Gilded Lies

SYNOPSIS

If you are falsely accused of murder, you have to make the best of it.

In 2022, Peter Bodnár’s DNA test reveals mysterious relatives. He dives into obsessive research to uncover his family’s history.

In 1882, a fatal pub fight forces young farmhand Gyuri (George) Bodnár to flee his homeland, Upper Hungary. He navigates his way through the cordons of gendarmes, survives the boiler room of an Atlantic-crossing steamer and tricks US immigration to find a new homeland.

For some, this is the Gilded Age, but for newly arrived immigrants there is only bleak drudgery in coal mines for starvation wages or being on the blacklist and begging for work.

George struggles with the machinations of criminals, a corrupt mine owner, his predatory wife, and the perils of child labor, but he is determined to make a better life for himself and his family. In order to succeed, he has to be willing to make tremendous sacrifices and lie to his own family, leaving behind ancestral mysteries that will wait 140 years to be discovered.

A nineteenth-century immigrant adventure about family, love, and the unrelenting will to prosper.

REVIEW

Genealogy and DNA research are fascinating to me. When I was in middle school, my paternal grandmother did some research into our family. Her research was included in a historical compilation that featured research from others whose families had ties to Ross County, Ohio.

I’m not sure I would ever consider DNA testing, but I know some people who have had success in reuniting with long-lost siblings.

The cliffhanger at the end of Gilded Lies caused me to instantly start the next book in the series, Tangled Ties.

WARNING: Some strong language

I received this book free from the author, publisher, or other source. My only obligation is to provide a fair and honest review.

Tangled Ties

SYNOPSIS

Old sins cast long shadows.

Overcoming years of hardship, Hungarian immigrant George Bodnár established a comfortable life for his family in
America’s Gilded Age. When a unique opportunity opens for Lizzy, his remarkably talented daughter, George hopes it will
lift her—and the entire family—further up the social ladder.

Lizzy becomes a student at the best boarding school for girls in New York. She carries the world before her, gaining
access to the opulent ballrooms and sumptuous parlors of the wealthy. Caught up in her studies and social life, Lizzy has no idea that they are leading her into the middle of a dangerous, tangled web of lies.

Secrets, deceits and sorrows of the past are lurking around the corner to catch up with George in unexpected ways, shaking his beliefs, crushing his ambitions and threatening to destroy his family.

He knows only one he must protect his daughter at all costs.

A sweeping family saga in the Gilded Age of America.

REVIEW

I have learned so much about the Bodnár family but I feel there is at least one more book needed to tell the rest of the story.  I hope my wish comes true

WARNING: Some strong language

I received this book free from the author, publisher, or other source. My only obligation is to provide a fair and honest review.

I regularly linkup with One Word and Grace & Truth

#oneword #graceandtruth #bloglinkup #christianblogger