In 1772 England, Lady Keturah Banning Tomlinson and her sisters find themselves the heiresses of their father’s estates and know they have one option: Go to the West Indies to save what is left of their heritage.
Although it flies against all the conventions for women of the time, they’re determined to make their own way in the world. But once they arrive in the Caribbean, proper gender roles are the least of their concerns. On the infamous island of Nevis, the sisters discover the legacy of the legendary sugar barons has vastly declined–and that’s just the start of what their eyes are opened to in this unfamiliar world. Keturah never intends to put herself at the mercy of a man again, but every man on the island seems to be trying to win her hand and, with it, the ownership of her plantation. She could desperately use an ally, but even an unexpected reunion with a childhood friend leaves her questioning his motives.
Set on keeping her family together and saving her father’s plantation, can Keturah ever surrender her stubbornness and guarded heart to God and find the healing and love awaiting her?
Lisa T. Bergren takes you on a tropical adventure in her new novel Keturah! This is the first story I’ve encountered set on a sugar plantation in the late 1700s, and Bergren really brings both the setting and the culture to life. I love the way that she describes the attitudes of the time, painting a picture of how people interacted. Social interactions then weren’t like they are now, and she describes them with grace and clarity while showcasing the problems that society embodied.
It wasn’t just the different social structure that Bergren described well; at times I felt as if I could put down the book and see the waves kissing the shore just past the treeline if only I’d look hard enough. Sometimes a story is such that it could happen anywhere, and so the setting doesn’t really matter much, but in Keturah it could be another player in the cast of characters. It’s crucial, and I like that.
Keturah and her sisters aren’t alike. They may be related, but their personal experiences are vastly different, and I like how realistic Bergren made this. Keturah has a disturbing history, and I love the way the author made this a part of her. Keturah grows through her experiences but what happened to her is described well, and her actions feel realistic. I enjoyed the way that Bergren dripped her past through the story slowly, making me guess about what had happened to her while only releasing a detail here and there before finally spilling the beans. The suspense and drama couldn’t have been reached any other way, and it made me want to cheer on Keturah while refusing to put the book down because I couldn’t wait to find out her whole story.
Do you like suspenseful historical fiction stories? If so, give Bergren’s Keturah a read. You’ll be glad you did!
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I received a free copy of this book from LitFuse Publicity. All opinions are my own.
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