Well told story of the difficult and complicated relationships between Native American slave holders and African American slaves and the impact on their descendants. A rarely told tale laced with drama. well worth the read.

{3.5 stars}

Thanks to Random House for gifted access via NetGalley. All opinions below are my own.

This one unfortunately sat in my Netgalley for a long time and I apologize for that. I think some of the reviews may have kept me from reading it even though the synopsis was really interesting to me. The story is written by a scholar and lots of the reviews felt the earlier version of this book was a little too like a textbook. I can comfortably say that the version I read was much more like proper historical fiction, with the exception of the diary entries which felt a lot like info dumping. In the story, three women chase their shared roots at an old plantation home in Georgia. Each has their own motivations but the history of the Cherokee people and the local mission as well as enslaved ancestors drive them looking for the truth of their histories. 

Each of the three women were interesting and unique and I was definitely bought into each of their stories as well as the local townsfolk. The thing that I found really interesting was how amidst a story where they are experiencing so much active racism both in present time and in the diary of the ancestor they find, they still snipe a bit at each other for not being enough of this or that. It took til the very end for them to focus more on the things that should have been bringing them together.

Didn’t have time to read it but it looks interesting and promising so I’m sure I’ll get to it eventually my to be read pile is just getting to big and I’m a mood reader so these arcs are getting hit. So maybe at a later date I’ll finally read it

Tiya Miles is a historian through and through. It’s what makes Cherokee Rose an incredibly important book, filled with information about the relationships between Black and Native folks—a history we don’t learn about. However because of Miles’s academic standpoint, the story is slow to read, dense with detail. It’s a worthy read, but I had many long periods of time that I took a break from this book and returned.

The Cherokee Rose by Tiya Miles was an interesting, well researched novel about the history of the Cherokee tribe in Georgia as well as African American/plantation, uncovered by current day ancestors. Thank you NetGalley, the author and publisher for the review copy. All opinions are mine.

Thank you to Netgalley.com for the chance to read the re-release of “The Cherokee Rose” by Tiya Miles.

The novel takes place in a sleepy town in Georgia in which three women get to the bottom of the tragic history of the local looming estate of the Cherokee Rose. Part historic fiction, part romance, and part ghost story, the novel explores Southern racial politics left over by chattel slavery that still resonate today without ever feeling didactic or even academic.

The meat of the story is really in the every day horror of living with the legacy of slavery, and seeing communities of color pitted against each other in service of white supremacy. Despite being marketed as a story of gardens and ghosts, it’s a little light on ghostly, supernatural, and gothic elements. As a horror/supernatural fiction fan, I was hoping for more in that line and was curious if the rerelease would include those elements but rather than fabricating jump scares, the novel mainly sticks to the reality of what happened.

If you’re looking for a thoughtful rumination of what to do with grand manors that housed atrocities against humanity and had other POC (in this case Cherokee folks owning enslaved people) at the helm of those atrocities, this is it. If you’re looking for a book that wants to reconcile that history with a complex multicultural future and some sapphic rep, this is that book.

But if you’re looking for an all out ghost story, this isn’t that necessarily that novel. That doesn’t mean it’s not a great read; I just think the marketing of the book leaves a little to be desired.

All in all, a solid novel with notes for its rerelease that help make this historic novel feel like a blueprint for the future.

The past and the present merge on a Georgia plantation (Hold House) when a historian, writer, and a potential buyer discover a diary that reveals more than any of them imagined. Written in alternating eras, we learn that the House once belonged to a Cherokee and we learn that the Cherokees once owned and had relations with enslaved Africans. The beauty of the novel is it is inspired by actual events as mentioned in the Author’s Notes.

The author has researched thoroughly and presents complex issues with graceful sensitivity and compassion. Layered in lore, the interwoven ancestry between the characters reflects the “mixing pot” of the American identity and all the cultural nuances it brings.

Recommended for American history lovers.

Thanks to the publisher, Random House Publishing, and NetGalley for an opportunity to review.

Such an important book, I think this is one of my favorites this year. It gave me historical fiction, mystery, romance, revenge, and the commentary on race, religion, colonialism that I’m always looking for with three dimensional diverse characters. Highly recommend this one and how the author handles really nuanced and delicate issues.

A big mysterious plantation with history and passion. This was a good balance between historical truth and contemporary attitude to it. I loved the characters of Jinx and Ruth and how they ended up searching for answers at the Hold House. Cheyenne was much harder to follow and connect with.

The intention of this book seems lovely and the writing is strong but I just couldn't get into it. Maybe just not the right time? I may give this a try in the future but for now, it isn't the book for me.

Rich in historical detail, this story and the three women captivated me.
Many thanks to Random House and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Cherokee Rose is an interesting historical fiction. Following the lives of different women, Miles successfully crafts a story that keeps readers intrigued for the whole ride!

Thank you to Net Galley and Random House of an ARC in exchange for my honest review. This book is based on facts but is put into a fictionalized form so the author can have liberties to tell this story. The author is an academic and used her research to provide the structure for this story of the intertwined history of Indigenous and enslaved Blacks. Jinx is a Creek historian who visits Hold House in Georgia, originally owned by James Hold, to find out what happened during Indian removal. She then meets Ruth who is a writer of Black and White ancestry and Cheyenne who is from a wealthy Black family and interested in buying Hold House (with her parents' money). They discover a diary which leads them on a discovery of the history of the house which reflects the history of this area and people. This was interesting to learn more about the complex history of Indigenous and enslaved Blacks.

3.5 out of 5 stars!

I struggled with grading this book. Tiya Miles is a notes scholar and a department head at Harvard, important qualifications that are sadly missing from her author bio. With an academic background myself, I could feel Miles fighting with her need to be thorough and cite her sources and when to let the story flow. This is an amazing story and a wonderful piece of history to research and explore but bouncing between the academic insights and the fictional tale did cause the first portion of the book to be a struggle.

This is the second publication, The Cherokee Rose. First published in 2015, the book has been heavily edited and republished. The story focuses on a Georgia plantation and the three women who are drawn to it. It explores the connection between the indigenous slaveholders and the slaves that worked the plantation.

A good book overall. I believe as Miles grows and finds her voice in historic fiction, we will see greater works from her.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for an e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

The Cherokee Rose was a story of 3 women’s journey to learn about their history and Indigenous and Black heritage and how it all connected at the Hold Plantation almost 200 years prior. Through the journal of Anna Gamble with help of Mary Ann Battis they find out what actually happened at the plantation and in result, their true families’ history.
The book held my attention alright. Tiya Miles did give notice to / warn readers in the beginning of the book that it was a story with a lot of different facets. To me, it was trying to do too much. I would have been more intrigued just reading about the history of what happened to those who lived and were enslaved at the Hold Plantation.
However, there was a lot of character development for Jinx, Ruth and Cheyenne and it showed that finding your family history can be a really important if not the most important aspect of your life.
Overall this held my attention and had some strong female characters. The style of writing and telling a story through a journal entry was interesting. 3/5 stars.

The history of a Georgia plantation is explored through the words of three different women from different times in history. I found the characters not well developed, difficult to engage with and the plot a bit scattered, just my opinion.

I was lured in by the premise of The Cherokee Rose--especially as someone who absolutely loved The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois. The story itself doesn't disappoint, exploring resonant issues like legacies of trauma, land rights, and enslavement. The narrative and the characters are a bit on the flat side, which is a bit of a letdown, but ultimately I think the story alone is worth the journey.

The author's debut novel, The Cherokee Rose surrounds a Georgia plantation and the three women who find themselves drawn into its connection to the history of Native American slaveholders. The novel was originally published in 2015 but the one I am reviewing today is the revised and edited edition.

Positives:
-The amount of research that went into this novel is explained in both the preface at the beginning and all the resources and interviews listed at the back. As a newbie to this topic, I appreciated the thorough explanations.

- Three strong female protagonists-Jinx, Cherokee and Ruth

- A mature lesbian romance that was a story element and not the whole focus of the story. Honestly, I am just relieved that any romance didn't take away from the historical portion of the story.

-Tiya Miles doesn't shy away or try to paint a rosy picture of what life was like on the plantation.

- I know a lot of other reviewers didn't like the journal entries that took over the novel. I did love them but yeah, maybe they could have been spaced out in the novel. ( I guess this is more a positive/negative)


Negatives:

-It was a little difficult to get into. A lot of starts and stops before I was immersed. The story does improve in the middle of the book though.

- I didn't feel like the male characters were written as well as the female characters.

- I rate it as a two-star because even though the history was so interesting, I don't think this is one of those books that is going to stick out for me on December 31st(end-of-year reviews).


Overall, I do believe it is a good book in introducing myself to a little addressed discussion in history but I think it would be a topic to further understand by reading some nonfiction.



Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for access to this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

#TheCherokeeRose #NetGalley.
Publication Date 13/06/23
Goodreads Review 19/06/23

A new and revised edition of The Cherokee Rose is coming out in June 2023 - and it is a significant revision from its first 2015 publication. It's difficult to tell if the average Goodreads rating refers to the first version or also rolls in the new edition. My review is for the 2023 edition, and I received an electronic ARC from NetGalley in exchange for this review.

I loved the historical story told in this novel - one I've not come across before in historical fiction. Miles tackles the Cherokee and Creek nation's slave-holding history in the pre-Civil War South. If ever a story underlines our complicated history, this is it. The author is an academic historian, and the book is meticulously researched (and referenced), a feature I look for and appreciate in historical fiction.

Plot-wise, the book is a dual timeline story set around a historic plantation once owned by a Cherokee/European chief who enslaved over 100 people. A found diary and ghost reveal the historic part of the story. And this is where the novel is weakest. The modern-day storyline often feels like reading an old Nancy Drew mystery merged with a romance novel, which clashes with the story's serious tone. The author states that she is still working on writing fiction, and I appreciate her honesty - and her willingness to keep writing. I'll watch for future novels by Tiya Miles and look forward to seeing her fiction muscles grow.

My assessment: 5 stars for historical content, 3.5 stars for plot and character development, for 4 stars overall.

The premise of this book was interesting, but the outcome wasn't up to the same standard. The book was a good read until the (only) unlikeable main character got the most pages in her perspective, and the story was no longer something I wanted to read. I desperately waited for there to be some level of stakes that didn't occur through the first half of the book. I was stuck wondering, what was the point?