About the Book:
When Eve Marryat’s father is laid off from the Ford Motor Company in 1931, he is forced to support his family by leaving St. Paul, Minnesota, and moving back to his Ohio roots. Eve’s uncle Cyrus has invited the family to live and work at his Marryat Island Ballroom and Lodge.
St. Paul seemed like a haven for gangsters, and Eve had grown fearful of living there. At seventeen, she considers her family to be “good people.” They aren’t lawbreakers and criminals like so many people in her old neighborhood. Thrilled to be moving to a “safe haven,” Eve is blissfully unaware that her uncle’s lodge is a transfer station for illegal liquor smuggled from Canada.
Eve settles in to work and makes new friends, including an enigmatic but affecting young man. But when the reality of her situation finally becomes clear, Eve is faced with a dilemma. How can she ignore what is happening right under their very noses? Yet can she risk everything by condemning the man whose love and generosity is keeping her and her family from ruin?
About the Author:
Ann Tatlock is the author of the Christy Award-winning novel All the Way Home. She has also won the Midwest Independent Publishers Association "Book of the Year" in fiction for both All the Way Home and I'll Watch the Moon. Ann lives with her husband, Bob, and their daughter, Laura Jane, in Asheville, North Carolina. Learn more at www.anntatlock.com.
My Review:
This story is amazing. It is very tried and true and subtle. I love that about Ann Tatlock's writing. The story begins with a grandmother and grandson looking for something in an old ballroom and lodge. And the grandmother comes all the way back to this establishment that her family lived in years prior. Her grandson asks her to tell him the story of her family moving there in the summer 1931.
She goes on to tell all about the place they lived; St. Paul, Minnesota. Eve's father had lost his job and his brother Cyrus offered him a job. The only catch he and the family would have to move to Ohio. They would have to live and work in Cyrus' business-- Marryat Island Ballroom and Lodge. Eve was so glad to be leaving St. Paul, alot of the reason was because of the crime there. Eve's mother was sad and didn't want to leave Eve's sister, Cassandra now married. But they had to soldier on if they were ever going to make it out of this.
Eve talks about the gangsters of her day and the Great Depression. This is a remarkable story of a little girl coming of age in the middle of a horrible time in history to many families.
**Disclosure** This book was sent to me free of charge for my honest review from Bethany House.
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