Allison Pataki’s meticulous research and well-honed writing ushers the reader into Margaret Fuller’s world. Do you recognize her name? If not, once you become acquainted with her, you will not soon forget her or the force with which she lived. Her world included well-known contemporaries such as Waldo and Lidian Emmerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel and Sophia Hawthorne, Bronson and Abba Alcott, and Louisa May Alcott with her sisters. If you ever wanted to meet some of America’s nineteenth-century thinkers and literary greats, this is an opportunity not to be missed. You only need to turn to the first page and begin your journey to Finding Margaret Fuller.

Like many literature lovers I’m well versed in the Transcendentalists’ works - Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau and Alcott. I’ve been to
Boston, Concord and Walden Pond but never heard of their contemporary, friend and muse, Margaret Fuller.
Allison Pataki perfectly emulated Margaret Fuller’s voice and gives the reader an inside look to Margaret’s private thoughts and moments. We walk with her and Ralph Waldo Emerson through Concord, with play with little Louisa May and float down the river with Thoreau to where Hawthorne is waiting outside the Old Manse. Margaret Fuller speaks out for women’s rights and stirs the heart of a young Elizabeth Cady Stanton. She’s the first woman reporter for the New York Tribune and becomes a foreign correspondent. In Rome she finds love and her home though its gripped with revolutionary war. The reader joins Margaret on all her adventures understanding her heart and her fears. I highly recommend this novel to romantics, lovers of historical fiction and literature. More of us need to know of Margaret Fuller and all she inspired. She’s a woman truly worthy of a legacy.

Excellent book! It seems well researched. It's definitely well written. Margaret's story is amazing.

I loved this story! Margaret Fuller was such an interesting woman and was so ahead of her time! I have multiple patrons at my library that I will be recommending this book too. One person I have recommended this book to is my mother, who already enjoyed Allison Pataki's books before, and she absolutely loved it! Thank you Netgally and Random House for allowing me to read this early!

what a wonderful book. as always partake delivers. the characters are wonderful. had me do research to see the actual people and their biography. great for discussion. lots to talk about. easy read and totally enjoyable.

Margaret Fuller was a fascinating woman and it is thanks to Allison Pataki that I now know how forward thinking she was. I had heard of Margaret Fuller, but knew nothing about her. Margaret was a writer and an avid believer in educaton and opportunity for women. Almost all the characters in the novel have recognizable names and these were Margaret's friends. Amazing! She was a forward thinker and the first female column writer for a major newspaper. This is the best kind of historical novel. It leaves the reader yearning to do their own research into a fascinating subject.

⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

Margaret Fuller is a force to be reconned with. From her famous friends (Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathanial Hawthorne, Elizabeth Barrett-Browning, a young Louisa May Alcott) to her commitment to writing (journalist, translator, editor, writer) to being a member of the transcendentalism movement and an advocate for women’s rights. To say she was remarkable is an understatement.

Heavily character driven at the beginning, I had a hard time getting into the beginning of this story. It was very slow with its flowery (1800 appropriate) speech and name dropping. Although revered by her famous friends, she seemed to be taken advantage of, mainly due to her being a woman. The story dragged for me until about 2/3 of the way in, then seemed to follow more of a story of her time overseas until her dramatic ending, which is hinted at in the first chapter. The writing is excellent and research top notch. Even though this wasn’t a hit for me, I enjoyed learning about this amazing women who was ahead of her time. I recommend Ms. Pataki’s earlier books, The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post and Beauty in the Broken Places.

Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for this ARC. This is my honest opinion.

Thank you to Net Galley, Ballantine Books and Allison Pataki for the opportunity to read Finding Margaret Fuller.
I recently saw Allison Pataki on The Today Show and immediately looked for this book on Net Galley. I was so happy to receive it! I thoroughly
enjoyed every minute of it. This book is beautifully written with vivid and detailed writing. I had never heard of Margaret Fuller but I found her to be fascinating, dedicated and admirable. I loved the descriptions of all of her travels and experiences throughout the world. I felt like I was there with her instead of just reading about it.
Margaret was a bit ahead of her time. She was not fully accepted but what strength and convictions she had! Every young girl should read these experiences. Life is not always easy but obviously hard work will pay off. I especially liked her travels to Harvard and the feeling she must have had sitting in the library. So simple yet so dramatic.
I look forward to more historical fiction from this author and will definitely look into her backlist.

Once again, Allison Pataki has shown herself to be the master of biographical fiction. So much has been written about the Transcendentalists of Concord, Thoreau, Emerson and Alcott, but Margaret Fuller has become a lost woman. Allison Pataki brings her to life in this fascinating, beautiful novel. She gives us a portrait of a woman who was far ahead of her time in so many ways. She was one of the founders of the feminist movement, a writer, international newspaper reporter and so much more.

The book is rich in period details, and her descriptions of Concord, Italy, and everywhere Margaret Fuller walked are so real you feel like you're right there with her. Once again Ms. Pataki has given us a work of fiction that feels truer than any biography could.

How do we not know more about this brilliant woman, Margaret Fuller? I am glad that her story was told.

When I first learned about this book, I was excited to read it. The book shows that the author did extensive research. It was fun reading details about the lives of all the great authors (Hawthorne, Emerson, Alcott, etc.).

I like the way the story unfolded. The author is excellent at writing details and descriptions. I could "see" all that Margaret saw, and I felt that I was there with her.

