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A review by piepieb
All That Makes Life Bright: The Life and Love of Harriet Beecher Stowe by Josi S. Kilpack
3.0
This book was fine. It's not you, book, it's me.
However, it doesn't pretend to be something it's not. It says right there in the title: The life and love of... I was hoping that this novel would cover more of Stowe's classic Uncle Tom's Cabin, but the bulk of it was Harriet marrying Calvin (Hattie was his second wife) and the children she subsequently bore. Thank God for modern-day birth control!!
It was mentioned a couple of times in the story that Hattie and Calvin's first wife, Eliza, were friends, and I was expecting Hattie to maybe reminisce of spending time with her friend, maybe missing her. Nope. Eliza could have been any old girl off the street -- I didn't see any relationship between her and Hattie at all.
At the beginning of the book Hattie came across as wild and spoiled and I didn't like the way she neglected housework to try and prove a point to her husband. I don't like some chores, either, but I get them done. You don't get to pick and choose what to do. If I let the sweeping and vaccuming and dishes stack up, our apartment would be a pigsty.
Overall, this book was written well, I just didn't like the main character and it's not what I expected. If you're wanting, say, the origins of Uncle Tom's Cabin, you won't find it here... give this book a hard pass. But, if you're wanting a sweet historical romance of a man and a woman trying to find themselves as they juggle a new marriage and new babies, then that's exactly what you're getting here.
However, it doesn't pretend to be something it's not. It says right there in the title: The life and love of... I was hoping that this novel would cover more of Stowe's classic Uncle Tom's Cabin, but the bulk of it was Harriet marrying Calvin (Hattie was his second wife) and the children she subsequently bore. Thank God for modern-day birth control!!
It was mentioned a couple of times in the story that Hattie and Calvin's first wife, Eliza, were friends, and I was expecting Hattie to maybe reminisce of spending time with her friend, maybe missing her. Nope. Eliza could have been any old girl off the street -- I didn't see any relationship between her and Hattie at all.
At the beginning of the book Hattie came across as wild and spoiled and I didn't like the way she neglected housework to try and prove a point to her husband. I don't like some chores, either, but I get them done. You don't get to pick and choose what to do. If I let the sweeping and vaccuming and dishes stack up, our apartment would be a pigsty.
Overall, this book was written well, I just didn't like the main character and it's not what I expected. If you're wanting, say, the origins of Uncle Tom's Cabin, you won't find it here... give this book a hard pass. But, if you're wanting a sweet historical romance of a man and a woman trying to find themselves as they juggle a new marriage and new babies, then that's exactly what you're getting here.