The Jade Widow

by Deborah O'Brien

A captivating historical novel of pioneering Australian women finding their way in a man's world, from the author of the bestselling Mr Chen's Emporium.It is 1885, and Amy Chen is still in black, more than a decade after the death of her beloved husband Charles. But her widow's weeds belie a determined young woman with a big Amy is going to build the grandest rural hotel in the colony of New South Wales, complete with its very own ‘ascending cabinet'.Meanwhile, her best friend, Eliza Miller, has dreams of her own - to become one of Australia's first female doctors. However when she returns to Millbrooke from her medical studies at the Sorbonne, she finds the job she thought was hers has been taken … by a man.Over the course of two turbulent years both women will face difficult choices – love or duty? Career or marriage? Is it possible to have it all …?

Genres: Historical Fiction, Romance

340 pages, Paperback

First published September 2, 2013

About the author

Deborah O’Brien is an Australian writer, visual artist and teacher. She is the author of four novels for Penguin Random House: the bestselling 'Mr Chen’s Emporium', its sequels, 'The Jade Widow' and 'A Place of Her Own', plus 'The Trivia Man'.

Her latest novel, 'The Rarest Thing' is set in the Victorian High Country in 1966 and is published by Lomandra Press. The signed gift edition print book is available from www.lomandrapress.com.au and the ebook from Kobo.

Together with her family and two dogs, Deborah divides her time between a house in Sydney and a country cottage on the outskirts of a heritage-listed Gold Rush town, overlooking a creek frequented by platypuses. It is her dream to own a small herd of alpacas.

http://www.deborahobrien.com.au

Reviews

[Dale Harcombe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book was like settling in with a long-time friend. I first met Amy, Eliza, the Miller family and others of the town of Millbrooke in Mr Chen’s Emporium and always knew I wanted to read the next book in the series. Twelve years after the death of her beloved husband Charles Chen, Amy is till mourning his loss though enjoying her son Charlie and being involved in the thriving emporium started by Charles and his brother. She also has her own dream of an ambitious plan she wants to implement to build a grand hotel.
Meanwhile, her friend Eliza Miller has returned to Millbrooke from her medical studies at the Sorbonne. Her aim is to become one of Australia’s first female doctors. But her plans strike a problem when she finds a man has taken the job as doctor that she expected to be hers. Both of these women are strong independent women who don’t conform to the rigid standards of the day but instead seek to make their mark on society.
This was a quick read for me as I happily felt myself drawn into this story. I’d suggest it is better to read Mr Chen’s Emporium first so you get a fuller understanding of the characters. I loved this book. Maybe the ending wasn’t quite what I thought it would be but still satisfying. This is a another good Australian read that shows something about our history, interracial relationships, prejudices, the heartbreak of war, friendship and the difference a caring family or friends can make in coping with life.

[Sue Gerhardt Griffiths · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 ⭐️s


A satisfying follow-up to Mr Chen’s Emporium. I’m excited to dive into the author’s final book in the trilogy, A Place of Her Own.


Library loan

[Shelleyrae at Book'd Out · Rating 4 out of 5]

A loose sequel to Mr Chen's Emporium, author Deborah O'Brien revisits the small Australian town of Millbrooke in The Jade Widow.

As I found the historical thread of the story in Mr Chen's Emporium more interesting than the modern day plot, I was happy to discover this novel is set entirely in 1885. It has been twelve years since Charles's tragic death and Mr Chen's Emporium continues to thrive in Millbrooke under the stewardship of his widow, Amy Chen. With her son nearing twelve, Amy has turned her attention to her dream of establishing a hotel in Millbrooke. Amy is an interesting character in that she believes a lady should act as such, yet is a single mother and successful business owner, uncommon for the times. The conflict plays nicely into one of the main themes of the novel, women's rights.

Eliza was one of my favourite characters in Mr Chen's Emporium, a headstrong young lady eager to challenge to patriarchy of the day. In the Jade Widow, Eliza has returned to Millbrooke after studying medicine at the Sorbonne for three years, though she still has a year of study to complete before graduating. Eliza is a staunch supporter of the equality movement and through her, O'Brien explores the challenges women faced a hundred years ago from the refusal of the Australian colleges to allow women to study medicine alongside men, to the debate that still rages today regarding marriage/motherhood vs career.

