What I’m Reading: The Moonshiner’s Daugher

I  had told you that I got super lucky.  I requested that my online library get three different books that weren’t in their collection and they ended up getting all three immediately.  It was a happy event for me.  I didn’t have to burn up Audible credits to be able to listen to them.  I was so hoping that I requested some good books.

My first book of the three is The Moonshiner’s Daughter by Donna Everhart.

My favorite thing ever is books told in first person and books that are coming of age stories.  This book has both so it had that going for it.  The book was set in the late 50s.  The story deals with bulimia and the angst of growing up without a mom and a dad that won’t talk about her death.

I liked the story but occasionally I would catch some “odd things” that weren’t thought through.  For example:  At one point, a ten-ish year old character of the book loses their arm.  A month later that character jumps into a pickup and drives it.  Well most people wouldn’t catch it but I grew up with my parents late 60’s pickup.  Back then, pickups were mostly stick shift.  It would be virtually impossible for a kid to drive a stick shift pickup with one arm.  There were a few other times that were similar….it’s almost like the author forgot what time her book was set in.  It wasn’t a big deal..just something to note.

Here’s what Amazon had to say:
“Generations of Sassers have made moonshine in the Brushy Mountains of Wilkes County, North Carolina. Their history is recorded in a leather-bound journal that belongs to Jessie Sasser’s daddy, but Jessie wants no part of it. As far as she’s concerned, moonshine caused her mother’s death a dozen years ago.
 
Her father refuses to speak about her mama, or about the day she died. But Jessie has a gnawing hunger for the truth—one that compels her to seek comfort in food. Yet all her self-destructive behavior seems to do is feed what her school’s gruff but compassionate nurse describes as the “monster” inside Jessie.
 
Resenting her father’s insistence that moonshining runs in her veins, Jessie makes a plan to destroy the stills, using their neighbors as scapegoats. Instead, her scheme escalates an old rivalry and reveals
long-held grudges. As she endeavors to right wrongs old and new, Jessie’s loyalties will bring her to unexpected revelations about her family, her strengths—and a legacy that may provide her with the answers she has been longing for.”

Amazon readers give the book 4.5 stars.  With how the book started, I was sure this was going to be a 5 star book…then it slowed a little too much.  Not terrible.  I was sure I’d give it a 4.5 rating…then the author tied the book up quick and wrote an epilogue.  Now I’m thinking I’ll give it a 4.2 rating.  I don’t know why so many authors think an epilogue is necessary.  It really didn’t do anything for the story in my opinion.

I hope someone else reads it.  I’d really like to hear someone else opinion.

If you want to give the book a try, you can find it on Amazon HERE.

I just went to Hoopla, my other online library and they have the author’s other three books.  I’m going to try another of her books….I really did like the writing style a lot…we’ll see.  Maybe I’ll like a different one better.