Can a descendant reach back into her family stories and recover relatives who have been lost, forgotten, rejected or excluded? What can she discover and retrieve as she breaks through negative judgements about her family's past? Avonelle's Gift vividly captures the history of a family spanning four generations, beginning with a love affair between two teenagers in 1900. A pregnant girl marries to save her family's good name at a time when childbirth and infancy were fraught with danger and mothers and babies could die. This story tells of two motherless children and how each affected the other.

By blending available facts with both her historical research and her imagination, the author has filled in the missing pieces of a tale that deserves to be told. As she focuses on bringing out what is emotionally true, she expresses the depth and complexity she finds in her family over several generations.

Avonelle's Gift tells of early deaths, lost loves, lost families, unbridled ambition, political corruption, social ostracism and redemption at a time when people could begin anew and rebuild their lives for the better. Like so many family stories with villains, victims and heroes, it tells of courage, determination and the capacity for human hearts to change.