A Silken Thread by Kim Vogel Sawyer

 Laurel Millard is looking for a way to keep her commitment to take care of her mother without giving up her dream for marriage and family. Brenden Rochester is looking for a beautiful young woman who will be a docile wife. Willie Sharp is looking for a way to earn enough money to send his father to a rehabilitation center to get over the effects of his stroke. They all end up working at the Cotton Exposition in post bellum Atlanta GA.  At first Rochester and and Laurel look for the answer to their quests in each other, but as Laurel gets to know Rochester she sees glimpses of his racial prejudice and general disregard for the feelings of others.  Willie Sharp, on the other hand, is as morally straight as they come, but also as poor as a church mouse. Is taking care of her mother so important that it is worth selling her soul?

This book is as overwrought and melodramatic as it sounds, but that isn't its main problem. It is the narrator.  I know I have complained about her before, but I keep forgetting.  Note to self, don't listen to anything narrated by Pilar Witherspoon ever again. Her habit of ending each sentence with a rising inflection, as if it were a question instead of a statement, drives me crazy. Plus her cadences are off. She often sounds like she is ending a sentence and then tacks on another word or two, as if she had come to a line in the text and failed to look ahead to the next line. I need to add her name to may list of authors to avoid.  I am doing it right now.....Ok, done.  Now I feel better. 

Then why, you may ask, did you listen to all 12 hours of it?  Good question.  I was desperate for something clean and wholesome which the story is.  I was even looking for something with a strong Christian vibe, which it has. If you are reading (instead of listening) I can recommend the book. (2019, 352 p)