This was a great read! The main character was a strong personality, demonstrating the ability to overcome anything - the rejection from a mother whose supposed to be the greatest example of love and the death of a father who tried. There were a few too many characters that …more I had to remember, making the book quite lengthy but I was determined to get to the end because of the story’s richness! (less)

This book was amazing! I am normally not interested in historical fiction but went ahead and challenged myself to read this book. After the first few pages, I found it not to be a challenge at all; this is a great story. The author did a great job of weaving the characters' …more lives together - their stories were told separately but you eventually begin to see how they are all connected. After reading the story, I became interested in the actual story, realizing that it was based around a true event in history. The writing is to be commended. Historical fiction will become one of my new choices of genre as a result of reading this book. I also look forward to reading some of the other works from Chanel Cleeton. (less)

Dovey Johnson Roundtree's story is amazing! This is a story of an amazing African American woman who accepted and won challenges that would have been thought to be impossible, especially during her day. Her diligence broke not only color barriers but also gender (army, …more courtroom, church). I am an African American female who takes pride in learning of and knowing the history of female and African Americans but did not know of this outstanding woman. I found the book to be motivational for not only African Americans but women of all races. It should be utilized in classrooms around the nation on the college level due to the content strong vocabulary. It was definitely time for her story to be told! (less)

This book was a great read from beginning to end! The author did a great job of introducing tough topics to include racism, sexism, classism, and even mental abuse. It was a great idea to keep us informed of how Patsy's decision to leave her daughter, Tru, behind as she …more selfishly goes to America in search of what she thought would be a better life. Ultimately, it appears that Patsy was more in search of her own identify and what could be considered a fantasy, in my opinion. The lesson could be that location doesn't necessarily guarantee happiness. It was a brilliant idea for the author to continuously take us back to Tru's story to update us on how the loss of a mother can impact a child. There were also other lessons of mental abuse experienced by Marva (a victim and culprit) and even Tru's stepbrother. Even though they weren't the main characters in the story, each character involved in the book had his or her own story. It was also an eye opener to discover so many forms of discrimination. Being from America sometimes hinders our judgement about life from the viewpoint of others. I hated for the story to end. Could there possibly be a sequel? I would definitely buy it! (less)