Never interfere with past events. Always carry your free Negro papers. Search for the survival family packs in the orchard and surrounding forest. The ribbon on the pack designates the decade the pack was made to orient you in time. Do not speak to strangers unless absolutely necessary..


The story had a great basis and it failed. There were so many characters it was overwhelming. The switching from one date to the next wasn’t seamless and left me trying to reference who was who and what time period we were now in. I think this book could be great however it needs work.

I loved this book so much! Thank you for allowing me to read it. I will be recommending it to everyone I know. My review is linked below!!
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6115726235

I knew just because of the description that I would love to read a book like this, the idea is truly amazing an I'm ashamed to say I haven't read one like this before. I'll admit I almost laughed out of suprise an had to reread the word 'daddy longlegs' to make sure I wasn't just misreading the sentence. I've never been much of a fan for time travel nor have I real liked a book so much that had it but I loved the mix of the bridge family an time travel mashed together. I deeply appreciated the details of this book that made me hyperfocus on it.

I would definitely recommend for the ones that are interested to hop on this book 😊

Fascinating historical fiction/mystery with a surprising twist.
A time traveling family curse: The Bridge family curse: means living half in this world, and disappearing into another leads to a family conundrum.
Switching between the 18th CAD thru the 20th CAD, a family mystery is cleverly revealed and a resolution is ultimately pursued. Told from a unique perspective of a “free” African American family in the USA, the culture, education, and historical lifestyle are revealed. Will a modern well educated mother find a way to end the curse?
I couldn’t put this book down. I was fascinated with Millie’s story. The writing style was tight and clean. Well done, Ms. Madison. I am a new loyal fan

I really wanted to love this book, but I just couldn't get into it. I am a huge fan of The Time Traveler's wife and the concept of time travel is my favorite so I was excited to start reading this; however, this story did not measure up to my expectations. The pacing was very slow and there was excessive exposition.

I was really excited about the premise of this story and loved that it was time travel/historical fiction combined, while focusing on an aspect of historical fiction that there aren't as many books about, vs. other historical times/events.
While overall this was enjoyable, it wasn't a top read for me - it was somewhat difficult to keep track of characters/time.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this advance copy.

I was hooked from the cover and description, it had a great overall feel to it and worked with the genre perfectly. I enjoyed the magical elements to it and how Shawntelle Madison uses history to make everything worked well. I liked that this had multi-generations and that the characters were well written and I cared about them.

On a rainy day in May 1964, history professor Cecily Bridge-Davis begins to search for the sixty-five acres of land she inherited from her father’s family. The quest leads her to uncover a dark secret: In every generation, one offspring from each Bridge family unit vanishes—and is mysteriously whisked back in time. Rules have been established that must be followed to prevent dire consequences:

Never interfere with past events. Always carry your free Negro papers. Search for the survival family packs in the orchard and surrounding forest. The ribbon on the pack designates the decade the pack was made to orient you in time. Do not speak to strangers unless absolutely necessary.

Fascinating premise. This was well-written, but I often felt like there were too many people/pieces in play and it was hard to keep track of everything without a visual. It would be nice if there was a family tree or something visual to refer back to. Very interesting read!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced digital reader's copy (ARC) in exchange for an honest review!

I wanted to love this one so badly! Madison had a great premise for her debut historical fiction/ fantasy novel and the beginning of story really pulled me in. After the first couple chapters, I began to find issues. The flow of the storyline was so hard to follow and the amount of characters being thrown in was incredibly overwhelming. It is a very slow-paced book that requires a lot of attention. Maybe had it been a physical copy that I could refer back to previous chapters easily, I would have an easier time digesting all of the details.

The good:
The premise and story was interesting and engaging. It was detailed and I thoroughly enjoyed the writing.

The less good:
First of all, I think this needs to be digested in a hard copy format. There are so many dates and names that you will want to go back and forth to reference and the was impossible on the kindle. I also would have loved to view the family tree, but couldn’t because you can’t zoom in on kindle. I thought it would be really cool to include a “copy” of the birth and death ledger from the family bible at the end as well, just a thought.

The bad:
I felt unsatisfied by the ending. I get it, but I was bummed.
I also am left with so many unanswered questions.

Overall I still liked it. Like a 3.5-3.75 stars.

