss. She does this both to escape her mother's scheming about her future and to discover why the family is so estranged. Lettie is not a young woman interested in conforming to society's or her mother's expectations so a little distance is not a bad thing. While she is at Wollombi, Lettie starts to learn about her Aunt Evie, who went missing without a trace in 1880, and about all of the carefully long-hidden family secrets at the root of the estrangement. When she finds a beautifully illustrated map drawn by Evie, Lettie is completely drawn into the mystery of this unexplained disappearance.

Alternating with the stories that Lettie is uncovering is Evie's story. She was consumed by the tales her father told of once being a part of Dr. Ludwig Leichhart's expedition and she, as much as he, wanted to figure out Leichhart's final fate. With her mother newly dead and her sister preparing to leave for Sydney to meet and marry a suitor, Evie longs to solve the puzzle for her father before his return from escorting her sister. She and her Aunt Olivia are close but she doesn't share the details of her plans as she sets out on her fateful journey, leaving nothing but questions 30 years later.

Both Evie and Lettie are independent and capable women, beyond what their respective eras allow. Each is curious and intelligent, observant and occasionally foolhardy. The family secrets combined with the never solved, real life riddle of Leichhart's disappearance works quite well. Cooper has evoked rural Australia and the time period beautifully, transporting the reader into the setting. There is a light romantic element here but it never takes center stage, instead complimenting and enriching the main story line. The reader will want to keep turning pages to see Evie's fate as Lettie slowly uncovers it and although the family secret isn't really a surprise at all, it fits the narrative well. This is a quite satisfying novel for readers of historical fiction, especially those who like for elements of real life to have inspired the story in some measure. Are Evie and Lettie headstrong, independent, and obsessed? No question. They are also brave, fearless, sometimes reckless, and determined. In short, they are the very best of both exploring women and men and readers will enjoy their time with these clever women. show less