Where is the opal?

As with many historical fictions, two different times converge to solve one mystery. The book features a young Fleur as she travels to Australia to handle her deceased husband's affairs after he was lost in the Great War. In the other timeline, set in 1853, Della's Aunt Cordelia is running her curio shop in Sydney and learns from an Austrial Captain that potentially some inappropriate things are happening at the shop. As the two timelines merge, there are more questions than answers and everyone wants to know where the opal is.

I love the way Tea Cooper seemlessly set up the mystery. Overall, I enjoyed the book, but it was a bit too historical for me - meaning I think I prefer to stick with the 20th century. If someone enjoys digging this far back into history, this is a fabulous read!

Thank you Netgalley and Thomas Nelson for allowing me to read and give my honest opinion.

I was looking for something different to listen to while on my treadmill each morning and came across this audiobook. It's set in Australia, and as I know of the two locations (Mogo Creek and Sydney) and have visited them, I decided to borrow this book.

The author wrote the story over two timelines and then merged them together. It was well done. I especially enjoyed reading about the hardships of the two eras - 1853 and 1919. Both eras would have been difficult to live in, and I could appreciate those difficulties and felt like I experienced them because of the way the book was written.

The taxidermy element was interesting to read as well. It's a craft I know little about, but I believe the information given would be correct, especially the bit about the arsenic. I also appreciated how the author wove the issues early Australia had between the new settlers and the original inhabitants of the land into the storyline as well. I believe many atrosities occured back then. Many never recorded in history.

I class the story as a drama/mystery. There was a tiny bit of romance, but nothing overbearing. The characters were written well and fit together nicely. I was interested in the main characters, from both eras, and wanted to know what the harsh times and the storyline had in store for them.

I would recommend the book and would read more by this author. ( )

I chose The Woman in The Green Dress as my book club’s surprise selection for a number of reasons. We read a lot of contemporary suspense because my group likes a puzzling mystery, but we rarely read historical fiction because of the first statement. 😉 So I decided to find a book that would combine history with mystery plus had something a bit different. Hence Tea Cooper’s Australian-set, dual timeline, history/mystery. I usually have a good idea going into our discussions how my group will like a book — we have been meeting for years and years. But I am unsure what their reaction will be to this complex and sometimes weird book. It has a great gothic vibe going on, the characters are well-drawn, the setting cannot be better, and the two plots are tangled in creative ways.

Australia is a place I would love to visit, but probably won’t because of the distance and expense. The Woman in The Green Dress brings the reader to a past Australia with its natural beauty, yet ugly social structure. I found a lot of parallels with the policies and prejudices of the US during the same time periods. Cooper’s detailed descriptions helped me envision the flora and fauna and the plight of the Darkinjung people. Main characters Della and Stefan from 1853 and Fleur from 1919 are complexly written, but I have to say that Bert, a supporting character that spans both story lines is perfect in his portrayal. The story revolves around the death of Fleur’s husband in WWI and a missing opal in 1853, but there really is so much more to the book. I found the mysteries interesting, but the characters were what kept me reading.

I listened to the audiobook of The Woman in The Green Dress. The narrator does a wonderful job of making setting and characters come to life. The novel is published by Thomas Nelson, however, there is some language that traditional readers of Christian fiction may find offensive. I didn’t like it, but it didn’t make me stop reading either. Overall, I would recommend this novel, but perhaps not to every reader.

Recommended with some caveats. (Language)

Audience: adults.

(I purchased the paperback and audiobook from Amazon/Audible. All opinions expressed are mine alone.) ( )

The Woman in the Green Dress takes place in two different times (as many books lately do.) It begins in London at the end of WWI with a young woman named Fleur finding out her brand new husband did not survive the war. They were going to live in his home country of Australia when he came home but now he has left her his estate. She is refusing to believe that he is dead but in her numb state she follows the directions of his solicitor and gets on the ship to Australia to get the details and wait for him – because he can’t be dead. She’d know it.

The second timeline takes place in the 1850s and shares the story of a man named Captain von Richter who is searching for what might be the first opal found on the continent. His story moves along as he searches for the gemstone and meets various people in Sydney and the countryside as he tries to discover who has it.

I really enjoyed this tale as the two stories come together to explain what happened to the opal and how the past connects to the future. It would have gotten 5 stars but for the every other chapter method of going back forth between timelines. That was a bit jarring for me. It’s too little information doled out at a time per timeline and it was just too disjointed for me. Others may feel differently – my old brain didn’t like shifting back and forth so quickly. The plot is solid, the characters engaging and other than that issue I thoroughly enjoyed the book. ( )

Please note that I received this book via NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review.

I did not finish this book at 10 percent. Sorry, the changing perspectives and formatting was too much for me to overcome. I really liked the synopsis which is why I chose this book and just felt let down in the end. I noticed a lot of reviewers mentioned the slowly moving story and honestly I just kept going this is boring, this is boring, who is this, and this is boring.

"The Woman in the Green Dress" follows Fleur Richards. Fleur is waiting for her husband Hugh to return from The Great War (World War I) when she receives news of his death on Armistice Day. She supposedly leaves England for Australia (I didn't get that far).

What didn't help me while reading though is that we follow so many characters in this (and I only got to 10 percent). We are introduced to a character named Della. I still don't know what she was about since the formatting made it hard to "see" who was speaking. And then we followed Fleur and there was a male character whose name is eluding me right now.

I just have to say my first impression of Fleur was she was weak as anything. She literally hides and doesn't speak to anyone and the book jumps to a character in Australia who I assume is important later. I think Cooper didn't set up enough time for readers to even care about Fleur's predicament. She throws us right into Armistice Day and then Fleur sees the Queen of England and then runs home to bad news. The book would have been better to show Fleur and Hugh in love so that you at least care when she receives news of his death.

I think the writing wasn't doing a lot for me. The dialogue that I managed to get through felt stiff and forced. The book felt slow and also at the same time not as developed as it should have been. I know this is an ARC, but it was hard to get through this with the formatting being all over the place too. ( )