Flipping between the late 1960s and early 1920s In the Face of the Sun is a fabulous historical novel. It revolves around Frankie Saunders, pregnant and fleeing a abusive husband, and her reckless Aunt Daisy who - as we see from the dual timeline - experienced something in her past which has greatly affected her.

I enjoyed the epic road trip in a lime-gold Ford Mustang. The details which placed it in time and setting seemed real and not at all forced. I thought the pace of the both stories were a little slow, but once the journey got going the plot moved along nicely.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review,

A character driven, historical novel told from two different timelines, 1928 and 1968. It's a murder mystery, a family drama, a racial injustice saga,,and a love story all rolled into one. The story sucked me in from the very beginning and never let go. Highly recommended

In the Face of the Sun is an engrossing family saga filled with heartbreak and love, victory, forgiveness, and loss, and a wonderful character study of several unforgettable women.

It is 1968, and a pregnant Frankie Saunders is leaving Chicago, abandoning an abusive marriage to the violent, controlling Jackson with the help of a ride from her Aunt Daisy. Aunt Daisy has been the family scandal since before Frankie could talk, but she’s fearless and has a cherry-red-apple-colored Mustang.  One of the first things she does is offer Frankie a joint, and when Jackson comes after them, Daisy backs him down with nothing more than some sharp words and the pointed tip of her trusty switchblade.

Frankie finds herself in Daisy’s Mustang, headed along Route 66 to California, using Daisy’s Green Book as a guide to find safe places for them to stay, and being driven by a young white hippie in a daishiki named Tobey Garfunkel who’s known Daisy from the time he was a kid. While Frankie hopes to reunite with her mother, Daisy hopes to hash out long-ago hurts with her sister before returning to Chicago.  During the trip, which includes a few faces from Daisy’s long past, Frankie comes to know her formerly distant aunt and surmount her ambivalent feelings about her relationship with Jackson, gain nerve, and develop a friendship with Tobey.  She soon learns that Jackson is still on her tail – and that Daisy has plans to settle a long-ago score.

Back in 1928, we learn that Daisy comes from a long line of formidable woman.  Her older sister Henrietta bobs her hair and rebels against their distant father, and Daisy works double shifts to help provide for their mother, who has been left bedbound and unresponsive after a heart attack and stroke. While Daisy is convinced her mother can be cured if they get her to the right doctor, both Henrietta and their father have begun to give up hope, deciding that her case is a sign of mental illness and she needs to go to a care home. Daisy and Henrietta have jobs as chambermaids at the new Hotel Sommerville, a glamorous place which caters to Black film royalty and the social upper crust.  Daisy is inspired by her love of W. E. B. Du Bois to become a journalist, and spends all of her spare time journaling and learning how to craft articles. Working at the Sommerville puts Daisy in a prime position to pick up on plenty of scoops, and she finds herself supplying Harry Belmont with items for his gossip column, which is published in the California Eagle.  While Hollywood-loving Henrietta is courted by talented Isaiah, the family’s new boarder, Daisy begins to fall for the suave society swain and architect Malcolm Barnes – who is dating white starlet Veronica Fontaine, whose death will rip Daisy and Henrietta’s worlds apart.

Bryce has written a beautiful, powerful family saga in In the Face of the Sun. Daisy is filled with spirit and refuses to be limited, and you can see clearly how she develops into the seasoned, smart, well-rounded woman we see in the 1968 chapters.  Henrietta is even more fiery than her sister, and the two of them are a fully-rounded balanced pair, bumping through Hollywood, dealing with deep scars (the racism that killed Daisy and Henrietta’s brother, Clifford) going on wild adventures (a raid on a speakeasy on Brown Broadway) and realising with their ambitions and dreams.

Daisy is such a phenomenal, formidable heroine, the kind of woman who will defend her niece without a second thought and can rattle off an early routine from a young Richard Pryor from memory.  Frankie is much more timid, but still manages to spring forth as an original personality, and Henrietta is a total force of nature.  I loved pacifist Tobey, whose presence on the trip is not advertised in the blurb but who makes a companionable third for them.  Both timelines are equally compelling, with complex, imperfect characters and well-researched time periods.

