What Passes as Love, Trisha R. Thomas
What Passes as Love, Trisha R. Thomas
List: $42.99 | Sale: $30.10
Club: $21.49

What Passes as Love

Author: Trisha R. Thomas

Narrator: Soneela Nankani, Marcus Stewart

Unabridged: 11 hr 58 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/01/2021

Synopsis

A young woman pays a devastating price for freedom in this heartrending and breathtaking novel of the nineteenth-century South.1850. I was six years old the day Lewis Holt came to take me away.Born into slavery, Dahlia never knew her mother—or what happened to her. When Dahlia’s father, the owner of Vesterville plantation, takes her to work in his home as a servant, she’s desperately lonely. Forced to leave behind her best friend, Bo, she lives in a world between black and white, belonging to neither.Ten years later, Dahlia meets Timothy Ross, an Englishman in need of a wife. Reinventing herself as Lily Dove, Dahlia allows Timothy to believe she’s white, with no family to speak of, and agrees to marry him. She knows the danger of being found out. She also knows she’ll never have this chance at freedom again.Ensconced in the Ross mansion, Dahlia soon finds herself held captive in a different way—as the dutiful wife of a young man who has set his sights on a political future. But when Bo arrives on the estate in shackles, Dahlia decides to risk everything to save his life. With suspicions of her true identity growing and a bounty hunter not far behind, Dahlia must act fast or pay a devastating price.

About Trisha R. Thomas

Trisha R. Thomas has been featured in O, The Oprah Magazine’s Books That Made a Difference. Her work has been featured and reviewed in Cosmopolitan, the Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Essence, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Her debut novel, Nappily Ever After, is now a popular Netflix original film. She is also a reviewer for the Los Angeles Review of Books. Trisha is a recipient of the Literary Lion Award from the King County Library System Foundation, was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, and was voted Best New Writer by the Black Writers Collective. For more information visit www.trisharthomas.com.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jennifer ~ TarHeelReader on September 26, 2021

Quick thoughts: What Passes as Love is the heartrending novel about Dahlia, born a slave, knowing little about her early life or family. Her father is the owner of the plantation, and she’s brought inside to work as a servant once she’s old enough. This leaves Dahlia lonely and missing her friends, a......more

Goodreads review by Barbara on August 16, 2021

How are we really supposed to believe that Dahlia/Lily is fair enough to 'pass for white', and yet the house slaves can all figure out that she's one of them? Even without a scar on her back more impressive than Harry Potter's scar on his forehead, it's clear that she can't really get away with her......more

Goodreads review by BERNADETTE KLINK on August 16, 2021

Quite amazing Very well written. I am a 93 year old white woman. Almost a century old. Raised and lived this life in areas of the country with very little interaction with any black people. So considering the possibility of truth that such families lived such lives gives a lot of chance for pondering......more

Goodreads review by Linda on August 01, 2021

Based on a true story, “What Passes as Love” is an immersive story of antebellum fiction with a twist. Dahlia or Lily, as she comes to be known, is the fair skinned negro daughter of a white plantation owner. She is being raised with 2 other young daughters that are her half sisters. After a terribl......more

Goodreads review by Oyinda on September 01, 2021

Book 257 of 2021 This was a beautifully done book. I enjoyed the plot, the stakes, the characters, and the writing. The writing was vivid and sucked me in. In a time when I wasn't reading any paperbacks, this one had me going back to it every chance I got. Dahlia is the main character of this book, an......more

Quotes

“Thomas’s (Un-nappily in Love, 2020) well-researched and compelling novel charts Dahlia’s complex journey of escape, reinvention, and self-acceptance. Fans of Alena Dillon and Lucinda Riley will be moved by this historical glimpse into a brutal time period. Not shying away from the cruelties of slavery, Thomas gives a voice to the enslaved by exploring the power of shared humanity and newfound courage.” —Booklist“The author really gets inside Dahlia’s head…She’s resourceful, a chance-taker who dreams and schemes until opportunities present themselves. It’s impossible not to root for her, however risky her actions.” —Historical Novels Review“The scribe who sold us on living Nappily Ever After turns her talents to historical fiction.” —Essence

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List