This book was a beautiful work of historical fiction that I hope so many people pick up! The characters are well-developed and provide the reader with someone to connect with and root for! The historical timeframe was created with wonderful details that really brought me into the 1800s. I was absolutely captivated with this one, and I think so many other readers will be as well!
The story takes the reader on such an amazing journey. I loved that we alternated between the two characters. It gave insight into the world of the house and the fields. The story unfolded quickly, and I felt compelled to never put the book down. I had to know what was happening. I thought the end wrapped up just a bit too quickly. I would have liked a little more. Other than that, this was an amazing, emotional read, and I highly recommend it!
Where to Find This Book:
A young woman pays a devastating price for freedom in this heartrending and breathtaking novel of the nineteenth-century South.
1850. I was six years old the day Lewis Holt came to take me away.
Born into slavery, Dahlia never knew her mother—or what happened to her. When Dahlia’s father, the owner of Vesterville plantation, takes her to work in his home as a servant, she’s desperately lonely. Forced to leave behind her best friend, Bo, she lives in a world between black and white, belonging to neither.
Ten years later, Dahlia meets Timothy Ross, an Englishman in need of a wife. Reinventing herself as Lily Dove, Dahlia allows Timothy to believe she’s white, with no family to speak of, and agrees to marry him. She knows the danger of being found out. She also knows she’ll never have this chance at freedom again.
Ensconced in the Ross mansion, Dahlia soon finds herself held captive in a different way—as the dutiful wife of a young man who has set his sights on a political future. But when Bo arrives on the estate in shackles, Dahlia decides to risk everything to save his life. With suspicions of her true identity growing and a bounty hunter not far behind, Dahlia must act fast or pay a devastating price.
Just the Facts:
What Passes as Love by Trisha R. Thomas
Genre: Historical Fiction
Page Count: 336 pages
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Pub Date: September 1, 2021
Trisha R. Thomas has been featured in O, The Oprah Magazine’s Books That Made a Difference. Her work has been featured and reviewed in Cosmopolitan, the Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Essence, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Her debut novel, Nappily Ever After, is now a popular Netflix original film. She is also a reviewer for the Los Angeles Review of Books. Trisha is a recipient of the Literary Lion Award from the King County Library System Foundation, was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, and was voted Best New Writer by the Black Writers Collective.
Author Website: www.trisharthomas.com.
I was provided a gifted copy of this book for free. I am leaving my honest review voluntarily.
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