Both real characters, such as Sir Henry Parkes, and events, like the Mahdist War, are woven into the story and the historical details feel authentic. I always appreciate the opportunity to learn more about Australian history given the serious lack of education about our country's past I received at school.

I think The Jade Widow is an appealing novel, a charming and engaging read and like its predecessor, I think would particularly appeal to readers of historical and romantic fiction.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. At first I was annoyed that I hadn't read the first, Mr Chen's Emporium, but it seems like that book swaps between the present day and the late-1800's (thus explaining events before this book) - but then this book sits just in the late-1800's with events after this book being described in the first one (when things are found out in the present day)! That sounds confusing, but suffice to say that I think reading the first book second is just as valid as reading them the other way around! I can't wait to find out what happened to the characters in this book now, so will have to read the first to find out!

I enjoyed the theme of strong women and gender prejudice - both the main characters aren't married and support themselves (or intend to - one is a medical student - a very difficult time for female doctors!) and have to deal with the conventional view of the time that women should be in the house, making a home and having babies.

I liked the quote on the back of my copy of the book - "There were times when Amy was drawn to the topsy-turvy world that Eliza espoused, where women were able to vote and Australia was one nation. Then again, it might be like falling down Alice's rabbit hole to a place where chaos reigned." We certainly have those things now, and while we live in a world where it does seem at times that chaos reigns, I can't see that it's related to those two happenings!!! And certainly Australia is a better place for women now than it was 130 years ago. And, despite my reading, I can't imagine how I would have coped had I lived at that time...

I also like how the theme of racial prejudice is explored, with one of the main characters, a Caucasian woman, having been married to a Chinese man (deceased by the time of this story) and their little boy and some of the issues they face in challenging the conventions of the time.

I also liked howDeborah O'Brien incorporated real historical figures into her fictional narrative (obviously with a little artistic licence used!) and the synopsis at the end of these real life figures.

[Joy Norman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed the historical inputs in the book. 1885 mainly. A time when women were not encouraged to be anything other than wife or and mother. A lady who wants to be a dr? A widow still wearing black after 12 years. Marriages between different cultures and the prejudices then. There still are prejudices on so many fronts they were perhaps more noticeable then !!
So many lives don't reach their full potential because of prejudice and lack of acceptance about ourselves others and our culture

[Bree T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twelve years after the death of her husband Charles Chen, Amy Chen is still wearing black, still in mourning just like Queen Victoria mourning her husband Albert. It is 1885 and Amy is raising her son Charlie and spending time with her late husband’s foster family, the Millers.

She also has a project. Inspired, she wants to build the grandest hotel in country New South Wales and she’s going ahead with her dream. She has purchased the land and hired someone to draw up her perfect plans. Even though she needs some help from the bank, John Miller provides guarantor for her on a loan, because as a woman, Amy can’t get a loan in her own name. But the Millers have faith in her and they know that whatever she turns her hand to, it will be a success. John Miller is a progressive thinker – his acceptance of his own daughter’s dream is proof positive of that.

Eliza Miller wants to be a doctor. Although a university in NSW is taking its first female medical student, Eliza cannot join her as she has not yet completed a year of an arts degree, a pre-requisite. Forced out of the country, Eliza has completed her first few years of a medical degree at Sorbonne, the famous French school. Returning home for a break, she discovers that the job she thought would be hers, working as a doctor in the local community has gone to someone else – a man naturally. And to make things even worse, that man is living in her own family house as a boarder. Eliza is determined not to be friendly to him, no matter how wonderful he might be. She accepted long ago that she would never marry. She would have a career instead.

When the potential of love comes into Amy’s life with the opening of her dream imminent, she is confused. She loved Charles so much – loves him still. Is it possible to let go of that and move on with someone who seems perfect for her?

