384 pages Publisher Harper Muse Publication date July 5, 2022
ABOUT THE BOOK
As 1947 opens, Eva Cardon is the twenty-four-year-old owner of Washington, D.C.’s, most famous Black-owned restaurant. When her path crosses with Courtland, a handsome white senator from Georgia, both find themselves drawn to one another—but the danger of a relationship between a Black woman and a white man from the South could destroy them and everything they’ve worked for.
Few women own upscale restaurants in civil rights era Washington, D.C. Fewer still are twenty-four, Black, and wildly successful. But Eva Cardon is unwilling to serve only the wealthiest movers and shakers, and she plans to open a diner that offers Southern comfort to the working class.
A war hero and one of Georgia’s native sons, Courtland Hardiman Kingsley IV is a junior senator with great ambitions for his time in D.C. But while his father is determined to see Courtland on a path to the White House, the young senator wants to use his office to make a difference in people’s lives, regardless of political consequences.
When equal-rights activism throws Eva and Courtland into each other’s paths, they can’t fight the attraction they feel, no matter how much it complicates their dreams. For Eva, falling in love with a white Southerner is all but unforgivable—and undesirable. Her mother and grandmother fell in love with white men, and their families paid the price. Courtland is already under pressure for his liberal ideals, and his family has a line of smiling debutantes waiting for him on every visit. If his father found out about Eva, he’s not sure he’d be welcome home again.
Surrounded by the disapproval of their families and the scorn of the public, Eva and Courtland must decide if the values they hold most dear—including love—are worth the loss of their dreams . . . and everything else.
The author of When Stars Rain Down returns with a historical love story about all that has—and has not—changed in the United States
- Historical romance set in civil rights era Washington, D.C.
- Stand-alone novel
- Book length: approximately 120,000 words
- Includes discussion questions for book clubs
MY THOUGHTS
I’d give this more than five stars if I could, I just loved it. I could barely put it down.
It started out with a fiercely independent black woman. She owns one of the most prestigious D.C. restaurants in 1947.
At a New Years party there she meets a white politician from Georgia.
This turns into a forbidden romance that people on both sides try to dissuade each other from this romance.
This junior senator has high ambitions in D.C., and his father in his mind, already has him married off to one of the smiling white women and taking his first steps towards the presidency.
Falling in love with a white man is an unforgivable sin in her family’s eyes. Her mother and grandmother both did and the results weren’t favorable.
In this civil rights era novel, we see threats both verbal and physical aimed at the public’s displeasure of the relationship.
They must decide if them being together is worth possibly losing everything they hold dear or to let the chance at strength, compassion and not giving in to others wishes is worth it.
Fabulous read but heartbreaking. Will not easily be forgotten.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.
MEET THE AUTHOR
Angela Jackson-Brown is an award-winning writer, poet, and playwright who is an Associate Professor in Creative Writing at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN and a member of the graduate faculty of the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing at Spalding University in Louisville, KY.
Angela is a graduate of Troy University, Auburn University, and the Spalding low-residency MFA program in creative writing. She has published her short fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry in journals like the Louisville Courier Journal and Appalachian Review. She is the author of Drinking from a Bitter Cup, House Repairs, When Stars Rain Down, and The Light Always Breaks.
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