So good!

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This book was so good! I feel like I waited forever for it to arrive, and now I’ve read the whole thing before it’s been been released and there were cliffhangers! How long will it take for book two to come out?

This book reminds me a bit of Jane Austen and a bit of The Gilded Age. This book is set in 1910 with a cast of Black characters who are mostly wealthy. Some of their parents were enslaved and now they are successful entrepreneurs. Their children have never known the types of difficulties that their parents have, thank God, but they deal with a different set of expectations.

The Davenport family became wealthy when the patriarch of the family founded a carriage company. His children John, Olivia and Helen are now old enough to court and marry. Helen is the youngest at almost 18.

The Davenports expect their children to find upstanding, wealthy, well respected spouses. They find Jacob for Olivia. But Helen is secretly falling for Jacob. Helen also longs to have her parents’ approval for her to work on horseless carriages but they think that’s not something a lady should do.

Olivia, meanwhile, has met a civil rights leader named Washington DeWight. His entire way of life makes her question her own, safe life.

The girls’ friend Ruby is expected to get John Davenport to marry her. Her family expects it. Her father us running for office and his family being connected to the Davenport family would be a very good thing.
And Ruby has always liked John but lately she’s found herself interested in a new man. Her parents wouldn’t approve of him.

And finally there is Amy Rose. She grew up with the Davenport children but works for them now. She has bigger dreams. She plans to open her own hair salon. But this isn’t an easy thing to do. She’s saved up her money but she’s discriminated against even at the Black banks because she is a single woman trying to open a business on her own.
She’s also falling for a man that she doesn’t think she can ever be with.

This book was so good, there’s so many cliffhangers though. I am excited that it’s a new series, I look forward to reading more about these characters.

I got an early copy of this book from BookishFirst, Thank you!