Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of <i>The Indigo Girl</i> in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

<h4 style="margin-top: 84px;">The Gist</h4>

<i>The Indigo Girl</i> is a historical novel written by Natasha Boyd. The book is inspired by the true story of Eliza Lucas Pinckney, a young woman in colonial South Carolina in the early 18th century. Eliza is known for her remarkable accomplishments in agriculture, particularly for her successful cultivation of indigo, a valuable cash crop.

<h4>The Details</h4>

The novel revolves around Eliza Lucas Pinckney's life and her determination to save her family's plantation from financial ruin. Eliza faces numerous challenges and societal expectations as she takes on the responsibility of managing the plantation. The plot skillfully weaves together historical events and personal struggles, creating a compelling narrative.

The characters in the novel are well-developed and relatable. Eliza, in particular, is portrayed as a strong and independent young woman who defies societal norms of her time. The supporting characters, including her family and those in her social circle, add depth to the story and provide insight into the challenges faced by individuals in colonial America.

The novel explores themes such as gender roles, societal expectations, and the challenges faced by women in the 18th century. Eliza's journey to success in the male-dominated world of agriculture and commerce adds a layer of empowerment to the story.

Natasha Boyd's writing style is engaging and evocative, capturing the essence of the historical setting. The prose is well-crafted, making it easy for readers to immerse themselves in the story.

<h4>The Verdict</h4>

Overall, <i>The Indigo Girl</i> is a captivating historical novel that offers a compelling glimpse into the life of a remarkable woman in colonial America. The combination of a strong protagonist, well-researched historical details, and a well-paced plot makes it an enjoyable and educational read for those interested in historical fiction.

This book started off slow and I wasn't sure it was my cup of tea. But, once Eliza was in charge, it really took off. I thoroughly enjoyed this historical fiction novel based on the little-known figure of Eliza Lucas Pinckney. What a badass she was! My only complaint is how quickly the ending of the novel was wrapped up. All of a sudden it was over with very little fanfare. What happened to the plantation? She was just happy to be a housewife? What did she do after the first indigo crop? I will be researching more!

Well done historical fiction with a terrific heroine in Eliza. I knew nothing of indigo before reading this tale which also includes a love story. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC.

When a father gives his teenage daughter responsibility for his plantations, she must fight against society’s conventions and established gender ideas to prove that she’s up to the task. As she manages the land, she discovers an entrepreneurial spirit she didn’t know she possessed. Author Natasha Boyd delves into pre-Revolutionary life in the grounded novel The Indigo Girl.

It’s 1739, and Eliza Lucas has recently moved to a plantation just outside of Charles Town, South Carolina, with her parents, her younger sister, and several slaves. The move from Antigua provides a shock to the entire family; South Carolina is nothing like the island they called home and an even farther cry from their home country of England. While Mrs. Lucas finds herself discomfited at every turn, however, Eliza begins to get comfortable soon after moving.

Her father doesn’t stay for long, however. He plans to return to Antigua to make a bid for governor, but he needs someone to manage the plantation while he’s gone. Because Eliza already manages the household and handles some of the correspondence related to the plantation, she’s a natural choice to become its new mistress.

Eliza doesn’t allow her age—all of 16 years old—nor her gender hold her back. She throws herself wholeheartedly into running the plantation. Soon enough she learns of her family’s financial difficulties. Eliza becomes more determined than ever to induce the plantation to make money so that when her younger brother, George, arrives from England to take over as the heir to the family business she can give him a profitable one.

Challenges abound, however. Rumors swirl that the French and the British may go to war against one another. Some of Eliza’s own employees scorn her decisions based on the fact that she’s a woman. The crops, too, don’t bring in the kind of money she expected.

Eliza knows she’ll have to do something drastic and decides to invest in the risky business of raising indigo plants to make cakes of indigo dye. If she can just get the formula and the process right, she’ll be able to prove to everyone that she can run the plantations as well as any man. Extracting the formula, a closely guarded secret, is much more difficult than she ever expected. She knows she has no choice, however, if she wants to save the plantations once and for all.

Author Natasha Boyd brings to life a little-known historical figure. Using Eliza Lucas’ own letters and journal entries, as well as other reliable sources, Boyd has constructed a novel that pays homage in the best of ways to its main character. She lets Eliza tell her own story in first person, bringing the reader that much closer to the conditions of life on a plantation before the Revolutionary War.

If the novel can be faulted anywhere, it’s in the fictional construction of a potential love interest. Boyd shares in her author’s note at the end of the book that she went with her instinct in creating this character based on Eliza’s letters. The scenes may be compelling on their own, but the contrast they provide to the larger story is too stark. The rest of Boyd’s narrative flows together organically, but this point doesn’t mesh with the rest of her book.

Overall, however, Boyd has brought a little-known trade of South Carolina to life. Considering the heavy emphasis placed by various books on other periods in history, Boyd’s tome offers a fresh reminder that the past does back beyond 1939. Lovers of historical fiction will enjoy this book, but so will those who consider themselves close to the south and South Carolina in particular.

I recommend readers Bookmark The Indigo Girl.

Historical fiction is my favorite genre, and this is a perfect example of why I love it. Based on a true person, this is a fictionalized account of Eliza Lucas Pinckney"s successful development of indigo as one of the most important cash crops of Colonial South Carolina. The author paints a vivid portrait of 18th century southern society, her characters are well crafted and the story interesting. Bravo!.

I've heard so many fabulous things about this story but for some reason I didn't care for it. I tried a few times to read it but it just wasn't connecting to me.

Totally adored this immaculately researched book. Although I had it here I also went out and bought a copy as I loved it so much. I think that it takes the conventions of this kind of writing and totally subverts them to bring the reader something totally fresh and exciting and it certainly had me hooked from the start. Natasha Boyd certainly can write! I felt that the characterization of Eliza Lucas was extremely strong indeed and the ending was something that I was longing to reach and yet kept delaying as I really didn't want it to end. I am always on the look out for fresh and original voices for our senior library and to get our senior students reading more diverse and interesting fiction and I'll certainly be recommending this to them. The Indigo Girl is a first rate piece of contemporary fiction that I kept thinking about, for a long time after I'd read it. I really hope to hear more from Natasha Stewart and I'm looking forward to seeing what he comes up with next!

I love historical fiction and everything about this book is right in my wheel house. The cover is absolutely breath taking and I loved the premise. Sadly, it just didn't work for me. I abandoned it about 35% of the way in. 2.5 stars

What I love about this book is that this is based on a true story. There’s nothing more interesting to me than when you take someone’s story and share it with the world who may not have known it. Eliza Lucas is sixteen when her father leaves her in charge of her family’s plantations when he goes back to to Antigua to serve as lieutenant governor during the English and Spanish conflict. In a world where women are supposed to sit pretty and marry well, this is a unique opportunity for Eliza and one that she relishes, though her mother would prefer to see her married off and her husband tending to overseeing the plantations. It’s through her own determination and hard world that she avoids the yoke of marriage and instead struggles to see if indigo, a highly sought after dye, could be grown in the colony. Her determination and her willingness to work with the slaves of the property, whom she treated like family, teaching them to read in exchange for their helping her with the crop.

Even though she’s sixteen, there was a naivete about her, which is stripped away through time and in its place a new grit is formed and adds to Eliza’s already unique personality and mindset. I loved how she refused to be let down, that she kept fighting until she succeeded and continued with that same indomitable spirit throughout the rest of her life. She is also remarkable because General George Washington was one of the pallbearers at her funeral in 1793. She was truly amazing and she seems to have passed that down to her children, her two sons both were Federalist Vice Presidential candidates, the elder son was a signatory on the Constitution.

Included in the novel are actual snippets from Eliza’s letters and it’s lovely to hear Eliza’s own voice in this tome about her. Granted, it is a first person perspective, but there’s something special about including Eliza’s actual words.

