A compelling novel with a main character to root for! Would make a great book club selection with lots to discuss - families, poverty, choices, and love. Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks for the ARC!!

I was pleasantly surprised by this author and her writing. A plethora of emotions ran through me with this one. My heart just went out to Leah. The author did a wonderful story telling thru the child’s eyes of what life would be like when everything you own and everyone you love are taken away.

My only con is I would have thought the Eugenics program would have been explained or had more of the storyline. I had read other books concerning that topic so I knew the details, but they were brushed over in this story.

I highly recommend, it is a page turner that tugs at your heart strings with a great ending. High 5 stars.

Received an ARC from Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for my unbiased review – This one comes in with 5 stars.

Set in the 1930’s on the lush Carolina coast, this is the immersive story of a young girl, Leah, against the world who taps into emotional reserves beyond her years in her journey to find a place to belong. Inspired by the author’s heartbreaking family history, this novel touches upon the practice of forced sterilization that was commonplace in the US at the time, in a hopeful story of courage in the face of cruelty.

Meagan Church’s writing is beautifully descriptive and full of depth and emotions. Leah’s story is tragic, but she keeps her hope and continues to see the good in everything. I didn’t know much about the eugenics movement but the Author’s note at the end was really interesting. I was shocked to find that Hitler used the eugenics movement in America as his prototype for his cleansing of the races. I highly recommend this book.

Inspired by true events in the author’s family, the novel focuses on the practices of the North Carolina Eugenics Department in the 1930’s. Leah Payne is an innocent girl who is unfortunately orphaned in her early teens - couple her parentless status with abject poverty, little education (and possibly a learning disability, and a history of seizures (epilepsy, perhaps?) and she’s a textbook candidate for the state to “help.”

What could have been an utterly depressing tale is buoyed by nice writing and a very loving father-daughter relationship and a genuine friendship that endures a lifetime. The Author’s Note is also a heartfelt addition to this national travesty that affected far too many for entirely too long.

Thanks to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for an opportunity to review.

4.5 Stars

I hate to say it, but this is the first time I have heard of Eugenics and the many people it affected. Then find out that it is still happening in some legal guardianship instances. And I quote," Is forced sterilization still happening in the United States?
In states that do not have laws, forced sterilizations might still be happening to people under guardianship. This is because many guardians have a lot of power to make health care decisions for people under guardianship. They usually do not need to ask a judge before deciding what health care someone gets." Unquote.

This book is not totally about Eugenics, but it does happen, and it isn't pretty. This whole family isn't pretty. This book starts in the 1930's end the epilogue ends in the year 2006. Leah had a very difficult childhood, at least to our standards today. She lost her mother in childbirth and her father more than a decade later. Among other tragendies. Now she has nowhere to go, so a family opts to be a sort of Fostercare family...or are they really? Secrets and lies abound.

This was a difficult read with no perky happy ending. It does have a satisfying ending, although I wish the author would have delved into a deeper confrontation with the family that took her in.

I recommend this book to those who are interested in Southern history from the 1930s

*ARC supplied by the publisher Sourcebooks Landmark, the author, and NetGalley.

The Last Carolina Girl is an extremely emotional book, filled with heartache. Leah lives a hardscrabble life with her father, but she is content and hopeful, living the way they do. Her world comes tumbling down during an ice storm, stripping her of every sense of comfort she has, and forcing her to live with a foster family—who are not the family she yearns for to fill the void in her life. Set in 1935, Leah has a very tough road ahead, in ways she can’t even begin to fathom as a young girl of 14. My heart broke for her, and many scenes were like a gut punch as she endured mistreatment and much much worse. I loved Leah—she tried so hard to stay positive, hoping to find a way back to her home, wishing for acceptance, friendship, love, and family. I applaud the author for dealing with some extremely difficult subjects honestly, and for giving us a heroine we cheered on through the worst of times.