The A- is really down to the ending; learning what happened to Veronica and who took the blame makes sense, but I couldn’t believe that this would result in someone basically ruining another person’s life via the sin of omission, leaving them to feel years of burning resentment.

But In the Face of the Sun is a good tale, a strong tale that balances family drama, a murder mystery, a true-to-life reflection of Black America in the twenties and late sixties, several love stories and a road trip story.  Those are a lot of story points to balance, and the book does so with aplomb.

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Going into this book I was not quite sure what to expect. I just know I like historical fiction - and the cover caught my attention. In the Face of the Sun is a dual timeline novel- Los Angles 1928 (Daisy) and Chicago 1968 (Frankie). The story is basically about Daisy and a murder that occurred in 1928 with bits of her niece Frankie's life issues thrown in. Daisy's personality completely changes between the timelines. In 1928 she was a hardworking, honest person that cared about her family and friends. In the 1968 parts of the book she drinks, smokes, does drugs, cusses, carries a switchblade (and uses it) and likes to fight. My goodness, what on earth happened to her between 1928 and 1968? Anyway, I went along with them on their road trip from Chicago to Los Angles on Route 66. What a ride! Thanks to author Denny S. Bryce, Kensington Books, and NetGalley for providing a copy of this ebook for an honest review.

It's 1968 and Frankie, pregnant and escaping her abusive husband, finds herself on an epic roadtrip from Chicago to Los Angeles with her Aunt Daisy, Daisy tells her story- including why she became estranged from Frankie's mom- during the trip. This moves back and forth between 1928 and 1968. it's colorful, thoughtful, and educational, with good characters. Bryce has a good storytelling style that will pull you in. No spoilers from me but know that the road has some bumps along the way. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A very good read.

Denny Bryce has once again penned a awesome historical fiction story that weaves together two stories from different time periods. The dual time-line technique allow us to witness the parallels between the two time periods. We also discover how the characters are connected across time. The dual timelines cover 1928 and 1968.
The story begins in 1968, the same year that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Presidential candidate, Robert Kennedy were assassinated. The war in Vietnam was raging, and the violent Chicago Democratic Convention was viewed on our TV screens. The world was “a mess”, as Daisy, one of the female protagonists describes it. We meet a pregnant Frankie who is planning to leave her abusive husband, Jackson. The absolutely last person in the world she expects to help her leave is her Aunt Daisy, the family member that no one speaks to, but only speaks about, and not in a good way. I love her character. The audacious Miss Daisy drives a “candy-apple-red Ford Mustang fastback”. She is a pivotal character in this story as Ms Bryce reveals her intriguing life’s story.

That’s where the year 1928, comes into play. Daisy is a young woman residing in sunny California. For African Americans across the nation, times were hard and racism was rampant. She lives with her over-bearing father, a sickly mother, and a younger sister, Henrietta. Daisy and Henrietta are employed at the newly built Hotel Somerville, the first luxury hotel built for African Americans in Los Angeles.

The historical figures who appear in the story will blow you away, from the Somervilles to Stepin Fetchit, aka Lincoln Perry. I can’t omit the music of the times and the iconic places that give the story a lot of authenticity. Ms Bryce’s precise references and research are on point in the telling of this engrossing story. I can’t wait until you read this story and follow Frankie, Daisy and Henrietta, women of a multigenerational family.The Epilogue, dated 1990, is epic!

IN THE FACE OF THE SUN is a gripping story that I highly recommend. It’s a great women’s fiction story, and historical fiction that is both entertaining and educational. You will not be disappointed.

In the Face of the Sun is the second book I’ve read by Denny S. Bryce, with Wild Women and the Blues being the first. Both books were wonderful descriptive of another time and place.

I did enjoy this historical fiction novel. It had dual timelines, alternating every other chapter which I liked. I really liked Frankie, Daisy and Tobey and enjoyed their road-trip. I do feel like the middle of the book got a little slow and would have liked a bit more action but overall I enjoyed this book.

