The Kitchen House: Book Review

Amazon's Description:

When a white servant girl violates the order of plantation society, she unleashes a tragedy that exposes the worst and best in the people she has come to call her family. Orphaned while onboard ship from Ireland, seven-year-old Lavinia arrives on the steps of a tobacco plantation where she is to live and work with the slaves of the kitchen house. Under the care of Belle, the master's illegitimate daughter, Lavinia becomes deeply bonded to her adopted family, though she is set apart from them by her white skin. Eventually, Lavinia is accepted into the world of the big house, where the master is absent and the mistress battles opium addiction. Lavinia finds herself perilously straddling two very different worlds. When she is forced to make a choice, 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.

I don't know what to say about this book.  It was good?  That just seems a little wrong to say about a book dealing with issues such as slavery, insest,and rape.  I will say...I could not put it down.  The writing was amazing and the characters, believable.  The story is told from both Lavinia and Belle's point of view.  From both perspectives, you get a better understanding of what life was really like for this family.  It also gives you an idea of what it must have been life to live in the South during this time period.  It was sad, yet heart warming...  one minute you were angry and the next, you were smiling.  I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone.