I flew through this story of a young Irish orphan in the 1700s working in the kitchen house of a southern plantation.

I can't say there is anything especially new or different about this tale of slaves other than our main character Lavinia who can move between black and white life but the characters came to life for me and I loved being with them. ( )

This is an AWESOME book - I've e mailed back and forth with this author and someone bought the rights to this for a movie, which would be awesome!
Even better than 'The Help', it is depressing, but probably very realistic for the times after the Civil War. ( )

Great read. Harsh story. ( )

What a great read! But, why hasn't this been turned into a movie yet? I found this book at our local Goodwill for $2.99. I'll be handing it off to my soon to be 13 year old granddaughter to read next. I only found the ending felt a little too rushed.

The story takes place in late 18th century southern Virginia on a tobacco growing plantation called Tall Oaks. The author alternates between two storytellers, Belle, the secret daughter of her master, Captain James Pyke, and Lavinia, a 6 year old migrant, orphaned girl from Ireland. Her parents ended up dying on Captain Pykes ship on their way to America. He sold Lavinia's brothers and took in Lavinia as an indentured slave as payment. Although, he was a very fair master, this story shows just how unpredictable life of slavery really was and how it could turn on a dime.

What's interesting, is this author claims to be able to write spiritually, as if someone is leading her to write their story. As she and her husband were in the middle of renovating an old historic tavern in Virginia, she suddenly sat and wrote out the Prologue to this book in one sitting, as if someone was dictating to her. This became the basis of the story. ( )

so sad, yet moving. Unreal in the sense that things that happened then out of fear are so removed from today. They took so much as "the way it was" when a reader today wants to scream "Nooooo" as you read things unfolding. ( )