Victoria Crossing

By: Michael Wallace

Narrated by: Rosemary Benson

Driven from Ireland during the potato famine, Protestant Victoria MacPherson and Catholic Maeve O'Reilly find themselves thrown together aboard a Manhattan-bound ship. After a treacherous journey, they arrive in New York City in 1851, with only a small purse of silver and the promise that Maeve's brother will find them there. But when he doesn't show, the girls are quickly conned out of their savings by a smooth-talking scam artist, leaving the two destitute in the tenements of Lower Manhattan.

As the women work their way from seamstresses earning pennies a day to proprietresses starting their own shop, their success is endangered by the city's corruption and a disgraceful secret that Victoria has been keeping from Maeve. Jealous rivals, religious prejudice, and the shocking revelation of Victoria's shameful past threaten to break their bond and reduce the women to rags. But will their strength, courage, and spirit be enough to help them survive and thrive once again?

©2016 Michael Wallace (P)2016 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Get in touch with your Irish roots

This story will take you on a journey back to the early days of Irish immigrants in America. This beautiful romantic adventure will have you feeling like you're there walking the New York streets of the 1800's.

Abrupt unsatisfying ending

I got this book because I enjoyed Crow Hollow, and the subject matter in this seemed compelling. Michael Wallace is a reasonably good writer of time and place, and a fairly good story teller, but I didn't rate this book very highly because the ending is abrupt and unsatisfying. A good writer can create a trilogy or a series and still complete each book with a satisfying ending. This one just stopped with an unstable character added back into the mix and an ambiguous possible future. Ending a book with ambiguity can be provocative for the reader if there is a point, but in this case it was just annoying and felt like a not very well crafted set-up for a sequel. It has made me unlikely to get any more of his books.

Rosemary Benson is a capable narrator who separates the voices well and keeps the tale going, but there isn't a lot of emotional range. That may be more a product of this writer than of the performer. She also performed Crow Hollow by the same author, so I haven't heard her narrate any other books.

depressing start

I thought I want gonna like this story, had to keep pressing on to see the victory over daunting situations. it paid off, this ended up being a good story.

enjoyable

These Michael Wallace books are interesting. The author takes us to different times and settings with every book . Not the greatest stories ever told but interesting and enjoyable to listen to nonetheless.

In this book, the author starts during the famine in Ireland in the early 1850s and takes us from there to New York City. Two young Irish girls leave Ireland as they have no choice and make their way to America to build a life for themselves. Arriving in NYC the girls find nothing as they hoped for or expected instead finding cutthroats as soon as they get off the boat. The story is their story as they make their way in the New World. The story also gives us insight into what NYC and the clothing industry were like at this time.

Loved it!

Would you consider the audio edition of Victoria Crossing to be better than the print version?

Yes... I loved the narrator's Irish accent, which I would not have been able to drum up in my own mind if reading this.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I loved Victoria's perseverance and strength of character.

What about Rosemary Benson’s performance did you like?

Her ability to do a wonderful Irish accent, but also her "male voices" were believable and didn't sound "sleazy" (like some female narrators make their masculine voices sound like). She did a fantastic job!

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The American Dream is available to all who are willing to work hard.

Any additional comments?

Loved this story and the narration. I got totally lost in it.

Victoria crossing

This book was good read it opened your eyes to what emigrants went thru by coming to america

Don't pass this one up. Well worth listening to.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When Victoria gave her savings to Thomas Ashton, the scene was so vivid it made me yell out loud "No" and I almost crashed my car.

Any additional comments?

This book was well worth the money and time. Loved the story and the narrating was outstanding. Finished this book in one day I was so hooked and now I'm wishing there was a sequel to the story!

Weak ending

I enjoyed the suspense and historical nature of the story. However the ending was weak and not well developed.