A tragic life for one so young, Leah is only 14 years old and has lost both her parents, her home, and all that is familiar to her. She also is poor and suffers from spells. Those are the final two straws that allow the unthinkable to happen. Removed from her home since birth and into a family that she doesn't know, Leah quickly realizes she is a helper, not a family member. Her guardian is a society maven wannabe with deep resentment for her own past.
Set in pre-WWII, The Last Carolina Girl touches on a somewhat unknown practice that lasted far too long - the sterilization of the poor and those that seemed disposed of mental or emotional issues otherwise known as eugenics. Bodily autonomy was (still) not fully realized for a woman at this time. And into this historical timeframe, Lean is trapped.
I was caught up in the life of Leah from the beginning of this book and wanted her to make a connection with someone with some depth. The subject matter, while horrific, is compelling. Big things happen but we never really get to see much of the fallout as the story seems to jump around a bit.
I give 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 stars.
Thank you to Sourcebooks for access to my early copy. All opinions are my own.

Southern fiction at its best.

The main character is Leah and she has had a tough time in her young life having already lost both parents by age 14. The story takes place in 1935.

It is a good read with heartbreak and many other emotions flowing. A good view of some dark past history which even today we try and ignore.

Will appeal to many fans of southern fiction. Very well researched and written.

Right from the start, I loved Leah and Maeve, her cat, “two strays without a place to call home.” THE LAST CAROLINA GIRL is a simple story and yet a heartbreaking one of a young girl who faces unimaginable obstacles in her short life. After her father’s death, Leah is torn from her home and her best friend Jesse and placed in a family hiding a terrible secret. She is forced to serve as a helpmate for a cruel and unhappy woman.
Hope is written on every page, for despite her heartaches and losses, she never gives up, and her Carolina spirit remains unshakable.

Meagan Church has written a thought-provoking and unforgettable book. Every character is strong and well-developed, and she easily conveys the thoughts of a young girl. The ending is delicately foreshadowed throughout the story, and the reader can’t help but want to rush to Leah’s side and rescue her.

This work of fiction gave me a historical insight that I had somehow missed. I had never heard of the American eugenics movement, a plan begun in the early 1900’s to remove those who were genetically defective by breeding out undesirable traits. THE LAST CAROLINA GIRL is an intense read that reveals a blunt and cruel reality of our past.
This story is hard-hitting, but the silver lining revealed is the toughness of human spirit that always rises in those who refuse to lose heart.

I felt so many emotions while reading this very poignant, heartbreaking, wonderful and beautiful story! I couldn't put this book down! I look forward to reading the next book by this excellent debut author!

Told from the perspective of a fourteen-year-old, Leah's story is one of a sheltered life. She and her father live in a one-room shack, and she has no friends except for Jesse. As she leaves the area following the death of her father, her lack of social skills and her desire for family and affection come through.

This book has been compared to Where the Crawdads Sing, which I enjoyed as an audiobook. The slow pace and the first-person narrative made it enjoyable to listen vs reading it. When it came to The Last Carolina Girl my feelings run in the same direction, I think I would have enjoyed it more in audio format. It was just such a slow paced story that really lacked character development for everyone other than Leah. It would have been great to get a glimpse into the head of her caregiver .

The blurb gives some of the story away with some of it not happening until the 80% mark, spoiler alert!

The ending was abrupt, and I would have loved to read more about the next few years in this young girl's life. Fortunately, the author included notes, gave a lot of detail about the program in the US during this time and in subsequent years.

Take my review with a grain of salt, I seem to be in the minority with my thoughts.

I am grateful to Sourcebooks (via NetGalley) for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you.

The Last Carolina Girl by Meagan Church is a beautifully written book. It tells the story of Leah, a recently orphaned little girl who goes through a myriad of trials, as she moves through life. It is a book I could not wait to get back to, each time I had to put it down. Those who are fans of Where the Crawdads Sing would also love The Last Carolina Girl. I enjoyed reading this book and look forward to future books by Meagan Church. I received a DIGITAL Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! Where to start? This novel was hard to read but in a good way. I was genuinely bawling for Leah and all she went through. It was difficult to read at times, but just because something is difficult to read about doesn't mean it should be forgotten. That something as shameful as the Eugenics movement could have taken place in our own country is shameful. I appreciate NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review The Last Carolina Girl by Meagan Church.

This story is gut wrenching. I had little context on the premise before I dove in and left emotionally overwhelmed and raw. The story centers on an orphan and the true stories of sterilization in America in accordance with the poorly-evidenced eugenics movement. Leah's fight for herself, her sanity, her right to safety and a family, and her right to her own body take center stage throughout this story and leave you grasping helplessly, wondering how this was ever something that was entirely legal in our country. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free advance copy.

