Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
4.5 stars. I really liked this one! Squeaky clean, and interesting stories that are tied together even though they’re a century apart. The reveal at the end of how they’re tied together was sweet. It was a tiny bit slow in some parts, especially Hannie’s story, but overall I enjoyed it. Lots of history, a little mystery, and a little romance. Great!!
Great story. Romance and illegitimate 20th century baby cheapen the wonderful story.
adventurous
emotional
informative
medium-paced
This book was not bad, but not outstanding. It was simply good. The storylines, weaving together, was fascinating and learning about a bit of history (the book of lost friends) was great. At times I struggled as the storyline skipped huge portions as if the author didn't want to really describe in detail *that* moment so it was told as a reflection. Sometimes that made it hard to follow as details unraveled in a backawards manner.
I thought the story behind the book, as well as the history was interesting. I continued to read for that fact alone. However, I thought the teachers plot line had a lot of holes and wasn’t a well rounded character or storyline.
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Another beautiful novel by Lisa Wingate. Although the beginning of this book started off slowly, it build up to a heartbreaking story of loss and overcoming that terrible feeling of emptiness.
The story is told in two different eras surrounding the same history. Hannie, a former slave in 1875, is on a journey with her former master and her former master's half sister as they a trying to uncover the truth behind their fathers inheritance.
In 1987, Benny Silva is just starting her teaching career at an impoverished school where the students are disengaged and don't care to hear what she has to teach.
As both stories unfold, they uncover truths about the heritage of the town, how the characters deal with loss, and how our histories are important and define where we came from.
Overall, this book was very well written and brought you in to both characters lives in a meaningful way. I really enjoyed Benny's story most, and loved reading about the change in dynamic with her and her students.
Thank you Netgalley, Ballantine Books and Lisa Wingate for the chance to read and review this book.
The story is told in two different eras surrounding the same history. Hannie, a former slave in 1875, is on a journey with her former master and her former master's half sister as they a trying to uncover the truth behind their fathers inheritance.
In 1987, Benny Silva is just starting her teaching career at an impoverished school where the students are disengaged and don't care to hear what she has to teach.
As both stories unfold, they uncover truths about the heritage of the town, how the characters deal with loss, and how our histories are important and define where we came from.
Overall, this book was very well written and brought you in to both characters lives in a meaningful way. I really enjoyed Benny's story most, and loved reading about the change in dynamic with her and her students.
Thank you Netgalley, Ballantine Books and Lisa Wingate for the chance to read and review this book.
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
This book was just okay. I felt like I didn’t really connect with the characters and parts were slow.
Excellent book. Really enjoyed how the story was told in two voices across 100 years.
I definitely went into this book with a different understanding of what this would be about. Should this be weird / yikes to be a white author writing from the point of view of a now ex-slave? I did think the audiobook had excellent narrators.
The 1875 storyline was adventurous, dangerous, a lot of conveniently plotted moments. I thought it was a weird choice to make Lavinia be 'altered' and I wondered if this was simply easier for plot purposes and to reduce the number of main characters? It was also then weird/convenient to kill her and her brother and Uncle all in one fell swoop, and we never did find out any further information on who got her pregnant... I did like Juneau Jane and how she behaved, I would have liked a little bit more bonding with Hannie to see them become friends over my interpretation was more how JJ treated her like a servant? I felt that Hannie was the best character of the book, I really felt like her narrator brought her voice to life. I felt that she was quite brave and had a good heart too, her grit and determination was great to read, and I really enjoyed the inclusion of Gus McClatchy who was a funny character. Moses/Elim was a convenient change to suddenly be a good guy at the end, it was so obvious that the author had set this character up to be the love interest the second it was shown that he wasn't the enemy. I felt that this plot line was somewhat left unfinished and didn't really get a satisfying ending that was well resolved.
The 1987 plotline was overall the weaker plot and story, I could feel for Benny as a character but this seemed kind of basic. Additionally there was a lot of 'this goes unsaid in this town' sentimentality that was underlying the actions that Benny was taking, between the residents who all lived in this place, but I never felt that this was adequately delved into nor resolved. The romance with Nathan was quite meh, he seemed to have no personality other than loving his sister so much. Overall I just wasn't very invested in Benny and the story felt strongly paralleled to The Freedom Writers. I didn't find the epilogue to be very satisfying, especially to just plop in this random "I gave up a baby for adoption" thing on literally the last page? WTF