The First Emma Book Blog Tour, Review, and #Giveaway #LoneStarLit

I was watching the Men Who Built America series recently, and thinking to myself, why isn’t there a series about the WOMEN who also built America? (Is this a thing? If so, someone let me know!) When I picked up The First Emma, I really thought that Emma Koehler would be perfect for this show! She was a strong woman who ran The Pearl Brewery in San Antonio in the early Twentieth Century. She advocated for higher wages and vacation time for her employees when the men on the board disapproved. She saw the brewery and her employees through Prohibition and the Great Depression when many companies were collapsing. Emma Koehler is certainly the kind of woman that more people should know about.

What we learn, however, from reading the epilogue of The First Emma is that there is sadly little actual historical biographical information on Mrs. Koehler. Ms. Di Maio does a fascinating job of creating a historical fiction that had me completely invested in the characters and the story. I even did some Googling to read about the history of the three Emmas and Otto Koehler’s murder. The fine line between history and fiction is in Ms. Di Maio’s capable hands in this novel.

Ms. Di Maio has created characters that anyone, me included, would want to spend quality time with. Both Emma Koehler and Mabel Hartley are strong and determined women. Their self-confidence and strength come across the page very clearly in Ms. Di Maio’s writing from the beginning of the novel. Mabel has had some setbacks at the start of the novel, but she picks herself up and moves to San Antonio to start a new chapter of her life. Emma Koehler also picks up her life and moves after marrying Otto when he decides to take a new job. It takes a lot of gumption to pick up and move far from the security of home, but both women thrive in their new home city.

The romance between Otto and Emma Koehler may have fizzled out like a flat beer, but the romance between Mabel and Erik sparkles like a fine champagne. From their first meeting, the two clearly have feelings for one another. The romance between these two characters builds throughout the novel. A great example is the scene where Mabel and Erik make shadow puppets in a local theater. It’s so cute to think of the rabbit shadow that Erik has perfected. Their playfulness and love come through the pages and writing as genuine and true.

The pace of the novel follows along as Mrs. Koehler tells her story to Mabel. And like Mabel, I wanted Mrs. Koehler to get to the good stuff more quickly. Ms. Di Maio intersperses the chapters with actual newspaper clippings of the murder trial. These short clippings fed the fire for the salacious story. The history of the Koehler’s marriage, their lives in San Antonio, Otto’s affairs, and the brewery were fascinating. The idea that Mabel would use that history to write a novel to inspire other women is the book within a book that I would read.