When The Jessamine Grows by Donna Everhart

 

My thoughts

Donna Everhart is one of my favorite Southern Fiction and historical authors. She writes stories with heart. That touch you deeply. Stories that make you believe in things even in extreme circumstances. 

A story about a family touched by the Civil War. Touched in many ways. None too good. In North Carolina the McBrides, Joetta and Ennis, had a good life. They had two sons Henry and Robert. Ennis's dad lived there also in his family cabin. Mr McBride talked about war often. Made it seem like a good thing. When Henry runs off to join the Confederates to fight him mother becomes desperate for Ennis to go after him. Eventually he does and thus the story begins...

This is a book mostly about Joetta and her beliefs. Her husbands beliefs and Mr McBrides beliefs. Joetta and Ennis are neutral about the subject of this war. They don't really feel like it has much to do with them as they do not own any slaves and they are fairly poor. They work hard on their land. They do what they must to get by while also looking after Mr McBride. Joetta does not like the way her father in law talks about the war in front of her sons and once Henry has left and Ennis finally goes after him things start taking a drastic turn. Not for the better.

The story takes you through several of the McBride's friends beliefs and how they respond to Joetta. How some turn against her calling her a traitor. The things that happen because of this. Joetta goes through so much during this time and still does all she can to feed her other son and father in law. She takes in a young boy who was on their land and the confederates called a spy. He was just a boy and Joetta wanted to protect him. She had a heart. Some didn't care. Some could only think of themselves. 

A story that will stick with me for a long while. A heartbreaking story of this family and all they endure during a devastating time in the US because some thought it was ok to own another human being. Some thought it was their right to own a person. To shoot them if need be. They did not want to set them free. So they went to war. Life was hard but some still had a heart and knew it was wrong. Some people didn't seem to think anything of owning a black person. A slave. A sad time for the world.

This book is very well written and will make you feel things about this topic. I think it was this author's best book yet and she's written some very good Southern Fiction novels. Most of the characters I loved. A few I detested. Set in a time when American was truly messed up. 

Thank you #NetGalley, #DonnaEverhart, #KensingtonBooks, for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book.

FIVE huge stars and a very high recommendation. 

About

Talk of impending war is a steady drumbeat throughout North Carolina, though Joetta McBride pays it little heed. The small farm she tends with her husband, Ennis, and their two sons provides all they need. Those who want to fight can fight, but Joetta considers her family to be neutral.

That opinion isn’t shared by Joetta’s father-in-law, Rudean. A staunch Confederate supporter, he fills his grandsons’ heads with stories about the glories of soldiering, and insists that owning land and slaves is the only measure of success. When fifteen-year-old Henry, impressed by his grandfather’s stories, runs off to volunteer, Joetta insists Ennis go and search for him.

Weeks pass without word from either father or son, though other soldiers pass the farm, growing ever gaunter and hungrier. Joetta offers food and shelter to all, regardless of which uniform they wear. Her actions are deemed treasonous by townsfolk and the Home Guard, but Joetta won’t be swayed. After all, the wealthy find ways to stay away from battle. Why should poor men suffer and die on their behalf?

Though shunned and struggling, Joetta remains committed to her principles, and to her belief that her family will survive. But the greatest tests are still to come, for a fractured nation and for Joetta and those she loves . . .