Review: You must read this!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 20, 2014
Becky's review from Mrs Condit & Friends: I’m from the East Texas Piney Woods. My family goes way back to the 1800s living in this beautiful part of Texas. I know the people of Glory Lands. We may be separated by time and place but I know them. I know the preacher. I know his son. And I know bullies like Sheriff Elihu Bishop. There were such strong divisions in society in the 1920s – people were divided by money during the frightening days of the Great Depression. People were divided by race. And people were divided by things they didn’t understand and couldn’t see like sexual orientation. They still are, but this is a story of that time almost a century ago.So, maybe it is my own history and my family’s that caused me to feel gutted by this story. Ms Bondurant writes as if this story were from a journal kept at the time. It feels so real and horrifying. It is told from several POVs – Glory Lands, the young musician from Louisiana, Emory Joe, the gay son of a church pastor, and the pastor himself, Charles, who is caught in a nightmare that tests his faith.This is not an easy romance to read. The romance, in fact, takes a backseat to the small town politics and small minds. The end is ground hard gained but tearfully satisfying in its own way. I loved this book. Vastine Bondurant is on my must read list now and I look forward to anything she cares to write.