Sunflower Sisters

Author: Martha Hall Kelly
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 2021
Pages: 528
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Georgeanna "Georgy" Woolsey isn't meant for the world of lavish parties and the demure attitudes of women of her stature. So when war ignites the nation, Georgy follows her passion for nursing during a time when doctors considered women on the battlefront a bother. In proving them wrong, she and her sister Eliza venture from New York to Washington, D.C., to Gettysburg and witness the unparalleled horrors of slavery as they become involved in the war effort.

In the South, Jemma is enslaved on the Peeler Plantation in Maryland, where she lives with her mother and father. Her sister, Patience is enslaved on the plantation next door, and both live in fear of LeBaron, an abusive overseer who tracks their every move. When Jemma is sold by the cruel plantation mistress Anne-May at the same time the Union army comes through, she sees a chance to finally escape - but on by abandoning the family she loves

Anne-May is left behind to run Peeler Plantation when her husband joins the Union army and her cherished brother enlists with the Confederates. In charge of the household, she uses the opportunity to follow her own ambitions and is drawn into a secret Southern network of spies, finally exposing herself to the fate she deserves.

Review: I wasn't sure I had it in me right now to tackle a 500 page book, but I decided to start reading and see where it would take me.

Initially I found myself frustrated with following three women, but before long I realized the author's genius in telling this story this way. We often read novels that are told from a slaves perspective, or from that of the plantation owner, and so on, but rarely do we see the various walks of life represented in one novel in concurrent timelines.

I've seen other reviews that say this book needed to be edited down, but I disagree. This novel isn't about getting the story out, bing bang boom. It's about drawing you into these characters' lives and setting up time and place.

I love a great family saga, and if you're like me, allow me to highly recommend Roses, which is the novel to which I attribute this love of the genre.

NOTE: Sunflower Sisters is the third installment about the Woolsey Women. The first novel published was Lilac Girls, followed by Lost Roses which is actually a prequel to Lilac Girls. Sunflower Sisters is the prequel to the prequel. Got all that?

You do not have to read all three or read them in order to enjoy this "trilogy." It is geneology that connects them, not story lines.