The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd

Fiction

Jessie gets a call from her aunt summoning her home to deal with a family emergency. Jessie grew up on an island off the coast of South Carolina with her mom, dad, and brother until a tragic boat explosion took her father when she was only 10. Since then, the family was never the same. Jessie escaped the island the first chance she got, got married to Hugh and had a daughter. But when she finds out that her mother has purposely cut off a finger, Jessie needs to return to the island and face the past.

When Jessie gets to her mother's house, there's a lot of emotions in that house. Jessie knows something is wrong with her marriage and is trying to re-find herself. Her mother is obviously struggling with a very deep grief. The two aren't good at confronting each other so they just dance around each other for the majority of the book.

Also on the island is a monastery where monks live and the island famous mermaid chair sits. As a child, Jessie was in awe of the mermaid chair and things haven't changed. Finding her mother there one night, she also first sees Brother Thomas and instantly falls in love with him, causing further turmoil in her marriage.

The love story of this book bothered me from the start. Jessie and Brother Thomas see each other, exchange no more than a sentence or two, and decide they are in love with each other? None of the rest of the book read like a fairy tale so not sure why the author went down this path. The internal struggle they both had on whether to accept the relationship was interesting, coming from two completely different points of view.

I know others have not enjoyed this book because it doesn't compare to Sue Monk Kidd's other book, The Secret Life of Bees. Having not read that book before, I had nothing to compare this one to. It was very easy to get in to and though I didn't love the story, it was a good enough read to keep me engaged the entire book.

First Line: "In the middle of my marriage, when I was above all Hugh's wife and Dee's mother, one of those unambiguous women with no desire to disturb the universe, I fell in love with a Benedictine monk."

Rating:
(3.5/5)

Charleston by John Jakes

Historical Fiction

This epic tale of the Bell family spans three generations. The Bells are from Charleston, South Carolina in the time leading up to the Civil War. One side of the Bell family is progressive and believes in the emancipation of slaves, the other side of the family treats their slaves horribly and are incredibly racist. The story of this family starts in Charleston during the revolutionary war when the British controlled the city, then the time period between the revolutionary war and the civil war while racial tensions ran high, and finally the Civil war.

The focus is on the more progressive side of the Bell family. They free their slaves, treat them well, and one of the family members ends up travelling eastern USA to speak out against slavery. This makes no friends in Charleston, including with the other side of her family, and makes returning to Charleston hard for her.

This book has a lot of Charleston history in it, much of it I was not aware of. However because of this history, there were problems with pacing of the novel sometimes. Jakes would start talking about generals and presidents and governors which had nothing to do with the characters for a full chapter, taking you away from the characters he was trying to get you invested in. Because of this, the 530 page book took me 3 weeks to read, which is a pretty long time for me.

First Line: "One night in early November 1779, he dreamed a terrifying dream."

Rating:
(3.5/5)

Madame Presidentess by Nicole Evelina

Historical Fiction

Victoria Woodhull was the first female to run for President of the US, back in 1872. She came from a poor family and abusive childhood where her father forced her to work at a young age and her mother was an alcoholic. Trying to get herself out of the situation, she married only to find her husband also abusive. Her spirits tell her she's destined for great things so she bears this marriage until she can divorce her husband and move on. Eventually she pulls her sister away from her parents and the two move to New York to act as spiritual guides for the rich in New York. One of their clients is Cornelius Vanderbilt.

Using Vanderbilt's connections, Victoria and her sister Tennie open up a brokerage in New York, becoming the first females on Wall Street. The two become incredibly rich and the family returns to try and beg for scraps. But Victoria is destined for even more. She believes in the rights for women to vote, and the right for couples to divorce if they no longer love each other. She wants to become president of the USA to bring these rights to the American people.

I'd never heard of Victoria Woodhull before. Susan B Anthony, yes, who is more famous for the women's right movement (and she was made to sound like quite a mean woman). But Victoria Woodhull was an important part of this movement, specifically with her try at the American Presidency. Her story is a fascinating one. She could commune with the spirits, made huge in-roads for the women's movement, and was ultimately destroyed by vanity and gossip.

Now for a bit of honesty. It wasn't until about half way through that I realized Victoria Woodhull was a real person. This reads like a completely fictional novel. I think this is because it feels like everything is over the top and very much dramatized. This treatment of the story got me really engaged. I was looking up Victoria Woodhull when I finished the book and if I didn't enjoy the novel I wouldn't be doing that!

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for letting me be a part of this tour!

First Line: "By the time I was three, I head learned to fear the dark - that was when Pa came home smelling of sharp, unpleasant odors and vented his day's worth of rage on us."

Rating:
(4/5)

About the Author Nicole Evelina is a multi-award-winning historical fiction and romantic comedy writer. She spent 15 years researching Arthurian legend, Celtic Britain and the various peoples, cultures and religious practices that shaped the country after the withdrawal of Rome. Other historical interests include the Middle Ages and women who made their mark on history. And she LOVES Chicago. Find her on Twitter, Facebook and at her website.

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