Gin Lovers (Brenner)

The Gin Lovers
Jamie Brenner, 2013
St. Martin's Press
439 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250035936


Summary
What price would you pay for happiness? For Charlotte, freedom from her marriage might be the one thing she can’t afford.

It’s 1925, and the Victorian era with its confining morals is all but dead. Unfortunately, for New York socialite Charlotte Delacorte, the scandalous flapper revolution is little more than a headline in the tabloids. Living with her rigid and controlling husband William, her Fifth Avenue townhouse is a gilded cage.

But when William’s rebellious younger sister, the beautiful and brash Mae, comes to live with them after the death of their mother, Charlotte finds entrée to a world beyond her wildest dreams—and a handsome and mysterious stranger whom she imagines is as confident in the bedroom as he is behind the bar of his forbidden speakeasy.

Soon, Charlotte realizes that nothing is as it seems. Secrets are kept and discovered, loves are lost and found, and Charlotte is finds herself on the brink of losing everything—or having it all. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Aka—Logan Belle
• Birth—March 24, 1971
• Where—Philadelphia, PA, USA
• Education—B.A., George Washington University
• Currently—lives in New York City, New york


Jamie Brenner, also writing as Logan Belle, grew up in Main Line Philadelphia on a steady diet of Judith Krantz, Jackie Collins, and Aaron Spelling. Her novel The Gin Lovers was praised by Fresh Fiction as one of the Top Thirteen Books to read in 2013. 

Writing under the pen name Logan Belle, Jamie is the author of the upcoming Miss Chatterley (Pocket Star/Simon & Schuster), a modern day re-telling of D.H. Lawrence’s erotic classic Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Also writing as Logan Belle, she published the erotic romance The Librarian (Pocket Star) which has been translated into a dozen languages, and the burlesque trilogy Blue Angel  (Kensington).

Jamie has worked in book publishing as a scout, publicist, and agent. She currently lives in New York City, where she is busy raising two daughters who aren't allowed to read her books. (See the author's website.)

Book Reviews
“13 Books to read in 2013″
FreshFiction.com (seen on Good Morning Texas)


Brimming with passion, romance, flappers, speakeasies, prohibition and love, this story will bring the Manhattan of the 1920’s to life right before your eyes.
Romance Junkies


It almost brought me to tears, and the writing was so well-crafted that for the amount of time it took me to read this, I was living in this world.
Under the Covers


I was hooked on all the drama!
Impressions of a Reader


It truly is a soap opera, it's just on paper and not on the screen.
Heroes and Heartbreakers

Discussion Questions
1. What is your first impression of Charlotte Delacorte? How does your impression of her change over the course of the book? Do you think she is fundamentally the same person at the end of the story? Why or why not?

2. Which characters in the novel represent the old world, and what characters represent the changing times? Is either set of characters all good or all bad? Is there a way to have the best of both worlds?

3. Although Charlotte’s mother-in-law, Geraldine, dies before the book begins, it could be argued that she had as much influence over the course of events as anyone else in the novel. Would William and Charlotte have had a successful marriage if Geraldine had remained in the picture? If so, could Charlotte have been happy in her role as  Mrs. William Delacorte?

4. Boom Boom and Amelia are both scheming and ruthless women in their own ways. With whom do you empathize more and why? And do you think they had to scheme to  get what they wanted as women at the time? Why?

 5. Money plays a big role in this novel – for those who have it, and those who do not. What couples would have worked better with moneyfrom the beginning, and what couples were better off for their struggle?

6. Do you think Fiona really loved Mae? If so, at what point in the story do you start to believe so and why? Do you think they would have still fallen for one another if they  were in modern society?  Why or why not?

 7. Do you think there could have been hope for William and Charlotte if he had brought her in on his schemes from the beginning? Or do you think things would have ultimately come to pass the same way? Why?

8. Do you think Prohibition was a positive thing for our society, or negative? Why? What events or characters in this story, if any, affected your opinion on Prohibition?

9. Charlotte’s father, Black Jack, is only in a few scenes in the book, but his influence looms large over her. What role does Charlotte’s father play in her fate?

10. Who is more of a hero in this story, Jake or Rafferty? And why?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)

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