I received the book a few days ago and have just finished Part One. Hope to finish it this weekend, because it’s a Page Turner that I wish I could read the book in one day from from beginning to end! Great pacing, characters, setting, plot, conflict, theme, point of view, tone and style.
Welcome Kathleen, glad you joined BookBrowse—the best place to read and discuss good books! I grew up in New England but have lived in North Carolina for many years. What a culture shock — STILL learning about the “peculiar” history of The South.
The American Queen is also an historical fiction book.
But I plan to read it, too — thanks to your preference for Vanessa Miller’s book!
Welcome to BookBrowse! I have the same feeling as you about historical fiction. For a while, I avoided it — felt like authors and/or publishers were cranking out the same old tropes just to make $$$. Happy to recently find books in this genre that aren’t the same old, same old stories!
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I’m so grateful for the clarification @BlueRidgeJeanne I don’t know where I got the idea that this was nonfic. I’m still planning to read it.
The Happy Land was a revelation — I had no idea these communities existed. It speaks to a real gap in how history is taught, even at the university level. Black history is too often framed around suffering and oppression, without equally honoring the extraordinary strength, resilience, and self-determination of the people who built thriving communities like this one entirely on their own terms
Overall, I enjoyed the book. I preferred the Luella portion, but the author did a good job of pulling it together in the end. I felt such sadness for the struggles of Luella and the Kingdom to hang on to their land against the modern struggles of Mother Rita to do the same.
I really enjoyed Happy Land! I could have happily read a whole book about the Luella and the building of the Kingdom. I did appreciate how the modern day story with Nikki shows how we are still impacted by what happened to our ancestors today.
Thanks, I’ve just put the book on hold from the library
The story pulled me in from the first pages and held me to the end. The dual timelines worked great, enhancing both storylines. I learned about a new part of history and did so in an enjoyable and engaging way.
I had Happy Land on my library hold list for quite a while so I was “happy” to be gifted a copy by BookBrowse so I would finally read it. I enjoyed the book. I did find it drawn out a bit but still an interesting read. I definitely learned about a place I had not heard of before. Mother Rita reminded me of my mother. They both lived in a rural area (my mother in Virginia); they both had substantive flower gardens, and they both spent time in the local library. I could be compared to Nikki’s mother in that I didn’t really like the immediate area my mother lived in so I probably didn’t visit as often as she would have liked, but we still had a very positive relationship.
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