Author Interview | Discussing her Historical Women’s Fiction release “She Wears the Mask” with Shelly Stratton

Posted Monday, 31 August, 2020 by jorielov Self Published, She Wears the Mask, Shelly Stratton 2 Comments

Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!

This has been a good year of finding new voices in Historical Fiction as I have been delighted by the conversations I’ve been able to bring to Jorie Loves A Story as well as highlighting the kinds of historical narratives which have winked a thirst of interest in my own readerly heart to be read the day I can bring those stories home! This marks a day to celebrate finding a Historical Women’s Fiction novel which has a dual perspective threading through the storyline and a hard-hitting premise to boot!

As you’ve come to know about how I like to set the tone of the interviews I’m hosting, I love to dive into the writer’s inspiration behind their story, the roots of their characters own histories and to seek out a few behind-the-book trivia bits if I can manage it! I love discussing the art of crafting stories together both on my blog and through my bookish chat @SatBookChat, which is why the conversations I am sharing with the bookish on Jorie Loves A Story attempt to play off the conversational tone of engagement I bring into #SatBookChat.

This is a new voice in Historical Fiction for me – one which I have a feeling I will enjoy discovering once I get a copy of the novel because of the depth of how she’s layered the story and how well the story resonates with me even before its been read! As you will gather, there was quite a bit to discuss and in one regard, I loved finding out more about the duality of the book’s title because I knew it was a play on words – my own interpretation notwithstanding, the author shares what inspired the title and thereby what inspired the story behind the title!

If you’re seeking though-provoking Historical Fiction narratives – this definitely will be one you will want to have on your shelf because of how convicting it sounds even from afar! I will admit, I hadn’t realised the plot involved Cancer until I had this conversation and I am hoping in the context of the story as it is told it will not overlay the storyline too much as I do shy away from reading stories about terminal illnesses with a few exceptions.

Be sure to brew yourself a cuppa
and let’s discover more about this story together!

She Wears the Mask
by Shelly Stratton

No one can ever really know what lies behind the mask . . .

Gripping and moving, She Wears the Mask is a novel about two women from two very different worlds, both burdened with secrets from their pasts, who form an unexpected bond…

1950s Chicago: Angelique Bixby could be one of many fresh-faced sales girls working along the Magnificent Mile, but she’s unique. She’s a white woman married to a black man in 1950s Chicago, making her stand out among the tenements on the South Side where she lives. Despite the challenges the couple faces, they find comfort and strength in their love for one another. Angelique is content, as long as she has her Daniel by her side and their baby in her arms, until she loses them both—one to death and the other to dire circumstances.

1990s Washington, D.C.: Angelique Crofton is a woman of privilege. A rich, aging beauty and mother of a rising political star, she has learned to forget her tragic past. But now that she is facing her own mortality, she is finally ready to find the daughter she left behind, remember the young woman she once was, and unearth the bittersweet memories she had long ago buried.

Jasmine Stanley is an ambitious lawyer—the only black woman at her firm. She is too busy climbing the corporate ladder to deal with her troublesome family or their unresolved issues. Tasked with Angelique’s case, Jasmine doesn’t know what to make of her new client—an old debutante with seemingly too much time and money on her hands. Jasmine eagerly accepts the challenge though, hoping if she finds Angelique’s long-lost daughter, it will impress the firm’s partners. But she doesn’t count on the search challenging her mentally and emotionally. Nor does she expect to form a friendship with Angelique, who is much more like her than she realizes—because Jasmine is harboring secrets, too.