Another southern fiction in the long line of southern fiction that I've read and loved. First time for this author and I will read more.
Adie, 17, becomes pregnant, and a wife to a philandering husband not much older than she with absolutely no more ambition than skirt-chasing. She's forced to leave her family and live with a mother-in-law who sees no value to Adie or anything she does.
Along comes Murphy, a local chicken farmer, who rents Adie an old slave cabin and helps her start her own chicken business, who introduces her to the elderly black woman next door who helped raise Murphy. Willa Mae, becomes Adie's mentor, teaching her what a young girl needs to know to become a young woman and a mother. She also gives her an old family journal to read that was written by Willa's mother, a former slave.
It is with this journal that the story comes alive with the heart-wrenching tragedies and abominations folks from those times and places suffered. These stories help Adie cope with her husband's cheating, her baby being taken from her, and her falling in love with another man she cannot have. Help her cope with her husband impregnating another womanâwhile she herself is pregnant again--then joining the military, abandoning them both.
While a page-turner, at times, the story-line is predictable. Almost always, just before an event, you could see what was about to happen. Yet, it didn't matter one whit because of the way the story was told and the deep involvement held for the very well-written characters.
Adie, 17, becomes pregnant, and a wife to a philandering husband not much older than she with absolutely no more ambition than skirt-chasing. She's forced to leave her family and live with a mother-in-law who sees no value to Adie or anything she does.
Along comes Murphy, a local chicken farmer, who rents Adie an old slave cabin and helps her start her own chicken business, who introduces her to the elderly black woman next door who helped raise Murphy. Willa Mae, becomes Adie's mentor, teaching her what a young girl needs to know to become a young woman and a mother. She also gives her an old family journal to read that was written by Willa's mother, a former slave.
It is with this journal that the story comes alive with the heart-wrenching tragedies and abominations folks from those times and places suffered. These stories help Adie cope with her husband's cheating, her baby being taken from her, and her falling in love with another man she cannot have. Help her cope with her husband impregnating another womanâwhile she herself is pregnant again--then joining the military, abandoning them both.
While a page-turner, at times, the story-line is predictable. Almost always, just before an event, you could see what was about to happen. Yet, it didn't matter one whit because of the way the story was told and the deep involvement held for the very well-written characters.
