A historical fiction debut that is at once heartbreaking and uplifting. Shearer invokes a rich and detailed historical setting: the Caribbean immediately after the British crown's Emancipation Act of 1834. Just as rich and nuanced is the depiction of the complicated legacy of this act and its effect on the lives of the recently emancipated; "emancipation" meant not freedom for many, but a different kind of servitude. RIVER SING ME HOME traces the journey of Rachel, an enslaved woman who ran away from her plantation rather than accept the tainted "freedom" offered to her in order to find her children, now grown, ripped from her shortly after their births. Rachel's journey is arduous, and for the reader, emotionally devastating and richly hopeful. The end of slavery does not mean freedom, but neither does it prevent the formerly enslaved from grabbing onto agency, and life. A moving story that will stay with me for a long time.

This historical fiction novel starts with the Emancipation Act and a mother in the Caribbean who wants to really be free. She runs away from the plantation in search of her 5 children who were taken from her while she was a slave. She feels in her heart that they are still alive, so she is determined to find them.

The author describes what it was like back in the 1800's working as a slave on a plantation, and even after the Emancipation Act was passed. The description of the places that Rachel, the mom goes to look for her children make you feel like you are there. I found the writing pulled me in immediately.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.

This stunning novel will take you on an emotional journey that you will not soon forget, especially if you are a parent. The experiences of mothers, fathers, children, and siblings born into slavery and ripped away from each other are just too horrific to fully understand. Rachels’ story drives home the capacity for humans to torture each other physically and mentally, and that makes this a difficult book to read. However, it is also ultimately a story of redemption and reunification driven by the incandescent love of a mother for her children.

Have a few tissues ready if you tear up at the emotions of others. This novel showcases the extremes of a mother’s love and need to find her children when they were taken from her at the plantation where she was a slave. The story builds slowly as she learns to navigate the outside world and avoid those who would return her to slavery. The characters are believably drawn and setting in the Caribbean is stunning.

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for the ARC to read and review.

I know so many others loved this one but it was just too slow in the beginning for me. I was told a lot but not much was going on and I wanted the action and search to get started.

Wow! This book left me feeling each and every emotion. My heart swelled with hope at the thought of Rachel finally finding freedom as the Emancipation Act was read. Deep despair as I realized the masters would keep their slaves for another six years as apprentices. Not free just another form of slavery under a new name. The terror that overcomes your entire body as Rachel decides to flee from the plantation that she has been tied to since her birth. Making her own choice that she must find her children, not having any idea where they have been sold. Rachel is doing what any mother must do when her children are ripped from her warm embrace, disappear from their cabin while she was in the fields. Their shadows always finding their way into her vision. Always close to her heart and soul. Micah, Mercy, Mary Grace, Cherry Jane, and Thomas Augustus. With only her heart to guide her, Rachel is on a journey to make her family whole once again.

Rachel begins her journey in Barbados, onto British Guiana, and finally to Trinidad. Never being able to calm or let her guard down, in fear she would be sent back to her plantation. Rachel is everything you want in a main character, strong, warm, determined, a mother to one and all. You are cheering her on each step of the way. Elanor Shearer makes you become part of the story with the rich descriptions and details. You can feel the heavy, humid, heat that wipes you out. The lush green vegetation that brightens against the turquoise blues of the ocean. Will Rachel see her children again or will their shadows continue to haunt her.

I love how Eleanor Shearer bases her book on a woman from Antigua, Mother Rachel. Who also was on the search for her daughter. You can feel the desire for Rachel to find her children, to make her whole again, to have a family she can call her own. You can also feel the deep pulses of her ancestors in every heartbeat, in every touch, in a song, or a word. Her roots deep and strong pulling her in the right direction. You can tell Shearer spent countless hours researching and forming her book around the history she uncovered. Thank you to Elanor Shearer and Berkley Books for this astounding debut novel.

An oddly hopeful and a bit far-fetched account of a former slave who runs away and travels the Caribbean in search of the many children she has lost.

I don’t think I have read a historical novel about slavery so dramatically well written! Thank you Eleanor Shearer, Netgalley and Berkeley for this first read . One feels like they are there with them in that era following their search for Rachel’s children that were taken from her. Following her journey was heart wrenching at times. But oh how I loved this book.This is a powerful story that the author herself understands ! Thank you!