The Jade Widow picks up a little over a decade after the events of Mr Chen’s Emporium. Amy has not taken herself out of the black widow’s weeds, modelling herself somewhat on Queen Victoria, who mourned her husband for the rest of her life. She wears only black or navy blue clothes and hasn’t even looked twice at another man since she lost her beloved Charles. She dedicates her life to raising Charlie, their son, trying to turn him into the sort of gentle, non-confrontational man that her late husband would be proud of. Charlie is at the age though where he really should be sent to school in order to continue his education and also, because Amy is somewhat overprotective of him, obsessing about germs and infections. It’s a difficult decision for Amy to have to make and it’s made somewhat more difficult by the prejudices she knows that Charlie will face in a schoolyard situation because of his mixed heritage.

Amy’s “sister” Eliza is an early feminist and suffragette, wanting equality and the chance to have opportunities that the men do. She chose to go far from home in order to study and she faces discrimination there too (being referred to as a hermaphrodite). Back in Australia, women cannot vote. They lag far behind men in rights and opportunities and Eliza makes her disapproval of these things (and others, such as the fact that Australian men are sent to fight a British war in Africa) well known. I really liked the character of Eliza and her outspokenness and her determination. Her story with the new doctor in town was really enjoyable and I found myself eager for those parts of the story. The narrative alternates between Amy and Eliza as they face struggles to gain satisfaction in their professional and personal lives.

I’m the same age as Amy (31) and I can’t imagine what it was like for her to lose her husband after they had so little time together and then be left raising their child alone. I could understand her paranoia about diseases and about losing Charlie – he was all she had left of her husband and their time together and how difficult it was for her to accept that it’s time for her to let him go. She can’t protect and shelter him from the world forever. Her relationship with Charles cost her dearly. Her father cast her out, forbidding all other family members to speak to her. Amy gets a chance at happiness in this novel, at a new beginning, at starting again. She’s still pretty much a young woman. 31 in those days isn’t exactly what it is now but it’s still young. She’d have had many opportunities for expanding her family. The way in which this played out left me feeling…deflated. Amy is a very interesting character, she’s very focused and she clearly has placed her late husband on a pedestal, heights that no other person can ever dream to achieve which is unrealistic. No one is perfect. People have their flaws and no one should ever be held up and judged against another person. I know this is a study of life in late 1800′s Australia, not a romance novel but still. I couldn’t help feeling a bit sad when I finished the book.

However, despite the ending not being my preference, I really enjoyed the rest of the book. I haven’t read a lot of novels set in Australia around this time and this book gives a skilled picture of what life must’ve been like for ambitious young women who want to succeed.

[Grace · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful. Boring. Badly written with two-dimensional characters who put me to sleep. No point to it. In the end it was about their daily actions and I didn't care whether their plans came to fruition or not.

[Lara Cain Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Jade Widow is the sequal to last year's Mr Chen’s Emporium, which moves back and forth in time from the present day to the mid 1800s in the rural town of Millbrooke. In it, Amy Duncan's forbidden interracial romance with Charles Chen is revealed via historical clues uncovered by a modern day artist, now resident in Amy’s old home. The Jade Widow similarly focuses on the stories of two women, but this time they are contemporaries: the now widowed Amy Chen and her sister-in-law Eliza Miller.

It is 12 years since Amy’s beloved Charles passed away, and she is still very much in mourning. Her son Charlie is the light of her life and she retains close ties to the Millers – her late husband’s foster family – however a dark shadow has been cast over the bubbly, romantic girl we met in the first story. The Jade Widow explores the challenges Amy faces as the mother of a mixed-race child in an intolerant society, as well as her attempts to create a business for herself in a time when women can not take out loans in their own names. Eliza is similarly ambitious for herself, with a burning desire to become a doctor. NSW will accept its first and only female medical student in 1885, and it’s not Eliza. Forced to study overseas, Eliza moves back and forth between Milbrooke and the Sorbonne, facing down considerable criticism and the dismissive, patronising slurs of male medical students as she goes.

Amy’s dream is to build the grandest hotel in country New South Wales. She has the financial backing of her father in law and soon attracts the assistance of creative souls and project managers in a series of chance meetings. One of these is an Irishman, Liam O’Donnell, who comes to Millbrooke as the hotel manager, and provides Amy with her first romantic distraction since Charles’ passing. Eliza, who has always preferred research over romance, is forced to work alongside a new local doctor, Martin Burns, and is similarly tempted by the possibility of commitment. The Jade Widow is a very romantic book, but neither of these subtly drawn love stories ends in a conventional fashion. O’Brien has chosen for these women to stay true to themselves at the same time as they embrace the norms of their age and the conclusion is refreshingly cliché-free.

Like Mr Chen’s Emporium, The Jade Widow piqued my interest because of O’Brien’s thorough research of the time period. The small details of daily life – cooking tools, social attitudes – are cleverly outlined. And, as Amy succeeds in creating her magnificent hotel she begins rubbing shoulders with politicians, artists and other notable figures from Australian history. O’Brien runs a playful ‘what if…’ thread through Amy and Eliza’s stories: what if then NSW Premier Sir Henry Parkes came to stay at Amy’s hotel, for example? The book includes brief bio details for the real historical characters peppered through the narrative.

The Jade Widow succeeds as a sweeping historical love story, but it does so with a sharp eye on the very real hardships faced by Australian women in this era. Eliza is a suffragette and campaigner for equality: Amy agrees with Eliza in principle, but is still a little reticent about making waves. The heroines they look to for guidance are the characters of their favourite books, like Pride and Prejudice and Alice in Wonderland – both of which feature women and girls who are struggling against the contradictory rules of their societies. As Eliza states towards the novel’s end, when she is weighing up the choice of career vs marriage: “The problem is that I never know who I am from one day to the next”.

The Jade Widow is an accomplished sequel that neatly rounds out Amy’s story, which was only half-told in the first book. It also reminds us to tip our hats politely to those amazing people who broke the ground for women’s rights in Australia.

A longer version of this review can be found at http://thischarmingmum.com

[Donna Usher · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Jade Widow picks up the lives of Amy Chen and Eliza Miller in Millbrooke, a small country town in New South Wales, twelve years after we left them in Mr Chen's Emporium.

Amy Chen is still in mourning for her husband, Charles, as she raises their son and runs the Emporium with her brother-in-law, Jimmy, and his wife. When she embarks on an ambitious plan to build the finest country hotel in New South Wales, she employs a handsome, green-eyed Irishman to manage the hotel and finds herself in danger of once again losing her heart.

Eliza is an outspoken woman helping usher in the dawning of the women's liberal movement. With only one year of her medical degree left she is devastated when Dr Allen, the local doctor she assists in Millbrooke, employs Dr Martin Burns to help him run his practice. Over the course of the next two years she finds, to her surprise, that her antagonism for Martin is replaced with something entirely different.

The point of view flows effortlessly between Amy and Eliza, seamlessly tying together their stories with the book's themes. Racism and discrimination, honor and honesty, and women's rights in the 1850's are explored along with the most important question for Eliza and Amy. Is it possible to have both love and a career?

Add to this the historical accuracy of the language, fashion, architecture, medical knowledge, attitudes and current political climate and you start to appreciate the hard work that has gone into creating this tale.

A historical novel would not be my normal preferred reading material but I found The Jade Widow so mesmerising that I read the entire book in one night. I was transported back to a time in Australian history where women were the weaker sex, an elevator was a marvel in engineering and Australian soldiers saw their first foreign war.

Perhaps my only criticism of The Jade Widow would be concerning the character development of Amy Chen. I found it a little hard to conceive that this woman who had been strong enough to brave her father's wrath and the ensuing scandal caused by her elopement with a Chinese man, and who conceived and carried out the dream of building and running a luxury hotel, would be so shocked by Eliza's outrageous claims that women were as good as men.

I realise that her confidence was shaken by the death of her husband, and that she perceived that death as punishment for their elopement, but she had also spent the last twelve years with John Miller, a man openly supportive of his daughter's desire to be a doctor, as her pseudo-father. She was a business owner and a single mother and had been best friends with Eliza for long enough that I would have thought some of Eliza's opinions might have started to creep into Amy's conscious thoughts. This anomaly, however, did not detract from my enjoyment of the book, but was more something I found myself thinking about after the story had ended.

Although it is the sequel to Mr Chen's Emporium, The Jade Widow can also be read as a stand alone book. I would recommend this book to anybody with an interest in Australian history or women's fiction. It would also make an excellent book club novel and school students studying Australian history would benefit from its addition to their school curriculum. Deborah O'Brien has even had the foresight to add a list of Reading Group Questions at the end of the book.

(I was given a copy of this book to read for free in exchange for an honest review.)

[Maureen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Jade Widow picks up a decade after Mr Chen’s Emporium leaves off, continuing to follow the lives of Eliza Miller and Amy Chen in colonial Australia.

I wasn’t sure what to make of this book to start with. The cover is gorgeous but screamed Meg Cabot and chick lit to me, which normally isn’t my thing. For maybe the first third of the book, I felt like that’s what the story was, especially given the strong element of romance in both women’s story. Having not read Mr Chen’s Emporium as well, it took me a little bit to follow who everyone in Amy and Eliza’s extended family was and their place in the story. I definitely got into Eliza’s story more than Amy due to her involvement in the early feminist movement and her sharp tongue. I also really loved Eliza’s blossoming romance with the young male Doctor who takes her job at the local surgery and the start of her dream to create a Woman’s Hospital. I couldn’t tell where Amy’s story was going at first but I really got into it when she started to build up her Hotel buisness in earnest and gets more than she bargained for in the attractive Irish Manager she hires. I love romance that feels natural and leaps off the page with sparkling energy and I think that both romance stories definitely achieved this.

I especially loved the way the story ended. As a historian, I hate it when writers preach about a historical time period or engage in cultural relativism. I also hate it when stories are anachronistic. Deborah manages to keep everything feeling authentic with behaviours, conversations and the political climate feeling accurate and natural. I especially loved the bravery of Deborah’s choices about an ending for the two ladies. Though this tale is set in 1885, over a century ago, the issue of feminism- women juggling careers and a family, issues of society and expected gender norm paradigms- are still relevant today. I liked that there were no easy answers or choices for either woman and I was left feeling strangely sobered by the time I had turned the final page.

The Jade Widow: 3/5 inky stars

This copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This review was originally published at my website, InkAshlings. http://inkashlings.wordpress.com/2013...

[Jill · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am not sure why Deborah O'Brien wrote this sequel ('The Jade Widow') to her charming 'Mr Chen's Emporium'. At the end of the first book, a young girl discovers the graves of all the main characters and they are reproduced verbatim so we learn when people died, how old they were when they died, who and if they married, and where they died. So coming to this sequel felt a bit deflating as there were no surprises. Rather peculiarly, the author states at the back of the book in a 'Questions for Readers Group' section, that if you want to know what happened to character X, then you have to read the first book, 'Mr Chen's Emporium'.
In the first book the main character Amy is a feisty 19-year-old who elopes with a young Chinese shopkeeper; in the sequel she is a prissy, grief-stricken widow even after 12 years, who nearly faints if someone mentions the words 'bed' or 'body' in public; Queen Victoria's life-long mourning for Prince Albert is her benchmark. As a contrast, her friend Eliza is struggling to find her place as a doctor in the man's world of the 1880s, and is forthright and outspoken. O'Brien's theme is: can you have a career, marriage and children? To me, this is never satisfactorily resolved, but man's control over women in this period is vividly described and definitely engaged me. While I enjoyed reading of Eliza's life and struggles, Amy's strait-laced and rigid approach annoyed me - the incident with the hotel manager Liam at the end of the book that defines Amy's future seems so superficial, and the decision she pompously makes seems hypocritical in the light of things she has done previously in her life. I wish the author had come up with something better and launched Amy towards a different future - though Amy's decision I suppose was fairly typical of certain women (not just who I thought Amy was).
I am also averse to real characters wandering into the story to mix with the fictional ones, though some people may find that this adds authenticity to the tale. I, however, wasn't that comfortable with Amy engaging with Sir Henry Parkes and Eliza chatting up Charles Condor and Tom Roberts.

