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A Novel
by Ashton Lattimore
A housemaid with a dangerous family secret conspires with a wealthy young abolitionist to help an enslaved girl escape, in volatile pre-Civil War Philadelphia—"a gripping novel about standing up to impossible odds" (People, Best New Books)
Philadelphia, 1837. After Charlotte escaped from the crumbling White Oaks plantation down South, she'd expected freedom to feel different from her former life as an enslaved housemaid. After all, Philadelphia is supposed to be the birthplace of American liberty. Instead, she's locked away playing servant to her white-passing father, as they both attempt to hide their identities from slavecatchers who would destroy their new lives.
Longing to break away, Charlotte befriends Nell, a budding abolitionist from one of Philadelphia's wealthiest Black families. Just as Charlotte starts to envision a future, a familiar face from her past reappears: Evie, her friend from White Oaks, has been brought to the city by the plantation mistress, and she's desperate to escape. But as Charlotte and Nell conspire to rescue her, in a city engulfed by race riots and attacks on abolitionists, they soon discover that fighting for Evie's freedom may cost them their own.
To what audience would you recommend Happy Land? Is there another book or author you feel has a similar theme or style?
I have definitely recommended this book to historical fiction fans, especially readers looking for books by BIPOC authors. Just a few other historical fiction books I recommend (aside from Take My Hand by the same author): Where the Wildflowers Grow by Terah Shelton Harris The Seven Daughters of ...
-Janie-Hickok-Siess
Which books will you take on vacation?
Kind of a mixed bag of books on the Kindle for the Summer: All We Were Promised - Ashton Lattimore Foundation - Isaac Asimov Spain in Our Hearts - Adam Hochschild The Names - Florence Knapp Spitfires - Becky Aikman These are just for starters. :laughing:
-Gabi_J
"A thoroughly researched gem with a strong sense of place anchored around the construction of Pennsylvania hall." —Booklist (starred review)
"This rich historical novel widens the scope on the variety of Black American experiences." —Kirkus Review
"[A] richly layered debut ... Lattimore is a writer to watch." —Publishers Weekly
"All We Were Promised is a vivid and significant contribution to historical fiction that masterfully recovers the dynamic diversity of Philadelphia's Black community circa 1837. A heartwarming, important work, the novel's carefully considered and nuanced characters, white and Black, complete a fascinating narrative that revives long-ignored details of abolitionist coalitions and flourishing free Black communities who lit the path for the liberation that would follow." —Joshunda Sanders, author of Women of the Post
"A compelling tale of three Black women caught between the promises and threats of a supposedly free, pre–Civil War Philadelphia." —Charmaine Wilkerson, author of Black Cake
This information about All We Were Promised was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Ashton Lattimore is an award-winning journalist and a former lawyer. She is the editor-in-chief at Prism, a nonprofit news outlet by and for communities of color, and her nonfiction writing has also appeared in The Washington Post, Slate, CNN, and Essence. Lattimore is a graduate of Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and Columbia Journalism School. She grew up in New Jersey, and now lives in suburban Philadelphia with her husband and their two sons. All We Were Promised is her first novel.
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