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misslisa11's review
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
3.5
Rose Perkins Bourdon returns home to Parsons, GA, without her husband and pregnant with another man’s baby. After tragedy strikes her husband in the war overseas, Rose is left with pieces of who she used to be and is forced to figure out what she is going to do with the rest of her life. Her sister introduces her to members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Feeling emotions for the first time since her husband’s passing, Rose becomes increasingly involved in the resistance efforts. Rose embarks on a path toward self-discovery and growth as she becomes involved in the Civil Rights Movement, finally becoming the woman she has always dreamed of being.
Thank you to @netgalley for the ARC! The audiobook performance of this book was great. The speaking was a little slow but I listened in 2.5x speed and it was perfect. The story itself was both heartbreaking and hopeful, and provided a lot of educational anecdotes about what Black people experienced living in the south during the Civil Rights Movement. The first 30% or so of the book was a bit slow for me and pretty much just involved laying the background and introducing all of the characters. I struggled a lot with Ruth’s character during this portion as she didn’t come across as very likable. The second half of the book was much more enjoyable to me as it delved into Rose and her community’s participation in the Civil Rights Movement and the hardships they suffered trying to bring equality to their small town. I really enjoyed this part of the book, so I think I would have rated this higher if the Civil Rights Movement was incorporated more into the first part of the book and if less time was spent with Rose dwelling on the consequences of her own actions and feeling sorry for herself. I really enjoyed all of Rose’s family members and thought they were very well developed, despite not being the main focus. Overall this was an enjoyable and educational book!
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