[Buildhousehome · Rating 2 out of 5]

Look it was a sweet read, if not a fantastic one. Probably better to read Mr Chen's Emporium first. It's a look at the issues facing women in 1885 - should they study, career vs marriage, unwed mothers, but to be honest I think its a little to sweet to be totally believable. Everything just seems to go right for these women and it doesn't really show how hard these issues really were, or even are today.
The characters are sweet, if a little to good to be true, and I do like the way real historic characters and events are woven into the story.

My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin is a far harder and truer look at what it was like, and is based the authors real life in that same period in Australia, and I am afraid The Jade Widow is not a patch on that wonderful book. Jane Austen also describes the same era far more effectively and wonderfully in books like Emma and Pride and Prejudice.
Overall, its a sweet holiday read for a younger audience.

[Kirsty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Deborah O'Brien's novels always feels like catching up with old friends.
I was so excited to see where Amy and Eliza's lives had taken them in the 10 years since Mr Chen's Emporium and I was not disappointed.
The Jade Widow is a poignant novels which, despite being set in 1885, features issues that still resonate with women today.

[Anita · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although the title threw me a bit, I was attracted by the period of NSW history in which it was set. The fictional characters were diverse and true to the time I imagine, but it was the historically correct characters that interested me. The artists and politicians, the Chinese and the women in a New World who fought for their rights in a male domain It was such a battle and took many more years for the battle to be won ( is it yet ? ) I thought it might end as a smaltzy love story , but it surprised me in a good way. The writing style was easy to read and pleasant with only a few trips to the dictionary. Not the best book I have ever read , but I enjoyed it.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The historical background, the role of women in society and inter-racial relationships is dealt with very well but I still ended up annoyed with both women. With Eliza, I can't see why she couldn't have both a husband and a career - he was supportive of her choices - she had a tribe of servants and family to help - much more than many mums nowadays! Amy annoyed me by placing her dead husband on a pedestal that no one could compete with - yet she was not faultless herself! Too bound by convention and lacking in courage to follow her heart.

[Mab3s · Rating 4 out of 5]

This may well be one of the most interesting books I've read in a long time. I was hoping for a happily ever after for Amy but her happily ever after was a different concept to regular books - where the guy and girl fall in love and get together in the end. This book revealed so much more about a woman's spirit. Happily ever afters are different for everyone. The important thing about happily ever after is that you have to be happy with it regardless the situation. No regrets.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the opportunity to follow the characters from Mr Chens Emporium by the same author.
This Is a historical novel but the characters are fiction.

The plight of women in the late 1800s to early 1900s was a difficult one. No voting rights no career. One woman's desire to be a doctor another who wished to build a business. Well worth the read. Event though It is fiction there is some historical content.

[BrocheAroe · Rating 2 out of 5]

So disappointed! Really wanted to be charmed and instead got angry at the obviousness of it all. Everything was told, not shown, like the reader needed to be led absolutely everywhere, and plot points were introduced and tidied up in the most obvious manner. Kept reading it despite the caricature characters because I thought there'd at least be a happy ending and then there wasn't even that, due to a misguided and double-standard principle! Made me so mad.

[Karen O'Brien-Hall · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good read, but I think to get full feeling for the main characters you need to read Mr Chen's Emporium. It does stand alone but previous knowledge of characters would make them more complete. Loved the mix of historical and created characters.

[Cynthia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a gentle read with the story that seems to just plod along. The story does not build to any climax. The book focuses on two strong women in the 1880s trying to find their place in a very male dominated world, which adds interest to the story.

[Jeanette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book - only light but still entertaining

[Amanda - Mrs B's Book Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

A most fitting sequel to a favourite read of mine this year, Mr Chen's Emporium. I'm now looking forward to reading Deborah O'Brien's latest offering , A Place of Her Own.

[Kirani · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lovely addition to Mr Chen's Emporium. Probably closer to 4 stars. Easy read.

[Janine · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice read but not really dynamic. Not sure about the ending.