I recommend this book. I look forward to reading Pataki's other books.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine Books for a chance to review this book.

Link to Amazon review: https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R3SQJ19J0SKHJK?ref=pf_ov_at_pdctrvw_srp

In 1836, a group of "thinkers" was getting national attention. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorn, the Alcott's (with daughter Louisa May) all live near each other when "the most well-read person in America" is invited to visit- Margaret Fuller. As a woman before her time, Margaret is an intelligent writer and scholar and makes friends with the Walden Pond crowd. She goes on the be a journalist and have internation fame; this is her story.

Margaret meets many, many well-known people in America and Europe. You would think all that name dropping and her adventuresome life would be interesting. It might be, but not in this book. The pacing of this book was so slow, and it felt like a textbook. I have loved many Pataki novels before, and I don't know if it was the subject matter or the writing, but this one was not a win for me. It took me over three weeks to get thru it when I normally read a book in 2-4 days. I stuck it out and the conclusion is interesting, but then little is made of it when it should have been riveting. I suspect poor editing is partly to blame for this as you can tell it was heavily researched and enthusiastically written. I look forward to Pataki's next endeavor and I hope it's better than this one.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy for review.

Allison Pataki books are just awesome! I love learning so much about a person I hadn't heard of before this story!

Margaret Fuller isn't a name I was familiar with, until this book. And wow, what a fascinating lady and her life was simply awesome! I loved learning more about her - and all her famous friends, name after name of literati and influential people. Her life was so interesting - and this book is so well written! I really enjoyed this historical read!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for a temporary, digital ARC in return for my review.

Although I was an American Studies major and thought I knew “all” about the Transcendentalists, I somehow missed Margaret Fuller—except for a vague notion that she was somehow the seductress of the group. Amazing, isn’t it? And this was the ‘80’s!

Well, I am so glad I read this factionalized biography of the great, and I suppose misunderstood, Margaret Fuller. I was fascinated by her life, and shocked that her story is not better known today. I am in awe of her accomplishments, brought beautifully to life by Allison Pataki. I loved it, and recommend it highly to anyone who enjoys historical fiction based in the first half of the 18th century—and who thinks they know about the early leaders of the women’s movement.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I received this advance reader copy from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review. Exceptional novel! Margaret Fuller is a woman ahead of her time and she lived a courageous life for a woman of the 19th or 20th century. A brilliant triumph of historical fiction!

Although I adored The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post and found it incredibly informative and enjoyable, I am not finding Finding Margaret Fuller to be the same. The first book had a wonderful real history behind it, and this book does, too, but it is written in a much drier way.

This book is not what I had expected; the beginning is slyly written and very depressing. But I do admit that Margaret was a wonderful champion of women's rights and Feminism, way ahead of her time, especially in that bastion of Puritanism (Boston). As far as her being one of the few women Transcendentalists, this is true, and a lot of the ideology of this group was sound but way ahead of their time.

The prose is lovely, but the inner dialoguing was too much for me.

*ARC was supplied by the publisher, Ballantine Books, the author, and NetGalley.

I recommend Finding Margaret Fuller by Allison Pataki. The characters will engage you from the first page. I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and the publisher. This is my honest and personal review. Happy Reading!

I loved Allison Pataki’s previous books - she has a way of breathing new life into historical characters and introducing us all to those that history may have forgotten – so, of course, I jumped at the chance to read her latest book. Margaret Fuller is a formidable woman who has shaped the lives of many through her actions but unfortunately for me, I find intellectuals uninteresting. Inspiring, yes, but not my cup of tea. The book, as usual, is well written, but I have a difficult time connecting with any of the characters and, while I was charmed by a young Louisa May Alcott, the rest of the characters did not make any positive impressions on me. The story did pick up as she left New England but it wasn’t enough to carry the whole book.

Among the many accomplishments of Margaret Fuller was she was the first woman hired to write book reviews. She is our “Patron Saint”. Such an interesting story about someone I knew nothing about. I hope many people take the time to read it. Thanks to #NetGalley and #FindingMargaretFuller for advanced digital copy

Allison Pataki has outdone herself again with her latest novel, Finding Margaret Fuller. Knowing nothing about this woman before reading Pataki’s book, I was swept away by the story of a true force to be reckoned with. Contemporary of Emerson, Poe, Alcott, and Hawthorne, Margaret Fuller helped pave the way for women’s suffrage even before Stanton and Anthony. Pataki completely mesmerized me with her prose and storytelling ability, bringing to life a woman who deserves much more attention than history has given her.

Compelling, intriguing, breathtaking, and heart rendering, Finding Margaret Fuller is a beautiful story filled with both sorrow and hope. I cannot recommend it highly enough!

I received this book from Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

Allison Pataki has done it again! Margaret Fuller, was the most well read woman in America, and someone I hadn’t heard about. Pataki has brought her to life in Finding Margaret Fuller!

Intertwined with many historical literary icons, Margaret Fuller was a feminist, teacher, writer, and journalist and traveller.

I absolutely loved how Pataki can find such great women in history who were so impactful. Her storytelling came to life and I couldn’t put it down. Pataki even had me googling and doing my own research while I was reading to learn more about everyone mentioned. I’ve loved Pataki’s past work too!

If you’re a fan of historical fiction and learning about great women in American history, be sure to pick up Finding Margaret Fuller! I can’t wait to recommend this wonderful story!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.