Ava

Janet Perroni

Description

In the Roaring Twenties, young Ava is very unlucky in love. Using the power of seduction, she learns many difficult lessons that ultimately inspire resilience and strength.
In this steamy romance novel set just as WWI is ending, Ava, a beautiful young woman, and Irish immigrant, initially explores her irresistible and alluring power over men with Alistar, a handsome sailor. Soon Ava learns she is pregnant, but before she can tell Alistar, his ship sets sail. Ava finds herself desperate growing up poor in America as an Irish immigrant during prohibition with little to no support from her family.
Struggling to overcome her mistakes while dealing with a dysfunctional old school Irish family Ava later finds herself employed by a wealthy family of builders in Brookline, Massachusetts. The builder's son, Devon, is handsome and sophisticated and sees the beautiful young woman, Ava, irresistible. Fans of steamy historical novels will find themselves emotionally engaged by the twists and turns of Ava’s turbulent journey, as she walks through valleys of great sorrows and the pinnacles of dazzling ecstasy.
At the height of ecstasy with Devon, Ava finds that she is pregnant again, and Devon’s estranged wife has returned. Caught in the middle of a romantic love story Ava is shocked to find out her father has arranged her marriage to an older gentleman from England who needs marriage to stay in America. Join Ava in this steamy romance novel as she learns how to care for her babies and use her body to fulfill her needs and overcome the hardships she faces. The backdrop of the roaring 20s showcases the difficulties the young heroine faces as an Irish immigrant growing up poor in America caught in the middle of a romantic love story.
See how she battles to maintain a delicate balance between motherhood and independence in an old world that loves to shun. Although Ava’s path is twisted and rife with despair, she finds the strength to stand on her own.

Sujets

• Romance historique
• Fiction
• Romance
• Historical

Informations

• Publié par: iUniverse
• Date de parution: 18 octobre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 2
• EAN13: 9781532084195
• Langue: English

Extrait

Ava
JANET PERRONI


AVA
 
 
Copyright © 2019 Janet Perroni.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
Certain characters in this work are historical figures, and certain events portrayed did take place. However, this is a work of fiction. All of the other characters, names, and events as well as all places, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
 
Author Credits: Janet Alves
 
 
iUniverse
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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
ISBN: 978-1-5320-8420-1 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-5320-8419-5 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019916495
 
 
 
iUniverse rev. date: 10/17/2019
Contents
Chapter 1The Beginning
Chapter 2Again
Chapter 3Keen Preparation
Chapter 4Implementation
Chapter 5Off to Church
Chapter 6Disappointment
Chapter 7Continued Disappointment
Chapter 8Tangled Admission
Chapter 9Brother Mitt
Chapter 10Insults
Chapter 11The Doctor
Chapter 12Moving Along
Chapter 13Profuse Strength
Chapter 14Uncle Ted
Chapter 15The Colossal Eviction
Chapter 16The Bountiful Arrival
Chapter 17The Moving-On Dilemma
Chapter 18Tedious Work
Chapter 19Rent Payment
Chapter 20Reconciliation
Chapter 21New Beginnings
Chapter 22The Ripple Effect
Chapter 23Fun on the Farm
Chapter 24Old Acquaintances
Chapter 25Joy
Chapter 26Beautiful Italy
Chapter 27The Real Climax
Chapter 28Resulting Consequences
Chapter 29The Meeting
Chapter 30Devon’s Overlap
Chapter 31Mary’s Overlap
Chapter 32Devon’s Funeral
Chapter 33The Ending

