Long Gone, Come Home

 

Long Gone, Come Home

Author: Monica Chenault Kilgore

Publisher: Harlequin Trade Publishing

Publish date: June 6, 2023

I received an electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This amazing historical novel begins during the Great Depression when Birdie Jenkins is a young girl working in a tobacco factory. She doesn't dream of a life outside her home of Mt. Sterling Kentucky. Then, she meets Jimmy Walker. Handsome and worldly, Birdie is swept off her feet and marries Jimmy, despite her mother's reservations.

Jimmy is loving and kind, but he suddenly disappears, leaving Birdie to struggle to raise their children on her own. With no explanation for his disappearance, Birdie is forced to move back home to her mother.

One day, Birdie witnesses a brutal murder and is forced to leave town, leaving her children behind. She sets out to find her long-lost Jimmy. Her search takes her to big cities like Chicago where she rubs elbows with both saints and sinners. 

This is a colorful, thought-provoking story of family, love, and one woman's determination to bring her true love home again.

The Thing About Home by: Rhonda McKnight

 The Thing About Home

Author: Rhonda McKnight

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Publish Date: May 9, 2023

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

Casey Black is known worldwide as @YourGirlCaseyB, a famous influencer. However, when her life falls apart in front of millions of followers, she is humiliated and doesn't know where to turn. Her overbearing mother/ manager is too much to handle. Her husband wants a divorce.

Casey leaves New York City for the Lowcountry of South Carolina searching for her father's family. Her mother has never allowed her to meet them or even know about them. 

Arriving in South Carolina, she finds the family she never knew. Through her Great-grandmother's journals, she learns the history of her family and their 300-acre farm in Georgetown. The slow-paced lifestyle, delicious food, and love of a family bring healing to her heart and soul. 

As old family secrets come out and she learns the truth about her life, Casey has to make some choices. This is her story.

I truly enjoyed reading this book! I love the South Carolina Lowcountry. The Gullah-Geechee culture is fascinating and beautiful The food is amazing. McKnight truly captures the beauty of the region and the people who call it home. The characters are well-rounded. I could see the people, the land, and the food. 

I don't read many books with romance as a key player. However, this one was a joy to read. I look forward to reading more books by Rhonda Mcknight. She brings the beauty of the region and its people to all of us through her words.

Read this book if...

...you love southern fiction

...you love stories about the South Carolina Lowcountry

...you love feel-good stories

...you are interested in the Gulla-Geechee culture

...you love romance

...you love starting-over stories

Miss Pearly's Girls: A Captivating Tale of Family Healing by: Reshonda Tate Billingsley

 Publisher:Dafina  Pages:272

From Amazon:

Raising four very different daughters on her own in rural Arkansas wasn't easy for Miss Pearly Bell. And she's always regretted that the sisters went their separate ways for good—and never wanted to see each other again. But when Pearly is stricken with a terminal illness, she summons them all home—determined to somehow help them get right with each other and forgive...But that means dealing with past secrets and lies first.
 
As the oldest sister, pastor's wife Maxine took her responsibility way too seriously—and never fails to judge everyone else. But a secret she can no longer keep will explode everything she stands for. Youngest sister Leslie is all about making a very different life with her new love—but she didn't expect a shattering past truth to be suddenly revealed and uproot everything she ever thought she knew. Elegant PR professional Stella and her earthy twin, Star, don’t see eye-to-eye on anything—and now a long-ago deception could wipe out their last chance at a relationship.
 
Soon each sister must confront the illusions they've taken refuge in for so long and deal with each other woman-to-woman. But can building an all-too-fragile trust repair the damage done—and help them come together when they are needed most?

My thoughts:

This is a wonderful book about sisters, family, daughters and mothers & healing. It is a story about love, both romantic & familial. There are secrets around every corner. Each sister has dealt with the past in her own way and none of those ways are especially healthy, with the exception of one. ( I don't want to add spoilers.) This story is told, in turn, through the eyes of each sister. The author does an amazing job of fleshing out the characters. We see them as they are- the good, the bad & the ugly. This is an unforgettable story.

Read this book if:

    *you love southern fiction

    * you love African American fiction

    *you love family sagas

    *you love stories about sisters

Memphis: A Novel by Tara M. Stringfellow

 Publisher: The Dial Press Pages:272

From Amazon:

    Summer 1995: Ten-year-old Joan, her mother, and her younger sister flee her father’s explosive temper and seek refuge at her mother’s ancestral home in Memphis. This is not the first time violence has altered the course of the family’s trajectory. Half a century earlier, Joan’s grandfather built this majestic house in the historic Black neighborhood of Douglass—only to be lynched days after becoming the first Black detective in the city. Joan tries to settle into her new life, but family secrets cast a longer shadow than any of them expected.

As she grows up, Joan finds relief in her artwork, painting portraits of the community in Memphis. One of her subjects is their enigmatic neighbor Miss Dawn, who claims to know something about curses, and whose stories about the past help Joan see how her passion, imagination, and relentless hope are, in fact, the continuation of a long matrilineal tradition. Joan begins to understand that her mother, her mother’s mother, and the mothers before them persevered, made impossible choices, and put their dreams on hold so that her life would not have to be defined by loss and anger—that the sole instrument she needs for healing is her paintbrush.

Unfolding over seventy years through a chorus of unforgettable voices that move back and forth in time, Memphis paints an indelible portrait of inheritance, celebrating the full complexity of what we pass down, in a family and as a country: brutality and justice, faith and forgiveness, sacrifice and love.

My Thoughts:

    This book is hard to put down. The author has a beautiful writing style. She can paint a million pictures with a simple sentence. This is a beautiful story of 4 generations of women living in the family home in a Memphis neighborhood. It is a story of family, sisters, and the struggles that single mothers face.It is a story of survival. It is a story of finding one's own truth and following one's dreams. I loved this book and I look forward to reading more books by this author.

Read this book if....

    *you love African-American literary fiction

    *you love southern fiction
    *you  love stories about sisterhood & family
    *you love family sagas