Hello readers!

Welcome to this week’s installment of First Sentence Friday and Free Book Friday!  For the foreseeable future, the free book is a signed Advance Reader Copy (ARC) of When the Jessamine Grows. ????

This week’s sentence presents a motherly dilemma, one many of us have encountered in our own lives when it comes to dealing with moody pre-teens. I used to believe children and adolescents born long ago were completely different than now. I thought they were obedient, polite to a fault, and never crossed their parents’ wishes. The saying “A child should be seen, not heard,” is so familiar to us, that it’s easy to assume they never disobeyed, or defied their parent’s wishes. One eye-opening book that reveals some anomalies when it comes to the parent/child relationship from a similar time as inhabited by my characters in When the Jessamine Grows, is by Scott Zesch. It’s called The Captured.

This book was an in-depth look at the abduction of white children by various Plains Indians tribes and the efforts made to get them back. One of the more fascinating aspects (barring the horrors these kids witnessed and experienced) is most of them didn’t want to return to their families. This was a puzzle. Why wouldn’t they? This was one of the mysteries Zesch tried to answer. The most common thread, at least for the young boys, was the fact they weren’t expected to do the sort of grueling work their white parents wanted them to do. It’s a fact many pioneering families would have lots of children who could grow up and help with the chores around the farm. Another interesting, but less common possibility was the lack of physical love and approval shown by their white parents compared to their native American parents. Captured white boys were usually adopted, and they were looked upon with pride as they exceled in what was expected of warriors. (hunting, scalping and stealing horses) For the young girls, it wasn’t always as easy. The women of these tribes did much of the manual labor, and the girls were often used as slaves. But, not always, and some were adopted and given fine gifts of silver, copper, and decorated in the traditions of the tribe. They were loved and cared for as if they’d been born into the tribe.

This week’s sentence is about Joetta deciding to handle what’s going on with Robert differently than you might expect, given the time period. Instead of forcing him to do as she wanted, she chose differently. She had a good reason, but of course, you have to read the book to know what that is. ????

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Chapter 19

She did not go after Robert again.

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FREE BOOK FRIDAY!!!

For this week’s chance to win a signed ARC of When the Jessamine Grows, let’s keep it simple! Follow me on any of my social media, or add the book to your “Want to Read” list out on Goodreads! That’s it – have a great weekend everyone!

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PRE-ORDERS

Pre-orders gauge the interest and signal to the publisher readers are eager for an author’s work! Please consider pre-ordering because it really does help! If you’re holding out because you might win an ARC or a finished copy, remember you can always give away the extra as a gift to one of your reader friends. ????

Pre-order links for your convenience:

Bookshop.org

Kensington Publishing Corporation

Barnes & Noble

Books-A-Million

Amazon

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Last, but not least, don’t forget to:

• Add WHEN THE JESSAMINE GROWS to your Goodreads “To Read” shelf
• Share this post with your reader friends
• Follow me on Goodreads, Twitter, Facebook, Bookbub, or my blog!