To all my readers, and to my mother, who is looking down from above
One

The Beginning
Ava looked out the window at the rainy day. As she stood in the dingy kitchen—the center of the home that her family rented—she felt a cold draft blow over her body, even though she wore a long dress. She sat down in a ladder-back chair, crossing her arms and wrapping her torn petticoat around her legs in an attempt to keep warm. She dreamed of being a wealthy woman and enjoying the luxuries that went with that status, but realistically, her family was so poor that the only status was one of just getting by. She thought of her five brothers and baby sister, Kaelyn, a change-of-life baby for her mother. Kaelyn was barely a year old; Ava was twenty-five.
The year was 1923 in Jamaica Plain, a neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts. There was little paying work at the time. Ava’s mother was an Irish immigrant in a time of distinct discrimination—almost anger—against the Irish. Her mother’s family had fled Ireland during the Great Famine and had come to America, as all immigrants did, to have a better life. Ava and her siblings all had been born in America.
In Ireland, families produced as many babies as possible, so most families were large. Religion was the basis for numerous children, whether families were Catholic or Protestant. Ava knew of the continued religious conflicts that freckled Ireland, as her mother and grandmother spoke of it. Ava, however, thought that Irish families were large because they liked sex.
The Great War had ended five years earlier, and Ava now lived in the aftermath. Two constitutional amendments that had passed during former President Woodrow Wilson’s administration affected her—the eighteenth, which called for prohibition of alcohol, and the nineteenth, which gave women the right to vote. Ava thought how difficult it was to obtain alcohol. It seemed that most of the soldiers returning from war needed a drink. Most Irish men drank overtly, whereas the Irish women secretly put a little whiskey in their tea. It must be some sort of inborn coping mechanism , she thought.
Her next thought was about women’s right to vote, which was a great thing. Ava reflected on the suffragette marches she had watched, even though she hadn’t wanted to participate. Many people still admired Susan B. Anthony, who had been a leader in the women’s suffrage movement until her death in 1906. Women still might be thought of as possessions, but now they were entitled to have a voice in America’s future. Ava realized that women could run their country—or at least their families, if a man wasn’t present to do what was required. This had occurred when so many men went off to war, and the women had to take care of things at home.
The economy remained bad for some, even though former President Wilson had created the Federal Reserve System, which was supposedly to help the economy.
N ext she thought of President Harding, who had died in office just last month. She hadn’t voted for him—hadn’t voted at all in the last election; she just didn’t think it was important, even though the Nineteenth Amendment had just been passed at that time.
Gossip surrounded the late president as well. Ava recently had heard that President Harding had a “love child,” and there still was talk of his Teapot Dome bribery scandal. All that she could make of it was that the late president had given favors and loans to oil companies. The reporter called it a conflict of interest.
The country was in distress, as she had heard a news report that the coal miners’ wages were being cut, and they were striking across the country. A thing called organized labor was forming, although she wasn’t sure what that was. She also had heard that railroad workers were striking, as a twelve-hour day, seven days a week, was being proposed for them. Still, the most shocking report had come on August 2, 1923; that was when it was announced that President Harding had suffered a heart attack while touring the country, speaking on the mass production of automobiles, and had died.
Now the former Vice President Calvin Coolidge was running the country. He had been sworn in immediately after President Harding had passed. Ava had heard of this current man as Mr Coolidge was from around New England. There had been a Boston Police strike in 1919, and he was credited with resolving it.
All the national news, however, seemed unimportant to Ava, as her family remained in poverty with barely enough to eat. The country was still suffering from an economic depression. Her mother would sew or iron for wealthy people while Ava cared for her baby sister, Kaelyn. There continued to be a health menace called the plague, which everyone was quite frightened of getting. Although the Great War had officially ended late 1918, the country couldn’t heal itself from its effects. The military was still dismantling itself from its overseas involvement. Everything just seemed complicated!
Ava’s father, Evan Daly, worked as a caretaker, but the little money he made was spent on securing alcohol for himself. Prohibition only meant alcohol was scarce; to Evan, it was almost as bad as the potato famine in Ireland. Ava thought that the Irish had made little progress since arriving in America. There was hardship everywhere.
Her mother, Kate, often described County Cork as rows of meadows that led to the coastal area of Brow Head, where her mother was born. Kate’s family had been even poorer there, as they tried to farm the difficult coastal terrain. They were tenant farmers, but the land wouldn’t produce much, as it was peatland. Some areas of Cork were fertile, but her family didn’t have the money to pay the rent to those tyrant landowners. They were stuck in a cycle of poverty. Sometimes things had been so bad that her mother had described eating tulip bulbs to survive the long and cold coastal winters.
Kate’s family once saved enough money to purchase a lamb, which they named Dolly. Owning an animal was a status symbol for a family, but it also helped them to buy food, as Dolly produced wool they could sell. Kate’s neighbor had a weaving and knitting machine to process the wool—after Kate had sheared it. It was a lot of work. The animal had slept in the crawl space below their meager cabin, and Kate complained that she could smell the animal’s excrement during the night. During the day, they would have to clean up after the animal and then try to plant the unfertile land they rented. Eventually, the animal was captured by a fox, and that was the end to the family’s economic adventures. That also was when they decided to risk it all and make their journey to America.
Her mother often spoke of Blarney Castle, which she could see in the distance on a clear day on the top of the hill. It had been there for hundreds of years. Fairies supposedly lived there and helped in the elegant coronation ceremonies of the royal leaders. The castle grounds included miles of trails with beautiful gardens that were carefully and meticulously maintained, with a theme for each passing season. Legend told of a magical stone at the castle that brought good luck to whoever kissed it and rubbed it. A