Review: Two Tales Woven into One
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 3, 2014
B. J. Robinson tells dual stories set around one plantation home—River Oaks. Yet she skillfully weaves  the two stories, telling the tale of a 1856 woman, Margaret Jane Turnrow, and her 2005 great, granddaughter Amaryllis Camilla O'Brien.Maggie, as her husband Donnie calls her, is a feisty young woman who's not afraid of life and change. She joins her husband in his work, freeing the Negro slave, and exercises her passion to teach them to read. When Donnie leaves to work on the underground railroad, and later to fight in the Civil War, faith in God and her purpose spurs her on.Cammie finds a connection with her great, grandmother through her journal she's left behind. When Cammie must endure the results of Hurricane Katrina, she and her husband Noah display the same kind of faith and trust in God as Great Grandmother Maggie.The story is one of the old south in which the author keeps the reader in suspense in  1856 while transporting them to 2005 for a while.Readers who love historical fiction as well as contemporary literature set on a plantation complete with trees covered with Spanish moss and stately homes will love this book. Mrs. Robinson has gone to a considerable amount of research to tell this tale.