The Hudson Collection by Jocelyn Green

The Hudson Collection
by Jocelyn Green

ISBN-13: 9780764239649
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Bethany House
Released: June 4, 2024

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Elsa Reisner's lifelong dream of working as an ornithologist at the American Museum of Natural History is fading as the monotonous job begins to drain her passion. She's assigned to catalog the bequest of a recently deceased patron whose Gothic country mansion holds secrets and treasures waiting to be discovered.

As Elsa delves into her task, she forms an unlikely bond with the estate's delightful gardener and her daughter, as well as an architectural salvage dealer who still bears scars from the Great War. Together, they embark on a thrilling treasure hunt for a missing relic intended to safeguard the servants' futures before the estate is sold. At the same time, Elsa's body seems to betray her with new symptoms from a childhood disease that isn't through with her yet.

Elsa must navigate the tangled web of secrets and hidden motives along with the changing state of her health. As her deadline looms ever closer, will she be able to secure a new life for her friends before the estate slips from their grasp?


My Review:
The Hudson Collection "The Hudson Collection" is a Christian romance set in 1926 in New York. Elsa had polio as a child and felt rejected by her parents and looked down on by others when she didn't recover fully. She can walk but not smoothly and she has weak lungs. When she's sent to catalog and pack a huge collection of birds at a mostly-empty estate, she meets an odd young girl and her mother, a gardener, who quickly become her friends. She also befriends two men scared from the Great War who are removing architectural elements that can be reused (since the house is to be destroyed). They're told to keep an eye out for a rare book that's been willed to the child, but the house's inheritor believes in eugenics and sees the child as unfit and therefore unworthy of such a gift. Elsa wants to find it first to make sure the child gets it, but everyone (including people with no possible legal claim to the book) are also trying to find the treasure.

The main characters were complex, well-developed people. I cared about what happened to them. They struggled with real issues, and relationship tensions were created by realistic behavior (rather than manufactured obstacles). Elsa and her man supported each other and made each other feel more confident and lovable. Interesting historical details were woven into the story and immersed me in the time and place. There were a couple of 'just how did that dog find her?' type moments that pushed believability.

The Christian theme was that we're made in the image of God and have value, even if we aren't physically perfect. There was no sex or bad language. Overall, I'd recommend this enjoyable historical.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.