Eardajan Reviews New Holly Weiss Novel

Crestmont
By Holly Weiss

Author website http://www.hollyweiss.com/
Historical Fiction
ISBN 978-1-935188-10-0
Publisher: StarPublish LLC



"Blossoms of another time float on the breeze of a book"

Reviewed by Erdajean for Amazon.com



Erdajean awarded Crestmont five stars on August 24, 2010



Needed: an Adirondack chair, a cool, tall glass, and a transporting story, like this one, to leave the current age of tabloid trash and in-your-face dysfunction far behind.
Holly Weiss does not quite tell us why hopeful young singer Grace Antes was an unhappy girl, in her small-town Pennsylvania home. Or why her family, devout Moravians, seemed to care so little about her that no one went looking, when, with no adieu, she set out in search of a better life.
What Ms. Weiss does is to plant her gentle heroine in an excellently-drawn era of social stoicism, when "a family's business stays at home!" Any intimation of pain, personal angst (or ecstacy!) was considered Vulgar. Jerry Springer and Oprah would have found the well dry, in that time, when polite ladies still addressed their closest friends as Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Jones, and husbands were "The Mister."

It is a major act of daring when, once liberated, Grace bobs her hair, in timely flapper fashion, and then renames herself "Gracie," maybe the first frivolous thing she's ever done.
It becomes, increasingly, a joy to watch from the lakeside shadows as this lovely, innocent and gutsy young woman takes on the world, in the milieu of an old-time, upper-class resort, where she is maid, confidante, unwitting rival and, increasingly, object of affections.
The aura of the staid, class-conscious and studiedly non-intimate society holds well, throughout. There are things the reader would have loved to be privy to, along the way, and a few loose strands dangling, at the end. What really became of nemesis Bessie -- who WAS vulgar? And what happened to the men Gracie loved, but could not, would not marry?

Oh well -- that's the way it was, in that time -- it was just thought too coarse and common to let it all hang out!
A really good read, and recommended.



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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :

Can a Book Be a Vacation? Holly Weiss Thinks So

Crestmont
By Holly Weiss
Historical Fiction
ISBN 978-1-935188-10-0
Publication May 2010
StarPublish LLC

Reviewed by Betsy Rider, owner of Indie Bookstore, Otto Bookstore, Williamsport, PA

Can a Book Be a Vacation?

Take one with Holly Weiss in 1920’s Eagles Mere in the new book, Crestmont.

Four years ago, Holly Weiss, a music teacher and former opera singer, stayed at the Crestmont in Eagles Mere. She was captivated by the peaceful ambiance of today’s Inn and by the rich history of the founder and previous owners. So she wrote a book about them, filling out the known facts with fictionalized motivations and relationships.

After briefly sketching the Native American legend about the creation of the unique spring-fed lake from the tears of the mourning Great Spirit, Weiss re-creates the inspiration of William Warner, a visitor from Germantown who saw a challenge in the cyclone ravaged hill-top overlooking the crystal clear lake. Warner, who was driven by a need for excellence in all his endeavors, planned the Crestmont and hired two hundred carpenters to complete it in a year’s time. It was to be the very best in accommodations and in service. His staff was trained to anticipate every need and whim of the guests. His memory of the desires of the previous years’ visitors never failed to impress one and all.

According to Weiss’ fictionalized time-line, when Warner’s health deteriorated slightly more than a decade after the opening, his daughter, Margaret Woods and her husband, William, continued his legacy of outstanding hospitality. When Margaret Woods died in 1941, her daughter, Peg Dickerson, ran it until her health gave out, thus seeing it through three generations of the same family. It was sold in 1977 to a couple who replaced the “Big House” with condominiums.

But I get ahead of myself. The owning and running of the legendary Crestmont is only the background for a moving story of Gracie Antes, a young girl trying to find her place in the world outside her repressive family upbringing in Moravian Bethlehem. She could sing. She knew it, even if nobody else did. But she needed money to follow her dream of singing in the Vaudeville circuit. So she answered an ad for summer employment at the Crestmont in Eagles Mere. She left her home and didn’t tell anyone she was still alive for a month and even then she didn’t tell them where she was working.

Gracie grew from a shy, young dreamer with a pocket full of words she needed to look up and a notebook nowhere near full of the names of the friends she made, to an assured young woman who found her family and place in Eagles Mere, where she discovered singing was only one of her many talents.

Even more compelling for me was the character development of Margaret Woods, who was drowning in her father’s legacy of outstanding service to their clientele. She never took time for herself and didn’t discover until long after his death that her father had found a retreat in an attic hideaway. That he needed respite from his responsibilities too. When a mistake made by Gracie sends her into a debilitating depression, she barely copes until her family and a favorite older employee gradually help her recover her former energy.

The book is filled with just enough other characters to welcome you into their world: PT, the young manager of the Inn’s bowling alley (and all around go-fer) who escapes his murky past by pouring himself into his piano jazz; Dorothy, a teacher who leaves her classroom to wait on the pampered rich and oversee the young staff; Bessie, an angry housemaid who hides her hurt under her anger; Mrs. Cunningham, an elderly blind lady who needs Gracie’s help and care while providing love and understanding in return; and the most famous guest, Rosa Ponselle, an opera singer who also takes Gracie under her wing.

The author has researched her material with the same kind of thorough care that the legendary Inn provided. Her knowledge of the American culture of the “Roaring Twenties” serves her well. She liberally sprinkles references to neighboring towns and events. Her pace is leisurely and her characters lovable. Readers will feel refreshed after their vacation, reading “Crestmont.”


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Holly Weiss will be signing her book at the Otto Bookstore in Williamsport, PA, this Friday. Learn more about Crestmont on the bookstore's Web site www.ottobookstore.com



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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've loved. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by author names, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the index handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using the widget below: