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The Pursuit of Lucy Banning (Avenue of Dreams Book #1)
The Pursuit of Lucy Banning (Avenue of Dreams Book #1): A Novel | Olivia Newport
6 posts | 3 read | 4 to read
Lucy Banning may live on the exclusive Prairie Avenue among Chicago's rich and famous, but her heart lies elsewhere. Expected to marry an up-and-coming banker from a respected family, Lucy fears she will be forced to abandon her charity work--and the classes she is secretly taking at the newly opened University of Chicago. When she meets an unconventional young architect who is working on plans for the upcoming 1893 World's Fair, Lucy imagines a life lived on her own terms. Can she break away from her family's expectations? And will she ever be loved for who she truly is? Readers will love being swept away into a world of mansions, secrets, and romance as they follow Lucy through the streets of the Windy City during one of the most exciting times in the city's history. From opulent upper-class homes to the well-worn rooms of an orphanage, Olivia Newport breathes life and romance into the pages of history--and everyone is invited.
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DieAReader
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Pickpick

#Wardens2025 #Read2025 #SeriesLove2025 #ReadYourKobo

🤗🤓New author, new trilogy! I loved the fact that this took place in Chicago during the building of The World Fair (1891-1893)💖

TheSpineView Fantastic!👍📖 4d
Andrew65 Excellent 🎉🎊🎉 3d
CoverToCoverGirl Love historical stories. 🙂 3d
42 likes5 comments
review
xicanti
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Mehso-so

As I read, I seesawed between, “I really like this!” and, “I want a lot more than this is giving me.” Lucy‘s compassion and refusal to judge others were a big draw, and I really responded to Charlotte‘s storyline. Overall, though, the plot felt unbalanced, the time jumps often cut me out of scenes that‘d been set up as important, and most of the characters were too opaque for me to feel like I fully inhabited their world.

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xicanti
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Bedtime reading with my little buddy. The book‘s still pretty firmly in the Not Bad camp; not super-duper gripping, but a nice story overall. I appreciate how the Christian elements are rooted in Lucy‘s compassion and dedication to service, too. It‘s a welcome change from the last Christian fiction I read, which was very much of the, “Let‘s say tons of hateful things about non-Christians and presuppose the reader‘s agreement” variety. No thanks.

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xicanti
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I‘m trying another historical romance from my digital freebies stash. This one isn‘t bad so far, but I find I‘m way more interested in Charlotte, the maid who needs to conceal her newborn baby, than I am in the title character.

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xicanti
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I feel it‘s past time we retired the whole, “She let out a breath she didn‘t know she was holding” thing, but this take on it made me giggle (/groan).

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aroc
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Sunday sauce cooking on the stove, football on the TV, little one practicing his train whistle, and this book. Perfect winter Sunday. 💛