Award Nominee
Book Blurb:
Revisit the packhorse librarians of Kentucky with this stunning companion to the New York Times best seller The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek.
In the ruggedness of the beautiful Kentucky mountains, Honey Lovett has always known that the old ways can make a hard life harder. As the daughter of the famed blue-skinned Troublesome Creek packhorse librarian, Honey and her family have been hiding from the law all her life. But when her mother and father are imprisoned, Honey realizes she must fight to stay free, or risk being sent away for good.
Picking up her mother’s old packhorse library route, Honey begins to deliver books to the remote hollers of Appalachia. Honey is looking to prove that she doesn’t need anyone telling her how to survive. But the route can be treacherous, and some folks aren’t as keen to let a woman pave her own way.
If Honey wants to bring the freedom that books provide to the families who need it most, she’s going to have to fight for her place, and along the way, learn that the extraordinary women who run the hills and hollers can make all the difference in the world.
My Review:
The sophomore novel released in 2022 following The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek that I read and reviewed back in 2020 for the book club found a slightly less enthusiastic audience than did the debut. This review, also for the newly formed online book club at my library, generally confirms my view.
The follow-up focuses on Honey Mary Angeline Lovett, aged sixteen, and suddenly alone following the arrest of her parents for violation of the mixed races law. Her mother Cussy being a “Blue” sent to prison as was her father.
While Honey contends only with blue hands (and feet), she is still considered part of the race and at sixteen, a minor. In 1953 in Kentucky, Honey is abruptly staring at the possibility of being sent to a juvenile work facility.
She is not without a guardian who will provide for her though, shielding her from the courts, until the old woman dies—which isn’t long into the narrative.
Honey has resources of her own, however, having her folk’s cabin and quickly finding work as her mother did, being a book woman delivering books to the outliers.
The patriarchal society in which she lived left the men mad at her for taking a job they might have had. From one hardship to another, she manages to surmount each, finding supporters and a strong friend in the process, but another woman filling what would normally be a man’s position.
Honey solves one loggerhead only to confront another and each time finds a solution or one finds her.
I enjoyed the atmospheric descriptions of life in the mountains in that still sheltered and remote area. Her experience as a packhorse librarian has her meeting and dealing with many characters, the women hungering for any conversation or communication, books from the outside world, while the men are generally begrudging the time and interest of their women.
There are themes of domestic violence, religious fervor, racism, herbal medicine. For some reason, I just couldn’t seem to get into this one; had difficulty engaging with Honey, found my attention wandering, jumping to the next obvious direction, and was usually correct. Too predictable? Honey too good, too sweet? I’m sitting somewhere in the middle with this one. If you thoroughly enjoyed the first, you may very well enjoy this one. The narrator did a terrific job and will recommend the audiobook over an ebook.
I downloaded a copy of this audiobook from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts.
Book Details:
Genre: Small Town & Rural Fiction, Historical Fiction
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
ASIN: B09HY61WGX
Listening Length: 10 hrs 29 mins
Narrator: Katie Schorr
Publication Date: May 3, 2022
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The Book Woman’s Daughter [Amazon]
Rosepoint Publishing: Three point Five Stars 
The Author: NYT and USA TODAY and L. A. TIMES bestselling author, Kim Michele Richardson resides in her home state of Kentucky. She is the author of the bestselling memoir The Unbreakable Child. Her novels include Liar’s Bench, GodPretty in the Tobacco Field. The Sisters of Glass Ferry and The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek. Kim Michele latest novel, The Book Woman’s Daughter, is both a standalone and sequel to The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek.
You can visit her websites and learn more at:
http://www.kimmichelerichardson.com
©2023 V Williams
Rosepoint Publishing 