My thoughts
This is my first book by Kimberly Brock. I almost didn't read/listen to it. I'm so very happy that I did. It was so good. A bit of magic mixed in with history. Descriptions that took my breath away. This book had so many feelings. It kept me turning the pages. Even a couple of things that I was afraid would not be cleared up certainly were. In the best way.
This is about three women. More but mostly three. Cleo, Audrey, and Frances. A few secondary characters that you will love. Maybe a couple you won't like but they may grow on you. But the story is about a town and a small island. About things that happened in the past that shaped how the future of the town would be. Back when people were discriminated against for the color of their skin and ethnic makeup. Be it Black or Indian.
You learn a lot about each women throughout. Each chapter is told from or about each one with Fables written in at times to keep you knowing what happened back when Cleo was young and had first come to the island. The friendships that some made. How the boys/men pretty much did what they wanted. They didn't have many cares. They drank and pretended to hunt. Had parties and bonfires. You get to know a few of the boys better.
The magic of the water. The tunnels that run under some buildings. The library. And the theatre. I loved reading about these things. It makes you feel like you are right there. The boarding house and the boy named Jimmy. I adored him.
This book is well researched. I listened to that Author's notes at the end of the audio and it was very interesting. I think she did a great job with this book. It's a wonderful story.
Thank you #NetGalley, #HarperCollinsFocus, #HarperMuse, for this ARC. This is my true thoughts about this book.
Five big stars.
About
Inspired by the little-known history of Cumberland Island, The Fabled Earth is a sweeping story of family lore and the power of finding your own voice as Southern mythology and personal reckoning collide with a changing world.
1932. Cumberland Island off the coast of Southern Georgia is a strange place to encounter the opulence of the Gilded Age, but the last vestiges of the famed philanthropic Carnegie family still take up brief seasonal residence in their grand mansions there. This year's party at Plum Orchard is a lively young men from some of America's finest families come to experience the area's hunting beside a local guide; a beautiful debutante expecting to be engaged by the week's end, and a promising female artist who believes she has meaningful ties to her wealthy hosts. But when temptations arise and passions flare, an evening of revelry and storytelling goes horribly awry. Lives are both lost and ruined.
1959. Reclusive painter Cleo Woodbine has lived alone for decades on Kingdom Come, a tiny strip of land once occupied by the servants for the great houses on nearby Cumberland. When she is visited by the man who saved her life nearly thirty years earlier, a tempest is unleashed as the stories of the past gather and begin to regain their strength. Frances Flood is a folklorist come to Cumberland Island seeking the source of a legend - and also information about her mother, who was among the guests at a long-ago hunting party. Audrey Howell, briefly a newlywed and now newly widowed, is running a local inn. When she develops an eerie double exposure photograph, some believe she's raised a ghost--someone who hasn't been seen since that fateful night in 1932.
As a once-in-a-century storm threatens the natural landscape and shifting tides reveal what Cumberland Island has hidden all along, two timelines and the perspectives of three women intersect to illuminate the life-changing power of finding truth in a folktale.
The Fabled Earth :
Is great for book clubs with its included discussion questionsMakes a great gift for readers of Alice Hoffman, Kate Morton, Sarah Addison Allen, and Emelia HartNew York Times bestselling author William Kent Krueger called Brock’s The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare, “Complex, compelling, and beautifully crafted.”
1932. Cumberland Island off the coast of Southern Georgia is a strange place to encounter the opulence of the Gilded Age, but the last vestiges of the famed philanthropic Carnegie family still take up brief seasonal residence in their grand mansions there. This year's party at Plum Orchard is a lively young men from some of America's finest families come to experience the area's hunting beside a local guide; a beautiful debutante expecting to be engaged by the week's end, and a promising female artist who believes she has meaningful ties to her wealthy hosts. But when temptations arise and passions flare, an evening of revelry and storytelling goes horribly awry. Lives are both lost and ruined.
1959. Reclusive painter Cleo Woodbine has lived alone for decades on Kingdom Come, a tiny strip of land once occupied by the servants for the great houses on nearby Cumberland. When she is visited by the man who saved her life nearly thirty years earlier, a tempest is unleashed as the stories of the past gather and begin to regain their strength. Frances Flood is a folklorist come to Cumberland Island seeking the source of a legend - and also information about her mother, who was among the guests at a long-ago hunting party. Audrey Howell, briefly a newlywed and now newly widowed, is running a local inn. When she develops an eerie double exposure photograph, some believe she's raised a ghost--someone who hasn't been seen since that fateful night in 1932.
As a once-in-a-century storm threatens the natural landscape and shifting tides reveal what Cumberland Island has hidden all along, two timelines and the perspectives of three women intersect to illuminate the life-changing power of finding truth in a folktale.
The Fabled Earth :
Is great for book clubs with its included discussion questionsMakes a great gift for readers of Alice Hoffman, Kate Morton, Sarah Addison Allen, and Emelia HartNew York Times bestselling author William Kent Krueger called Brock’s The Lost Book of Eleanor Dare, “Complex, compelling, and beautifully crafted.”
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