Adele Myers

This was a really interesting boom. A historical novel about the tobacco industry in North Carolina.
Maddie is a 15 year old aspiring seamstress. Her mother leaves her at her aunts for the summer to go find a new man. Aunt Etta runs a successful business making dresses for the tobacco wives. She takes Maddie on as an apprentice. Unfortunately, Aunt Etta contracts the measles and is unable to continue her work. Maddie takes over and blossoms into an enerterprising seamstress. She develops a friendship with the "queen" of the tobacco wives. As she's working, she finds out some disturbing facts about tobacco. She tries to enlighten others to these facts but they choose to be blind so that they can continue to live their posh lives. She finally gets through to Mitzy but she's reluctant to press her husband for change. After he passes away, Mitzy brings proof to Maddie who is petitioning congress on the side effects of smoking. Maddie also opens her own shop and marries David who is Mitzy's godson. So much more happens in the book. I recommend reading it.… (mais)

Maddie Sykes is a burgeoning seamstress who’s just arrived in Bright Leaf, North Carolina—the tobacco capital of the South—where her aunt has a thriving sewing business. After years of war rations and shortages, Bright Leaf is a prosperous wonderland in full technicolor bloom, and Maddie is dazzled by the bustle of the crisply uniformed female factory workers, the palatial homes, and, most of all, her aunt’s glossiest clientele: the wives of the powerful tobacco executives.

When a series of unexpected events thrusts Maddie into the role of lead dressmaker for the town’s most influential women, she scrambles to produce their ornate gowns for the biggest party of the season. But she soon learns that Bright Leaf isn’t quite the carefree paradise that it seems: A trail of misfortune follows many of the women, including substantial health problems. Although Maddie is quick to believe that this is a coincidence, she inadvertently uncovers evidence that suggests otherwise.

Maddie wants to report what she knows, but in a town where everyone depends on Big Tobacco to survive, she doesn’t know who she can trust—and fears that exposing the truth may destroy the lives of the proud, strong women with whom she has forged strong bonds.… (mais)