Etiquette for Runaways

By: Liza Nash Taylor

Narrated by: Elizabeth Evans

Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

A sweeping Jazz Age tale of regret, ambition, and redemption inspired by true events, including the Great Moonshine Conspiracy Trial of 1935 and Josephine Baker’s 1925 Paris debut in Le Revue Nègre

1924. May Marshall is determined to spend the dog days of summer in self-imposed exile at her father’s farm in Keswick, Virginia. Following a naive dalliance that led to heartbreak and her expulsion from Mary Baldwin College, May returns home with a shameful secret only to find her father’s orchard is now the site of a lucrative moonshining enterprise. Despite warnings from the one man she trusts - her childhood friend Byrd - she joins her father’s illegal business. When authorities close in and her father, Henry, is arrested, May goes on the run.

May arrives in New York City, determined to reinvent herself as May Valentine and succeed on her own terms, following her mother’s footsteps as a costume designer. The Jazz Age city glitters with both opportunity and the darker temptations of cocaine and nightlife. From a start mending sheets at the famed Biltmore Hotel, May falls into a position designing costumes for a newly formed troupe of African-American entertainers bound for Paris. Reveling in her good fortune, May will do anything for the chance to go abroad, and the lines between right and wrong begin to blur. When Byrd shows up in New York, intent upon taking May back home, she pushes him, and her past, away.

In Paris, May’s run of luck comes to a screeching halt, spiraling her into darkness as she unravels a painful secret about her past. May must make a choice: surrender to failure and addiction, or face the truth and make amends to those she has wronged. But first, she must find self-forgiveness before she can try to reclaim what her heart craves most.

Parade Magazine Pick - Frolic Pick

©2020 Liza Nash Taylor (P)2020 Blackstone Publishing

Good to pass time in the car

It was long and ok—not all that deep. I enjoyed it for what it was…a novel with no real outcome.

Very enjoyable!

It took me a while to get into the story, but it turned out very good.
It gives a look into that time period and how women were treated.
Good narration.

Entertaining and well written

I was able to become involved in the story early on. Characters were developed quickly enough to develop a liking or dislike for them early. Story was slightly predictable, but not too fairy tale like. The situations were very likely to happen in the time period.

Was a nice change from my usual time period and preference.

Searching for self worth in the design world in the 1920s

The characters and the plot were well developed and interesting. Life in the 1920s in New York and Paris in the fashion industry from the point of view of a naive southern girl with a complex family past was interesting and entertaining. The narration was excellent. This was a great free book.

Just OK

I felt like this book kind of wandered, and kept going and going until I kind of didn't even care how it ended. I finished it because I listen while I'm driving to work and didn't have the energy to find something else.

I enjoyed it

I liked this book. The time period was right and the history was a part of it. The narrator was very good.

Not really a fan.

The narrator was fantastic, but the storyline was slow and long-winded. You could see the end of the book in the first couple of chapters so it was hard to finish.

Tragically Moving

This is a very good story of a woman’s journey for independence. Although her struggle is very hard and so unfairly she doesn’t sell out for that stereotypical life. she sticks to her guns. Also, one of my favorite narrators.

I don’t recommend.

This story promises but doesn’t deliver. It tries so hard to manipulate and thankfully fails since I felt nothing for the characters. I did appreciate that the “heroine” is not perfect. The book starts out as “full steam ahead” and then dies out. I’m not referring to the outcome. I’m not looking for a fairytale - just a well told story.