I received a review copy of this book from Net Galley. I chose this title to read because I had just finished Uncle Tom's Cabin and wanted to read more about the pre-Civil War era. This novel was emotionally powerful, making the reader feel the emotions of Mattie, the slave who had to leave her own infant son in the care of other slaves to be a wet nurse for the newborn daughter of the master, and Lisbeth, the child in her care. The love that developed between the two was very touching. The evolution of Lisbeth from taking slavery for granted to a realization of how evil slavery was creates a strong storyline. Yellow Crocus is well worth reading for the historical perspective, for the excellent characterization, and for the emotional story.

I was disappointed in the Kindle formatting. Apparently each chapter in the file used for conversion began with a drop cap. In the ebook, the initial letter of the chapter was either missing or in the wrong place. Some sentences had all the words run together with no space between words, making it difficult to read. Title and page numbers appeared randomly; obviously headers were not removed before conversion. This sloppy formatting draws the reader out of the story and makes the reading experience less enjoyable.

Reading this book makes me think about how we can look back today and recognize the evils of slavery and wonder how people of the time accepted it. I pray that we quit accepting the evils of abortion and recognize that just as Negro slaves had inherent value as humans created in the image of God so do unborn babies have the same humanity and worth.

I have no interest in reading adult historical fiction so I have no idea how this ended up on my shelf.

The Yellow Crocus held my attention and quickly became a page-turner, and I read it in one sitting.
A look at a sad time in our history, but it happened and we put faces to this brutality, first with Mattie, born a slave, and Lisabeth, daughter of the slave owner. I felt Mattie saved Lisabeth in more ways than one, and I can think of at least three instances she did save her life.
The author did a wonderful job presenting these strong women, and Lisabeth is strong because of Mattie, and we get to watch her bloom.
I will warn you once you pick this up you better open up time, because you won’t be able to put it down.
I received this book through Net Galley and Flaming Chalice Press and was not required to give a positive review.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review YELLOW CROCUS by Laila Ibrahim. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish this book and therefore unable to provide a timely review.

This was truly a deep and moving story. It takes place during a time of slavery and tells the story of a girl born into privilege and raised by a slave wet nurse. Of course a bond is formed and as the girl grows older, not only is her own character tested but their relationship.
A wonderful story, at once great and difficult to read.