This review was made possible via an ARC through NetGalley

The Fallen Fruit by Shawntelle Madison is a historical novel with a bit of time travel. The Bridge family has been traveling back in time for generations, with one child from each Bridge man cursed to do so, but no one knows which child it will be or when.

The narrative is broken up into different time periods where we see the disappearance of several family members through the eyes of others (Rebecca and Amelia) and their own forced jump in time (Luke and Cecily). We open with Amelia who knows that either her or her brother will go back but they aren’t sure which one. Because of this, her brother carries a pack with him at all times and freedom papers. When he jumps back in time, Amelia grieves but thinks she’s safe only to realize she could still be sent back in time.

Amelia goes to a university to study only to meet Cecily, her descendant who has made it her mission to prepare Amelia so they can change the course of the family curse.

The Fallen Fruit was very well-written and would appeal to fans of Kindred who are looking for more explorations of Black American families traveling back in time. Each POV felt distinct and their emotions were palpable. Rebecca was perhaps my favorite because she’s an intelligent woman who had something completely unexplained happen right before her and she’s trying to hold things together as everyone else is panicking.

I would recommend this to fans of Kindred or those looking for historical fiction with a light speculative touch.

I really enjoyed this book! I always love a good historical fiction book and the time traveling theme was really interesting. Loved the characters as well.

The Fallen Fruit is historical fiction with a time travel twist. The Bridge family are cursed where one in every family of the male line falls back in time. The story follows several generations of the Bridge family and the effects the curse has on them.
For me some of the story dragged though I appreciated the attention to detail and historical accuracy. I found the bits of farm life slow and hard to get through. I did like Amelia/Emily 's story the most at the end of the book. I was even a little bit surprised by the choices she made.
I could feel the mothers anxiety at watching her children not knowing which one she would lose. In each story I could feel the grief of loss and having to move forward. It was very touching
All the thoughts and feelings expressed are my own. Thank you to net galley for this arc.

Thank you to Net Galley and publisher for the opportunity to read this advanced copy of this book. I’m often a sucker for historical fiction. I think it helps my brain latch on to history a bit more.

This book particularly centers around the idea that one family has a course of losing a child per family line to falling back in time. As free Black families, the fear of traveling back in time would be particularly terrifying. To help with this, the Bridge family always has their freedom
papers at the ready. But this doesn’t help if you “fall” back so far those papers don’t make sense.

This is a really interesting concept and I mostly liked it. But it was a bit slow for me. I found some of the early chapters dragging on. And the back and forth jumping between times and characters felt like a lot to track at times. And ultimately the story felt a little convoluted. Like some things just weren’t tracking for me completely. But all in all, I enjoyed this book and blew through it. It was an easy book to read and easy to get sucked in once you got the premise in your mind.

“The Fallen Fruit” by Shawntelle Madison is an epic story of a family plagued by a generational curse where one offspring vanishes back in time. This book has all the elements that I enjoy reading, time travel and a familial generational curse. Unfortunately for me, I had a hard time relating to the characters so it was slow very slow read for me which is the reason for the 3* rating. The writing style is well done and very descriptive so I think many others will enjoy the story.

Thank you NetGalley and Amistad for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Amistad for an advanced reader copy for review. All opinions are my own honest viewpoints and will not provide spoilers.

Shawntelle Madison has woven a historical fiction story that has the reader waiting with bated breath for the conclusion. While this novel features time travel, it is uniquely done with characters of African American descent. As the reader follows the journey of the Bridges’ family and the curse that plagues them, there was one question that arose in my mind, “How would you survive?” The Fallen Fruit is a compelling read that makes you want to know about one’s own family history and what it means to know the land that your ancestors come from.

I am not sure about this I think it fell flat for me!

It was hard connecting to the characters and following the story!

Thanks NetGalley

This one was not for me. The storyline didn’t flow well and I could not connect with the characters.
****Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review****

This was a brilliant book. The interconnectivity of time was clever and well thought out, the characters are robust. Extremely well written.

I loved this book. Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review. When I read that this was touted to be similar to Kindred in the time travel aspect, I knew I had to read it. While the time travel and the connection between the Bridges was more complex than in Kindred, I really enjoyed how it all wove together. I cannot imagine disappearing and falling back in time, possibly into danger. As a child even! Thank goodness some of the characters had studied their family history and knew the land so well in their current time so they could figure things out once they fell.

What a beautifully written story. I highly recommend this!