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“An exquisite tapestry of women determined to defy the molds the world has for them.”—Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours
Georgeanna “Georgey” Woolsey isn’t meant for the world of lavish parties and the demure attitudes of women of her stature. So when war ignites the nation, Georgey follows her passion for nursing during a time when doctors considered women on the battlefront a bother. In proving them wrong, she and her sister Eliza venture from New York to Washington, D.C., to Gettysburg and witness the unparalleled horrors of slavery as they become involved in the war effort.
In the South, Jemma is enslaved on the Peeler Plantation in Maryland, where she lives with her mother and father. Her sister, Patience, is enslaved on the plantation next door, and both live in fear of LeBaron, an abusive overseer who tracks their every move. When Jemma is sold by the cruel plantation mistress Anne-May at the same time the Union army comes through, she sees a chance to finally escape—but only by abandoning the family she loves.
Anne-May is left behind to run Peeler Plantation when her husband joins the Union army and her cherished brother enlists with the Confederates. In charge of the household, she uses the opportunity to follow her own ambitions and is drawn into a secret Southern network of spies, finally exposing herself to the fate she deserves.
Inspired by true accounts, Sunflower Sisters provides a vivid, detailed look at the Civil War experience, from the barbaric and inhumane plantations, to a war-torn New York City, to the horrors of the battlefield. It’s a sweeping story of women caught in a country on the brink of collapse, in a society grappling with nationalism and unthinkable racial cruelty, a story still so relevant today.
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Creators
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Series
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Publisher
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Release date
March 30, 2021 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781984845443
- File size: 513675 KB
- Duration: 17:50:09
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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January 25, 2021
This vibrant saga explores the historical ancestor of Kelly’s Lost Roses heroine Caroline Ferriday, abolitionist Georgeanna “Georgy” Woolsey. In 1861, Georgy, 28, abandons her privileged New York City debutante’s life to volunteer in a nursing brigade for the Union Army alongside her sister, Eliza. Running parallel to this narrative is the plight of Jemma, a literate enslaved Maryland woman who, after being sold off by sadistic mistress Anne-May Watson, must choose between her family and a fleeting opportunity for freedom. After Jemma escapes her new plantation dressed up as a boy, she is conscripted into the Union Army. When Anne-May, now a Confederate spy, hears the news, she pursues Jemma for help. The strands eventually converge in the novel’s satisfying second half, when Jemma is taken in by Georgy’s family, while Anne-May obsessively searches for her. The vivid, impeccably researched saga briskly sweeps across war-torn battlefields, New York City, and Southern plantations, highlighting the struggles endured by her women characters. This page-turning work is sure to please Kelly’s fans. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, ICM Partners.
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