This is a haunting book of life in the South during the '20s. Family secrets and racial discrimination abound, and our 3 main characters must all make choices to protect the ones they love. An interesting look at a life and time I know nothing about, and I greatly enjoyed reading the afterward by the author, who provides a little more context and information about the setting.

I loved this book. The time period was evocative and the characters believable and real.
It is a story that will pull on you heart like The Help.

This is a story told by three women who lived in the same neighborhood in rural South Carolina before the Great Depression in the 1920’s. Annie is a rich white woman, Retta is a poor black woman and Gert is a poor white woman. At first it seems that these three women have nothing in common, but they come together to overcome a number of terrible injustices including racism, extreme poverty, abuse of power, and pedophilia. They each bring out the strength and grit in each other. This is a great book. It was written in a way that it was enjoyable and heartwarming in spite of all the hardships these three women and their families endured. I didn’t want to put this book down. I highly recommend it. I was provided an ARC of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

"Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
A long ways from home
A long ways from home
True believer
A long ways from home
A long ways from home
Sometimes I feel like I’m almos’ gone
Sometimes I feel like I’m almos’ gone
Sometimes I feel like I’m almos’ gone
Way up in de heab’nly land
Way up in de heab’nly land
True believer
Way up in de heab’nly land
Way up in de heab’nly land
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
Sometimes I feel like a motherless child
A long ways from home
There’s praying everywhere" - African American Spiritual

This was not a pretty book. It was depressing, raw, gritty, and ugly. Much as the truth often is. I'm not sure there was even one page that was pleasing in regard to the storyline itself or the lives of the characters. This is not to say that it wasn't a pleasure to read such a wonderfully written book. It certainly was, and it was obvious that the author did her research and knew her topic well.

This is a fictional story told by three women in pre-depression South Carolina. They are Gertrude, Oretta and Annie. Their lives, while vastly different, are entwined and much the same in many ways. They are wives and mothers; they are products of the era and the places in which they lived, they are shaped by the actions of men who figure prominently in their lives. Each of these women meet death on an intimate level, through family members and friends. Sometimes they met death head-on and deliberately, and sometimes they try to hide from it. But they all know it well.

There is almost every kind of monster you can imagine in this book - murder, physical abuse, emotional abuse, bigotry, poverty, suicide, pedophilia. There is also a strong spiritual cover that lays over it all. I am not a religious person; however, this book would not be accurate in an historical sense or for the setting if religion was not included here. Not only that, the mysticism and beliefs among the main characters are critical to their actions throughout the story. Because of these reasons, I found the spirituality described as fascinating and compelling.

I appreciated very much the voices of the three women and the vernacular of the times and locale. There were many expressions that I highlighted in the book due to their beauty or uniqueness or even the fact that they resonate still today, so many decades later.

The book was originally entitled "Alligator," for reasons that are clear as the story is read. I received this as an e-book galley from NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing and Park Row in exchange for my review. I thank them for this opportunity. 4 stars

Wow. Received an advance reader copy of this book from NetGalley & I’m so glad I did! This book was absolutely beautiful. Weaving family stories together, developing strong characters that stand alone, and staying true to the hardships the families endured for the time period...it was a winner of a book. I cannot wait for this book to be published so I can add it to my actual shelf- perfect for a book club, present or just a straight good book recommendation for the friend that doesn’t know what they like to read. LOVED THIS ONE.

Call Your Daughter Home is a tale of three women in the South during the 1920s. I wasn't sure what to expect from this book and was actually surprised at how much the story drew me in. You couldn't help but be caught up in the lives of these women from three different backgrounds and how they ended up coming together.

Loved loved loved this book. The characters are easy to love and the character development is so well written and developed. The hardships and trials these people face are written in a way that make you feel like you are living it with them. Highly recommend Call Your Daughter Home. Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the Publisher Park Row through NetGalley. Its publication date is scheduled for June 11, 2019. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The book’s setting is in Shake Rag, a small black neighborhood in North Carolina, in the early 1920s before the country experienced the great Depression. “The South was plunged into a deep depression well before the crash on Wall Street in 1929. Cotton was the primary crop throughout the region before the boll weevil infestation decimated its economy from 1918 until the mid-1920s.” The impact of the boll weevil on crop triggers poverty and starvation.

