When the Jessamine Grows, Donna Everhart
When the Jessamine Grows, Donna Everhart
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When the Jessamine Grows

Author: Donna Everhart

Narrator: Tiffany Morgan

Unabridged: 12 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 01/23/2024


Synopsis

Talk of impending war is a steady drumbeat throughout North Carolina, though Joetta McBride pays it little heed. She and her husband, Ennis, have built a modest but happy life for themselves, raising two sons, fifteen-year-old Henry, and eleven-year-old Robert, on their small subsistence farm. They do not support the Confederacy's position on slavery, but Joetta considers her family to be neutral, believing this is simply not their fight.

Her opinion is not favored by many in their community, including Joetta's own father-in-law, Rudean. A staunch Confederate supporter, he fills his grandsons' heads with stories about the glory of battle and the Southern cause until one night Henry runs off to join the war. At Joetta's frantic insistence, Ennis leaves to find their son and bring him home.

But soon weeks pass with no word from father or son and Joetta is battered by the strain of running a farm with so little help. As the country becomes further entangled in the ramifications of war, Joetta finds herself increasingly at odds with those around her—until one act of kindness brings her family to the edge of even greater disaster.

About Donna Everhart

Donna Everhart is a USA Today bestselling author known for vividly evoking the complexities of the heart and the gritty fascination of the American South in her acclaimed novels. She is the recipient of the prestigious SELA Outstanding Southeastern Author Award from the Southeastern Library Association, and her novels have been SIBA Okra Picks, Indie Next Picks, and Publishers Marketplace Buzz Books selections. Born and raised in Raleigh, she has stayed close to her hometown for much of her life and now lives just an hour away in Dunn, North Carolina.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Shelley's Book Nook on September 15, 2023

My Reviews Can Also Be Found On: The Storygraph and The Book Review Crew Blog This has to be one of my favourite books so far this year. I have read every single book by Donna Everhart and she has never disappointed me. Historical Southern Fiction is one of my favourite genres and Donna Everhart is t......more

Goodreads review by Canadian Jen on March 10, 2024

The civil war. The union and the confederates. A fight to abolish slavery dividing a country. There is no place for neutrality. Either in or out. Joetta, a woman who won’t compromise her principals and wishes to remain neutral, discovers the hard way that being neutral is seen as being disloyal. Her......more

Goodreads review by Angela M on February 10, 2025

During the Civil there are men and boys on the battlefield pitted against one another and “somewhere near Whiteakers Nash County”, North Carolina “ in 1861 in a small town , neighbors are pitted against one another as they choose sides or not and remain neutral. Joetta McBride is dedicated to the fa......more

Goodreads review by Christy on November 27, 2023

'One either believes in one's morals and convictions, or they do not'. For Joetta McBride life is good. Life is peaceful. Life couldn't be any better. As subsistence farmers, they work hard and reap their own bounty. She could not want for anything more - except for her curmudgeonly father-in-law's i......more

Goodreads review by Marilyn (not getting notifications) on January 16, 2024

4.5 / 5 stars. When the Jessamine Grows by Donna Everhart was a captivating historical Southern fiction novel. It was the first book that I have read by this author. Her research for this book was quite thorough and detailed. It took place in Nash County, North Carolina just before the onset of the......more