Denny Bryce has scored a hit with her second novel, "In the Face of the Sun." It's a multigenerational tale of two Black women told in alternating timelines.

In 1968, Frankie Saunders is trying to leave her abusive husband behind in Chicago. Lending a hand is Aunt Daisy who is traveling to Los Angeles who is trying to put the past behind her. In 1928, Daisy was a chambermaid at a ritzy Black hotel where the rich, famous and infamous crossed its threshold. Daisy dreams of becoming a reporter and keeps meticulous notes about hotel guests.

As Frankie and Daisy travel cross-country, their stories unfold and intertwine. Frankie finally learns why her mother and aunt have spoken in decades, and Daisy is slowly learning to put her anger and hurts behind her. Both women have encountered challenges and been forced to make hard decisions.

Bryce writes about the glitz and glamour of the 1920s, but also the racism and discrimination between races, gender and social classes. Many of the problems are still being repeated in the 1960s with Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination and the Vietnam war. The well-research timelines clearly play out across the pages and make the reader believe in the characters and their stories.

Denny Bryce evokes the time and place for her multigenerational murder mystery with effortless ease, beginning with Daisy Washington’s life in 1928, Los Angeles. Twenty years old and still living at home, Daisy works as a chambermaid for the newly built all-Negro Hotel Somerville, where she feeds celebrity gossip to a clever young journalist, for his column in the California Eagle.
In 1968 Chicago, Daisy aids her estranged niece, Frankie Saunders, in making an escape from her abusive husband, by driving her to Los Angeles. For forty years there’s been no contact between Daisy and her sister, Henrietta (Frankie’s mother), ever since events in 1928-1929 came between them. Now Frankie has to contend with an eccentric aunt she barely knows, along with her own marital problems, not least of which is, she’s pregnant.
This novel is imbued with much pertinent history of racism, segregation, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, but these events never override the narrative which is essentially one of family misunderstandings and choices made. This reader found the ending a little rushed and the reasons for a forty-year estrangement between the sisters not fully credible, but the author has achieved a compelling story of family ties, which even when broken, can still be mended. What stands out here are the superb characterisations, which jump off the page. Readers interested in this part of American history and Civil Rights will lap up this tale.

Denny S. Bryce hits another one out of the park with her second novel, “In the Face of the Sun.” She returns to the 1920s for one of her two timelines, but juxtaposes it with a 1968 road trip from Chicago to Los Angeles.

In 1928 Los Angeles, Daisy Washington is a young woman who has dreams of becoming a journalist, writing for Black-owned papers. Mostly she collects gossip for Harry Belmont’s column in the “California Eagle” she gleans from the rich and famous Blacks who are checking into the new Hotel Somerville where she and her sister work as chambermaids... From Bryce’s descriptions the hotel is stylish and glamorous. Daisy is excited that gets to meet Stepin Fetchit, the comedian, one of the first Black actors to make it big in Hollywood. But even more, Daisy is over the moon to see W.E.B. Du Bois as he and a bevy of Hollywood elite arrive. Du Bois has arranged to hold the NAACP’s annual meeting at the Somerville.

Then the narrative shifts to 1968 Chicago. Daisy’s niece Francine (aka Frankie) has learned that she is about eight weeks pregnant with her abusive husband, Jackson. For the baby’s sake, and hers, Frankie has decided to leave him. As she is headed to the bus station, Daisy pulls up and talks her into going to Los Angeles with her. Since they will be driving, Jackson will never be able to catch up with her and force her to return. The two take off for a Thelma and Louise road-trip along Route 66. Daisy isn’t being nice; she has some business in LA and wouldn’t mind the company.

The 1928 timeline was well-researched. I felt as if I were there. In the 1968 timeline, there were more twists that made the road trip dangerous.

A third plot line that weaves between the two narratives is Daisy and her sister, Henrietta. They were very close, but a tragedy forced them to not speak for over forty years. Bryce is excellent at spooling out bits of information about this subplot as the roared toward a conclusion.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed “In the Face of the Sun.” This sophomore novel receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.