Kindle Amazon | THE JEWEL OF ILLINOIS by Annabel Navarro
The Jewel of Illinois is available on Amazon, both in Kindle and paperback formats, in the romance novel category. Set in the twenties, we discover, through its protagonists, the lights and shadows of the world of entertainment.
Cover designed by Alexia Jorques. You can get it here.
What is the novel about?
1925. Times have changed after the Great War. Women can vote, drive, and yearn to embrace their independence. Meanwhile, life continues its rhythm, full of envy, jealousy, love, and above all, camaraderie.
Inspired by the winds of change, progress, and prosperity of the Roaring Twenties, Maggie desires to forge her own path and flees. She wants to leave behind her comfortable life on the family estate and an arranged marriage that her parents force her to accept. With the help of her faithful maid, she gathers the money to escape. She doesn’t have enough cash to settle in the dazzling city of Chicago. But she knows that in Illinois, she will find what her heart is searching for.
On the train, she meets James Marshall, an influential businessman of English origin. He supports her desires to be the master of her own successes and mistakes. He turns her into the star singer of a nightclub and begins a great romance with her. However, several threats and strange events, as well as a mysterious murder, lead the couple to have to explain themselves to the police.
Who is hiding behind the anonymous threats?
What despicable being wants to destroy the famous singer known as The Jewel of Illinois?
Sometimes she liked to rummage through the memories she kept in the attic and reminisce about the days when she was known by the pseudonym Daisy Wallas. She still had some of her dresses, photographs, and love notes she received in her dressing room before the BIG disaster; several murders that changed everything. No one remembered anymore the majesty and wildness of those twenties; no one spoke of the rebellious girl who wanted to be an artist. No one missed… THE JEWEL OF ILLINOIS.
The characters
Mary Margaret Anderson. Maggie to her friends. Daisy Wallas to the world of entertainment; known as the jewel of Illinois from the moment she performed in society and the audience was fascinated by her beauty, sensuality, and unmatched voice. Rebellious and stubborn, she has lived marked by the lack of love from parents who never wished to have her. She finds in James a great support and ally, both to make her dreams come true and to save her from the danger that lurks.
James Marshall. A wealthy Englishman who decided to live the great adventure of amassing more money on the other side of the ocean. As soon as he sees Maggie in trouble, he decides to intervene and, to his surprise, finds in her not only a great attraction for his jazz club but also the girl who will shake his world. He has a big secret that returns from the past to torment him.
Joseph Dalton. Rich, powerful, and too handsome to worry about anyone other than himself. He lives life as he pleases, regardless of who falls by the wayside. A ruthless womanizer obsessed with getting the jewel of Illinois.
It was impossible to let go of this reading; blinded by the light emitted by The Jewel of Illinois and all that glamour, sometimes poisoned, of how entertainment was lived in the twenties. Maggie’s enigmatic voice will hypnotize us like the singing of a siren with which it will be impossible for us to fight. Knowing her desires, her dreams, and her fears, we will even discover love, sometimes so close, that we overlook it, letting ourselves be carried away by everything around us. The show must go on, the great star Daisy Wallas is in town, and her radiance will awaken envy, fake smiles drawn in mediocrity, and a darkness that will haunt her until the end. An engaging story that shines on its own. SJ GARCÍA.
