![]() Princes of the Lower East Side
-- EXCERPT: Gloria said, hands on her hips. “You promised my husband to watch out for me and Em, but he would want me to watch over you, too. You need someone to look after you, Mia. To care for you. Even if you don’t think you need anyone.” “I have Paolo.” Mia had asked him once if he’d known what she’d done in America. He understood English, so she spoke both Sicilian and English to him. Paolo had responded with a single, firm nod. And that had been the only time they had discussed it—as much of a discussion as could be had with a mute man. When she’d announced to her family two weeks ago that she was returning to New York, there seemed an unspoken understanding Paolo would also make that trip. Nevertheless, Don Catalano, who had made the arrangements for her, had told her in no uncertain terms the fierce Sicilian man would be accompanying her as her bodyguard and remaining by her side in New York. She had come to appreciate his silent presence, his protective hovering. It was hard to understand why he had chosen her to devote himself to, but it wasn’t a gift she was interested in questioning. “I don’t trust Paolo,” Gloria said. “How do you trust a man who can’t talk?” “I find him the most trustworthy of men for that reason alone.” “You can’t travel and live on your own with a man you’re not married to,” she insisted. “You’re still just a young girl, after all.” “I’ll be twenty-three in September.” “You are a child,” Gloria repeated softly. Mia smiled, a little bitterly, down at her small case of cosmetics, dropping the envelope on top. When she was a child, she’d lost both of her parents—her father to a heart attack when she was just a toddler. Her mother had died in a terrible fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, leaping from the top of the building in order to avoid being burned by the flames. Mia and Nick had been forced to hustle the streets, begging for handouts, learning poker to swindle the gangsters, stealing food, freezing nearly to death in their filthy tenement. She’d become a vaudeville performer, because young girls telling raunchy jokes to older men made money. When Nick had been drafted to the war, she’d worked a dozen hours a day for an abusive woman in a dress factory, just to keep a little food in her stomach. She’d known more about being an adult at twelve than most women her age knew now. Once she might have been proud of that, but now, it only made her sad. Finally, she looked at Gloria. “I haven’t been a child for a very long time.” ![]()
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13 Comments
Janet W.
10/28/2019 08:22:30 am
Sounds entertaining!! Can't wait to read this.
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Stephanie Jones
10/28/2019 08:31:20 am
looks like a good book!
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Sara Zielinski
10/28/2019 11:39:42 am
Sounds like a great book
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Bea LaRocca
10/28/2019 12:56:34 pm
Great cover and excerpt. This sounds like a good read.
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Shirley Ann Speakman
10/28/2019 01:59:15 pm
Congratulations on your new release Meredith, the book sounds really good and I love the cover too.
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heather
10/28/2019 02:51:47 pm
I so love the cover of this one and it sounds super good.
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heather
10/28/2019 02:52:15 pm
I follow xpresso book tours on instagram as @oldblueeyes070
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heather
10/28/2019 02:52:43 pm
I follow silver dagger book tours on twitter as @myway070
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Stephanie Grant
10/28/2019 03:56:24 pm
This book sounds amazing, can’t wait to read it!
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Sherry
10/28/2019 08:59:48 pm
Sounds like a very good book and I love the cover.
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Bridgett Wilbur
10/31/2019 03:29:27 pm
Great cover.
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shelly peterson
11/3/2019 12:53:48 pm
I love the cover.
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Amy Friedentag
11/5/2019 04:34:17 pm
Gorgeous cover design!
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