All the Little Hopes by Leah Weiss ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

"We think we are safe here, where nothing happens - until something comes that undoes us all."  (p 2) 

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free book was provided for an honest review.

July 2021; Sourcebooks Landmark; 978-1728232744
audio, ebook, print (368 pages); southern fiction

My two favorite genres are historical fiction and southern fiction. So this book set in North Carolina in the early 1940s was a perfect book for me. It's one of few books that after I read the last page, I wanted to go back and read it for the first time again. I am probably one of the few people who hasn't read this author's first book but as soon as I finished this book, I ordered If the Creek Don't Rise from Amazon.

All the Little Hopes is told from the POV of two thirteen-year-old girls. Lucy lives in the eastern part of NC with her family. She is a reader and a lover of Nancy Drew mysteries. She loves to learn and is always using difficult words. Allie Bert Tucker, known as Bert, is from the mountains of NC. After her mother died in childbirth, she was sent to the eastern part of the state to help an aunt she'd never met. She felt like she was the reason that her mother died and looked at this trip as a banishment from her family. 

"My punishment is exile from my homeland." (p 22) 

When Lucy and Bert meet for the first time, they decide to be friends. Eventually, the living arrangements with her aunt change and Bert goes to live with Lucy's family. There are all sorts of strange happenings in the town - a man goes missing, a woman stops speaking - and Lucy decides that she and Bert can be Nancy Drew and solve the mysteries. Bert isn't so sure of this but agrees because they are friends. The two girls spend their days working with beehives because their father has a contract from the government for beeswax and in their free time, they work to solve the mysteries in town. The more they try to learn about what's going on, the more the mysteries continue to happen.

This book is a picture of a small southern town in the 40s. Along with the two main characters, there are lots of other characters - from Lucy's nurturing mom to the quirky Trula Freed who can tell the future. The main lesson that Lucy and Bert learn is that family is made up not just through blood but also through the people who love and care about you.

Fantastic southern fiction!

Buy All the Little Hopes at Amazon

Susan Roberts lives in North Carolina with her husband of over 50 years.  She grew up in Michigan but now calls North Carolina home. Since her travel plans had to be canceled for this year, she is starting to make plans for travel in 2021. She reads almost anything (and the piles of books in her house prove that) but her favorite genres are Southern fiction, women's fiction, and historical fiction. Susan is a top 1% Goodreads Reviewer. You can connect with Susan on Facebook, Goodreads, or Twitter.

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