Calista Blythe, on an errand in downtown Helena, becomes tangled up (literally) with a young waif who begs for her help. She’s escaped from the brothel where her mother was indentured. Her mother died and the young girl is expected to pay off the indenture. Calista cannot stand the thought of the girl being whipped or the thought of what would happen to her in such a place. She takes Lea Murphy home in hope her parents will see the need to shelter her. When told the girl must be taken back, Calista’s heart nearly breaks. Lea, overhearing the conversation, runs and hides. Once she is found, Calista and Charles, her driver, hide the waif in the stable until Calista can find out how to get the indenture satisfied.
The next day, she finds the price of freedom for Lea from Chicago Joe is one hundred and two dollars–an enormous amount in 1889. In the meantime, we meet Albert Shanahan, a young businessman full of ideas of how to make Helena a tourist destination now that Montana has become a state. He dreams up the idea of a pageant where the young debutantes would compete for the title of Snowflake Queen. At first resistant to the idea, Calista eventually agrees to earn the money to pay back Chicago Joe for Lea.
How she manages to keep Lea hidden, the places she checks out to find Lea a place to live, the pageant, the romance, the plight of the youngsters dropped off at this, the last stop of the Orphan Trains–all these add up to a very delightful story. You’ll smile and shed a tear or two as you read The Debutante Queen in Snowflake Tiara.
Angela Breidenbach has a winner in The Debutante Queen, which is paired in the same volume with More Than a Tiara, Valerie Comer’s story of the 2014 Snowflake Queen. Angela, who presently serves as the president of the Christian Author’s Network (CAN) also has a radio show, Grace Under Pressure, and has several other books in the works. GraceUnderPressureRadio.com is a podcast about women of courage, confidence, and candor–just the type of women she writes about.
Presently under contract with Barbour Publishing along with nine other authors for Bridal Whispers, Angela is delighted to be able to tell her grandparent’s love story. Bridal Whispers is about women who were married for one reason or another and then fell in love. Her grandparents were married for fifty-four years and had three children.
Angela told me that she loves to write stories that have families and are interconnected. Family is very important to her, so such stories resonate in her heart. She has been in Montana for twenty-three years after spending time with America West Airlines in Phoenix and some time in Spain. She and Mike have six children–two of her husband’s and four of Angie’s. Angie was born in Las Vegas and graduated from a high school in Denver. She laughingly said she then got “certifications for whatever the job required!”
If you follow Angela Breidenbach on Facebook, you’ll soon meet her “comedic fe-lion, #Muse.” #Muse is on her social media and her blog. And amusing #Muse is!(AngelaBreidenbach.com/categories/amusings)