Each chapter of the book is written from the perspective of one of three women. Gert Pardee is physically abused by her husband and has four daughters. Annie Coles is married to the wealthy family and had four surviving children: two daughters and two sons. Also, she had a 12-year-old son who committed suicide. Oretta “Retta” Bootles worked for Annie and came from slavery. Her daughter died at 8 years. The women rely on their faith in God to get through challenges: “…don’t dispute God’s existence. I never did stop believing, but He ain’t who He’s made out to be. I don’t much trust Him and I reckon He don’t much trust me, but we got ourselves an understanding. And that’s the best I can do.”

The story revolves around the interaction between these families. Marital and child abuse at the center of this story and the abuse impact on a family: “Sick people are like rattlesnakes. They don’t like to be pushed or prodded.” The women support each other in the tough times. The book is about change (“Children can’t see that everyday they are on this earth, they are changing. I suppose God designed it that way to spare us the fear of what change means.”). It moves quickly and tugs at the reader’s heart. I enjoyed this book and recommend it.

Call Your Daughter Home, by Deb Spera, may be the best book I have read this year. The story is told by three different narrators--a poor, white woman; a poor, black woman; and a rich, white woman--all who live in the same rural Southern community in the 1920's. From the very first heart stopping scene in the swamp through the unexpected plot twist to the bittersweet ending this novel will hold you in its grip as it swings from one tragedy to another, that's the way life was for many in this time and place. The three narrators stories overlap and intertwine as each of these strong, independent women do what they have to do to survive the hand they were dealt.

The major theme explored by Spera is the strength of a mother's love. She has done her research into the lives of the newly freed slaves and the class system which survives, to this day, in most of the Southern United States. Spera writes brilliantly and uses foreshadowing in the very best way. At the end of the story we are left wondering: Who stole Mr. Coles' pudding?

Call Your Daughter Home has also been published under the name Alligator.
I received a free copy of this ebook via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really loved this book. It tells about 3 different ladies . Annie (A rich lady ) Retta ( A old Black Maid who works for Annie ) Gertrude ( a very poor Lady. Gert has a bunch of girls aging in ages from almost adult to 6 years old.
This story was set back in the 1920's I don't want to tell too much as its a very good story that each should read for themselves . I do know it is 1 I will pass on to my friends and tell others to read as its awesome.

Annie, Oretta. Gertrude.
I knew after 30 pages in that I was going to miss these women dearly when I finished this book. I was right.

This has joined the shelves as one of my all time favorites. A true Southern classic right up there with Secret Life of Bees, Salvage the Bones, and the Color Purple. Mark your calendars for the June 2019 publish date. You are not going to want to miss this one. Seriously.

Backdrop: The Civil War may be three decades past but these three South Carolina women are living in the Southern Depression in the wake of the Boll Weevil decimation of King Cotton. Gertrude is barely surviving in the backwater swamps with her alcoholic, abusive husband as she watches her four daughters slowly starving before her eyes. Annie reigns as the fine Southern lady in the Big House married to the Man of the County who despite all her blessings is left to fight her own demons. Oretta is a free woman of color still working in the home where her ancestors were slave labor in order to support herself and her afflicted husband.

The lives of these three women intersect while each of their individual stories remains strong enough to stand alone. The writing is simply beautiful. This is not an outsider's view of the South. This is a Southerner capturing the spirit of her own ancestors and memories and doing so with grace and grit.

Please do not let the title of this book make you stroll on by. I think the chosen title is a big miss for this wonderful book. I was sucked into this book from the very beginning! I just could not set it down without continually thinking about it. Readers who enjoy historical fiction in southern settings will want to add this to their list.

This is a story about three women in the south in 1924. Annie Cole who is an elderly, stubborn mother estranged from her daughters. Retta, who works for the Coles - the family who onced owned her family. Gertrude, a mother of 4 in extreme poverty with an abusive husband. This is a story about women and all the heartache and oppression they have felt all their lives.

Over the unfolding of the pages, these women’s stories and lives converge together. It’s about how women can and do save each other - and about how they find the strength and resilience through motherhood to take care of their own.

Three women must come to an acceptance and understanding of each other to survive the dark days before the Great Depression in 1924 South Carolina. Annie is the public face of the Cole family, a plantation owner who has had to come to terms with her failing crops and is still dealing with the loss of the plantations “free labor”. Retta was never a slave, but her parents were and although she isn’t owned by the Coles, she works for them. And Gertrude, at the mercy of an abusive husband, must find a way to keep her four children fed and safe. This story drew me right in, Spera does an amazing job of bringing a South still struggling to find its way more than fifty years after the Civil War.