Denise

We don't know—none of us knows— what sorrows gonna trample us. But we ain't put down on this earth to buck and jibe.

I am a huge fan of Gone With the Wind but I've always been wary about reading any other books that were sequels to it or based upon its characters. When I first heard about this book I decided to actually try reading those books I had been so wary to read to prepare myself for this book. I liked McCaig's previous book, Rhett Butler's People, so I had high hopes for this book. Unfortunately I don't feel that this book stayed true to all of Mitchell's characters and at times spent too much time from the point-of-view of other characters besides Mammy (Ruth).

Mammy is such a force in Scarlett and other characters' lives that it was nice to read an interpretation of what her past would have been like. The book starts off from the point-of-view of Solange, Scarlett's grandmother, and i felt like we spent too much time in her point-of-view. I know that Ruth was little in the beginning but the book really started to feel like just a backstory of Solange.

While reading certain parts of this book it became a bit hard to see how this Ruth would grow to be the person she became. She may have loved Jehu but I never felt like he was all that in love with her. I really liked McCaig's telling of Ellen's childhood and everything she went through with Phillipe. Those were the parts that were the most fascinating. I was baffled by how McCaig portrayed Scarlett in this book. I didn't like the whole switch from Katie to Scarlett and I didn't find it believable that this interpretation of Scarlett would have grown into the girl/woman she was in Gone With the Wind.

Overall there was nothing that really struck me about this book. I feel like I would have liked this a lot more if more of it had been from Ruth's point-of-view. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the galley.