RIVER SING ME HOME is a quiet rumination on motherhood, identity, and the meaning of freedom in the aftermath of slavery. This historical fiction story opens with slaves being freed from the Providence plantation in Barbados and Rachel’s quest to know the fate of her children she lost to the slave trade.

It’s no secret that I’m drawn to stories of motherhood. This is a quiet novel that explores the great lengths a mother will go for her children. The writing is lyrical and the characters are well-developed. Like the twists and turns of a river, Rachel’s journey to find her children was winding and my heart broke for her plight in life.

I appreciated the strong sense of place and the author’s personal connection to Saint Lucia as the granddaughter of Caribbean immigrants to the UK. Her extensive research is evident as the island setting and characters were so vivid. This was a lovely debut from Eleanor Shearer and I look forward to reading more from her in the future.

RATING: 4/5
PUB DATE: January 31, 2023

Many thanks to Berkley and NetGalley for an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review. Review will be posted to www.instagram.com/kellyhook.readsbooks in advance of publication date.

3.75 stars Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Books for the ARC and allowing me to read and review. Publishes January 31, 2023

Mary Grace, Micah, Thomas Augustus, Cherry Jane and Mercy. These are the names that have Rachel laying awake at night yearning. These are the 5 living children that were taken away from Rachel over the years as her Master sold them away.

Rachel was a slave in Barbados in the 1800's. The Emancipation Act of 1834 freed the slaves, but on her plantation slaves had to apprentice for 6 more years before they could gain their freedom. So Rachel ran. She was determined to find her missing children.

This story tells of her travels and which children she found. From Barbados to Trinidad she walked and sailed, determined. Without her children freedom meant nothing. Each child now an adult with a life of their own. Who would travel with her, who would turn their back on her and who was lost forever?

This is a debut book. Shearer did a good job of putting her story across. Enough was given to vest you in the story, to allow you to dream with the protagonist, and to understand the circumstance of the adult children. The trip that Rachel was on was almost a character in itself. Shearer tells you at the end that the story was in part built off her own families situation and their misgivings, which only adds another dimension to the novel.

First of all, thank you so much to Berkley and PRH Audio for the ARC and ALC.

This is a beautiful work of historical fiction that takes place in Barbados immediately after the Emancipation Act of 1834 came into effect. The main character, although no longer a slave, was told she had to continue to work for her master for 6 years and risked her life to escape. She began the long and brutal journey to find out what happened to her five children who were all sold into slavery over the years.

This story is hard to take in at some points as she learns the hard truths that no mother wants to hear.

This was very impressive for a debut and I'm eager to see what Eleanor Shearer does next!

This will be available for purchase on Jan 31, 2022.

Every time I read historical fiction, I learn something. I did not know that white plantation owners in the Caribbean did not follow abolition from England, and they still forced enslaved people into an "apprenticeship" for six years afterward. This topic is meaningful to the author, and she did her research, and it shows. This story is inspired by a real woman who escaped a plantation in search of her stolen children, as many mothers at that time did as well.

This debut has phenomenal writing. It was compelling, it pulled me in, and I needed to know what happened. It was powerful and engaging. I felt invested through the entirety of the story and could feel Rachel's emotions along her journey. The fear, the desperation, the pull to persevere. A powerful story about a mother's love for her children, the lengths she will go to find them, with themes of family, found family, heartbreak, and grief.

The most moving, beautiful, heart-breaking yet hopeful book I’ve read this year. I’ll be thinking about this one for a long time. This comes out next month and I hope you preorder it as soon as possible. Thank you so much to the publisher for sending me an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

This debut novel does exactly what I want historic fiction to do - teach me something while telling me a good story. When England declared slavery abolished, I had no clue that the white plantation owners in the Caribbean didn’t comply. No, instead they stated that all slaves were now apprentices and had to work for an additional 6 years. They were still bound to the plantations and could be punished if they ran off. But despite that, Rachel does leave her plantation, going in search of her children that were sold off. It takes her first to Bridgetown, Barbados, British Guiana and finally Trinidad.
The story, as you would imagine, is heartbreaking. But it’s also a message of hope - of how far a mother will go for her children and of the different types of freedom the children found.
Shearer is a mixed race English author of Caribbean descent, so the subject was important to her. And she has done her research. The story is based on a real woman. But she also learned that “many women downed their tools and walked all over their islands to try and find their stolen children.”
My thanks to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing for an advance copy of this book.