If Where the Crawdads Sing (Owens) and Necessary Lies (Chamberlain) were to be blended into one story, it would be The Last Carolina Girl.

Plot: 14 year old Leah lives with her lumberjack dad in a coastal Carolina town, where she runs in the woods and attends school. When her father tragically dies, Leah is pulled from her small community and forced to live with strangers who harbor a secret. While she thinks they'll become her new family, they treat her as a "helpmate," as opposed to an equal. Matters become far grimmer for Leah, as she faces the recently formed state eugenics board.

Thoughts: As a huge fan of Necessary Lies, I looked forward to another story about North Carolina's dark history. Leah was put through so much, and reading her struggles is heartbreaking. I will say, I thought the ending felt a little bit rushed. Still, this is a worthwhile read, and I appreciated the author's note, which shares her personal connection to eugenics.

I read a lot of books and I think this is my very favorite so far this year. This is Southern Fiction at its best. The Last Carolina Girl is the debut novel by author Meagan Church. It’s the story of 14 year old Leah Payne. Her family is poor, her father is a lumberjack and they live in a one room shack. After suffering her second big loss and becoming an orphan, she moves to another county to stay with a well-to-do family where she is treated like their maid. The Mrs. never treats her kindly but the 3 children all seem to care for her and treat her well. The Mrs. is keeping a family secret that shocked me and caught me off guard. I really didn’t see that connection . The way she treats Leah and what she has done to her is absolutely horrible and it’s all out of anger and I believe jealousy. This is a story of finding out who you are and where you belong. It’s finding ones home, not only the place but with who. This is a great story and I recommend everyone read it. It’s that good! I’d like to thank Sourcebooks Landmark for accepting my request and NetGalley for the arc to read, review and enjoy. This is a book I will be purchasing in physical form to add to my collection so I can reread it again whenever I wish. I’m giving this a 5 star rating and really hope I get to read more by this author in the very near future.

3.5 rounded up for this historical fiction with just enough intrigue to keep you interested. I loved the set up for this one more than the climax and ending. I felt like the end was rushed and a bit weak. Overall, it’s enjoyable and gives similar vibes as Where the Crawdads Sing and Before We Were Yours.

Such a heart-breaking, beautiful story of a teenage girl who has so much taken away from her, yet she was still able to get up each day and fight for her happy ending.

The Last Carolina Girl was so good my mind is still reeling.
This reads as Leah telling us her story from the future. Her story is tragic though Leah keeps her hope and continues to see the good in everything throughout. She is 14 and living with her father in a small cottage on the edge of a forest in their small town. When a tragic accident takes his life, Leah finds herself living with a family hours away acting as a helpmate.
While Leah seems to get along with the children, no matter what she does the mother will not accept her or even be nice.
The mother starts inviting an "up and coming" doctor around and asking him about his "revolutionary" new teachings of eugenics. When Leah suddenly finds herself the victim of a horrific act of violence, she has to figure out how to get her life back on her own terms.
This was gut wrenching and so sad. But it was also gripping, and I could not put it down. The writing was like a friend telling you a story you have never hear before. I sat there wanting to bring the book to life so I could slap the mother of the family across the face for how awful she was. To protect Leah. (I went through a lot of emotions with this read.)
While this is historical fiction, the examples of how dangerous an ideology like eugenics is still show up in present day. I recommend this book as far as fiction but definitely keep reading up because I had no idea how this still permeates America to this day- and in vicious, awful ways.

The Last Carolina Girl is a beautifully written story. The story takes place in North Carolina during the 1930s. It is a heartbreaking story of pain and loss but also hope and strength of courage and resilience. Leah is the main character and she is a young free spirit. She loves nature and dreams of living on the beach. At 14 her life has been filled with many hardships including losing her mother at birth and now her father. She temporarily moves in with their landlords until they can find a place for her to go. From there her story moves on to her new ‘family’ the Griffins. I say family loosely as this was not a family type situation she had hoped for. She does make friendships and finds ways to cope with what she has been dealt with. I am inspired by Leah’s courage and strength.
I think everyone should read this book. It will be a fantastic book for book clubs as it inspires tough conversations of the hardships and historical events that took place during the eugenics movement during the 1930s. Many thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.