The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grisson

The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grisson

Lavinia, a seven-year-old Irish orphan with no memory of her past, arrives on a tobacco plantation where she is put to work as an indentured servant. Placed with the slaves in the kitchen house under the care of Belle, the master’s illegitimate daughter, Lavinia becomes deeply bonded to her new adopted family, even though she is forever set apart from them by her white skin. As Lavinia is slowly accepted into the world of the big house, where the master is absent and the mistress battles an opium addiction, she finds herself perilously straddling two very different worlds. When Lavinia marries the master’s troubled son and takes on the role of mistress, loyalties are brought into question, dangerous truths are laid bare and lives are put at risk. The Kitchen House is a tragic story of page-turning suspense, exploring the meaning of family, where love and loyalty prevail.

This book is a page turner, you have to know what happens next.  Most books of this gendre tend to be told from the "Big House" side or from the "Slaves/Servants" side.  This book is different as it dips into both places and we see it all through the life of Lavinia.

You so want Lavinia to wake up from being so innocent but you know that will never happen and the more she lives in the white skin world the more she leaves her childhood behind. When she does realize exactly what has been hidden from her it's too late and to see how she copes is so sad.

Stars out of 5 : 5 I loved this book and ordered the sequel to this story right away.  It is so well worth reading in my humble opinion.  I do wish I had read this book before we went away to Williamsburg in Virigina as there were places mentioned in the book that I would have visited.  We did go to the Hospital that was mentioned in the book.

I purchased this book myself and all my opinions are my own.