Eleanor Shearer does a wonderful job on this book. Rachel is a slave on a plantation when the Emancipation Proclamation goes through, everyone is full of happiness until the master of the Plantation tells them that they will now be his Apprentice, no freedom like they thought, she decides to run, she wants nothing more than to find her 5 children before she dies, she faces a lot of heartache and trouble along the way, the book mostly tells of everything she encounters along the way to look for her children . I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a good read on Historial History Fiction

River Sing Me Home is a stunning debut about a mother’s search for her children that left me breathless.

Rachel is a former slave in Barbados who goes on a journey to find her children who had been sold off over her years on a brutal plantation. Over the course of the novel we follow Rachel as she befriends locals who become part of her found family, and as they tirelessly search for her children. The lands and ships they travel on are their own character as well setting the rich and often chilling atmosphere.

This was a book I was anxious to read after seeing rave reviews from the likes of Kate Quinn and others. The book kept me holding my breath as I waited to see what became of Rachel’s children. The author doesn’t hold back on detailing some of the horrors of slavery and it makes for a very moving and heartbreaking read. But there is still hope and love and a path forward and that kept me engaged and moved to the end. This will likely be a book I like even more as time goes on and I’m sure it will stick with me for a while. And wow, it’s a debut! This author is definitely one to watch.

Well written and powerful. The Emancipation Act of 1834 freed the slaves of the Caribbean islands, but also decreed that they must work a further six years as “apprentices” to their enslavers extending the abomination of their servitude. Rachel runs from the sugar cane plantation in an effort to find her five surviving children that were sold to others. Her quest begins in Barbados, then British Guiana, to culminate in Trinidad. Rachel finds her children and their stories are harrowing and with varied endings. But she also finds herself and freedom in the end. Great character development. Though, while it makes a good story, one character is named Nobody; I had to pause throughout the book to determine if the word was being used as a given name, a noun, or a pronoun, an annoyance that is outweighed by the otherwise excellent writing.

RIVER SING ME HOME (Berkley) by Eleanor Shearer is inspired by the true stories of the brave woman who went looking for their stolen children after the abolition of slavery in 1834. It's hard to believe its a debut novel, because Shearer's prose and narrative are so powerful and complex. River Sing Me Home is the story of Rachel, a woman slave who has given birth repeatedly and had five children survive only to be taken away and sold.

The British King declares the Emancipation Act effectively ending slavery, but the plantation owners announce they are now apprentices and have to work on the plantation for six more years. It's at this point Rachel decides to run and search for her five children. She doesn't know if any of them are alive, but she is driven by the fact, a mother cannot be free without knowing what has become of her children.

She begins her dangerous journey in Barbados, then on a river deep in the forest of British Giana and finally across the sea to Trinidad. She's always aware that she is technically not free, she's being hunted and if found can be taken back as a slave at any time.

River Sing Me Home is Rachel's extraordinary story to find out what happened to Mary Grace, Micah, Thomas Augustus, Cherry Jane and Mercy. It is the deeply brutal and moving story of the astonishing lengths a mother will go to find her children... and her freedom.

I love reading historical fiction, respect history and I'm grateful to have learned about this time in the past. From the beginning of the book I was thrust into Rachel's dangerous journey. River Sing Me Home is a fearless, hopeful, and loving read. I often found myself holding my breath during her search. Thank you BookBrowse, Netgalley and Berkley for providing an early copy of this novel, which will be published January 31st, 2023.

River Sing Me Home proved to be lyrical, heartbreaking, and thought-provoking. Inspired by the real-life women who fought to put their families back together after the abolition of slavery, this novel delicately succeeds in bringing back the stories and memories of people who refuse to be forgotten. This book explored the impacts of love, motherhood and survival and will stay with you long after you've finished.

A powerful, melancholy epic tale. Set in the Caribbean Rachel escapes enforced apprenticeship in search of the children cruelly separated from her. This book is gorgeous, moving and unbearable sad - loved loved it