Sarah Jio’s “The Last Camellia”. A Mixed Bouquet of Flowers, Murder and Mystery

Reviewed by Sarah Bura

The New York Times Bestselling author, Sarah Jio has picked up her pen and written another page turner in “The Last Camellia”.  This novel exposes the secrets that surround the Middlebury Pink, a rare camellia, long forgotten which blooms mystery in every petal.  The two heroines, Flora and Addison are living in two distinct decade Yet both attempt to discover the secret location of the Middle bury Pink as they strive to hide damaging secrets from the men they love.  The story is set in a grand, manor in England that once was full of servants and the Livingston family.  Now sixty years later is purchased in disrepair and shows no sign of it’s glory days except for the persistent beauty of the flower garden.  The story is intriguing with few predictable plot twists and turns and is genuinely a pleasurable quick read.

This story is almost like two stories in one book.  Each individual chapter focuses on advancing the story of either Flora or Addison and the two linked together tell the story of the Middlebury Pink.  The ladies have many commonalities.  Addison has a deep secret from her past that continues to haunt her present with her husband.  Here secret taunts her and follows her  as she  vacations at her husband family manor in England.  Flora is hired as a nanny by a flower thief to locate a prize flower which is complicated as she falls in love with the oldest son of the manor.  Each woman is linked to murder in some way as either the accomplice or the one being sought after.  As the reader shifts from the two generations the writing style is clear and descriptive.   Sarah Jio has decided to tell the stories of each woman in the first person. This stylistic device   allows the story to feel more like a personal memory than a third party retelling. The writing style is full of vivid imagery allowing the reader to see the scene clearly in their mind.” The clouds had parted to reveal a stream of moonlight that filtered through the trees, just enough to illuminate the spiderweb pattern of the cracked windshield and the spot where my head had made impact earlier”( Jio 273).  This describing her feelings after her car had been run of the road by Addison’s attacker. Her vocabulary selection is simple enough for  the  young reader to read easily but also keep the interest of the more advanced reader with a larger vocabulary. 

The ending of the story links the passage of time from the distant past over 100 years ago to the hope of the future.  The seed of the Middlebury Pink had survived through much and so had Flora and Addison. “As I lay there, I closed my eyes, envisioning the camellia tree the seed would grow into, the beautiful blossoms it would sprout.  Its journey, like mine, had been a harrowing one, fraught with uncertainty. With pain. But now it would put down roots and thrive. It would live with dignity, peace, and forgiveness. I would too”(Jio 299).

Warren Harding Error

In the Warren Harding Error: Why We Fall For Tall, Dark And Handsome Men the article enlightens us as to why we fall for the "tall. dark and handsome man" almost like those 5 words are one long word.  IT is an attraction that we have in our unconscious as we associate the pairing of good looking with competency.  One might find it interesting that although he was good looking President Harding was one of the worst President's.  "He was vague and ambivalent on matters of poluicy". P. 7e3.  It was fascinating to me that when doing the IAT our minds so quickly decided between pairs of ideas that we are familiar with in the past and have presently grouped them together.  I was intrigues with the statistics  of the tall CEO's in the Fortune 500
companies.  I had no idea there was such an obvious discrimination of shorter people.  The takeaway message was one of quick judgment is not a wise way to base your opinion and the old saying there is more than meets the eye.

A good leader is someone that possesses qualities such as strength, determination, honesty, commitment, the ability to delegate, good communication skills and finally a good sense of humor.  Physical attractiveness is not necessary and shouldn't even be considered  when choosing a leader.  If our unconscious biases is truly based on what we see we should experiment with interviewing people over the phone, or on paper.  A more radical idea would be to interview people behind a screen where the interviewer and the interviewee  could not have visual contact.  We as a society need to be educated with articles such as the Harding article to make us more aware of our unconscious biases.  I have heard it said that admitting we as a society have a problem is the first step to healing and correcting the problem.

After taking the Race IAT the founding stated that I did not have an unconscious racial preference.  I was not too surprised by this finding.  I have contact with African Americans on a regular basis.  One of our close family friends is an African American family and we do many things together.  I also spend a lot of time volunteering to feed the homeless with our church.  The African Americans have been friendly and I don't have some of the natural stereotypes that kids my age might have.