I loved this book and I can’t wait to reread it. Ms. Boyd has a gift for storytelling and how to make things come alive. It was an absolute joy to read and I forced myself to take my time–I’m usually a fast reader–because I wanted to savor the story and to really get to know Eliza and her family. It’s a book you should enjoy and share with friends; it’s truly a wonderful read.

All too often it is the Civil War that defines the South and its slaves. Set just before the revolutionary war, The Indigo Girl shows the life of the south before the war. You have all the usual antebellum tropes but there is an additional historical anchor in the rebellions and the Spanish freedom and subsequent re-enslavement of slaves in their colonies. On the surface, this is a fun strong girl taking over her father’s plantation to gain her own freedom.

It was the relationships between the slaves and the plantation owners that I found interesting. While the sheer idea of a “good” master makes me cringe, I couldn’t help but wish that the author's depiction of the masters was true. It definitely played on white guilt a bit. It was okay for them to be slaves because they were happy slaves and that sort of idea. It was hard to take seriously the abolitionist speak of equality and rights when all the while she owns slaves and makes her living off of their backs. The story was definitely painted in a good light and to dive to deeply into this story would do it no real good. As a light story about the transplant of indigo to South Carolina, it is a good story. As a story about master and slave relations, it falls short.
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*This eBook was provided by NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing in exchange for honest feedback*

In 1739 sixteen-year-old Eliza Lucas is left in charge of her father’s plantations in South Carolina – an unheard-of thing for a woman in those times! Eliza already has a keen interest in plants thanks to a childhood friend but when her father takes her along when he goes to inspect one of his plantations, before he leaves, her interest is caught by some slave women carrying bundles of sticks back towards the dwellings wearing faded blue sack skirts swishing against dusky dark skin. Eliza made a deal with her slaves: she would teach them to read and in return, they would teach her the secrets of making indigo. Thanks to Eliza’s vision and perseverance indigo went on to become one of the largest exports of the colonies, laying the foundation for colonial wealth that shaped United States history.
The story is based on true events and historical documents but certain elements had to be created to demonstrate character or give fabricated reasons for actions where the truth behind certain deeds has been lost to time. Being a woman and of farm stock myself I identified with Eliza. She was ambitious and headstrong, she didn’t always conform to society’s expectations, she made friends with whom she chose and not who was expected and she did not have an idle bone in her body. Two hundred years after her death, Eliza Lucas Pinckney was inducted into the South Carolina Women in Business Hall of Fame and in 2017 she will be the D.A.R. Woman of the year. Also, to this day, the South Carolina state flag is blue in honour of indigo.
Saphira
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

Indigo Girl is based on the true story of Eliza Lucas, the author even included excerpts from her letters in the 1730s adding a wonderfully authentic touch.
The novel starts off slowly but before you have time to notice you are engulfed in the story and you'll find yourself captivated by something as random as the production of indigo.

I highly recommend to lovers of no gimmick historical fiction. By that I mean the author doesn't have to rely on a dual timeline or some kind of fabricated drama to tell a wonderful story of triumph. Beautifully done Natasha Boyd!

This starts really well but I feel like somewhere I lost it! It was an interesting and unique story but still I feel like something was missing!However the premise was really good and the writing flawless!I don't know if the timing wasn't right maybe if i give it another time I will enjoy it more!

In 1739, Eliza Lucas is sixteen years old when her father leaves her in charge of the family’s three South Carolina estates so he can go chase his dreams of a military career. With the estates floundering on the edge of ruin, Eliza decides that producing indigo is the family’s only hope.

But not even her family wants her to succeed, and no one will share the thousand-year-old secret to making indigo dye, so Eliza must form a forbidden friendship with a slave who promises to teach her—if she breaks the law and teaches the slaves to read. Eliza is on her own as she fights against tradition and the law, except for the friendship of an aging horticulturalist and the married lawyer who is a friend of the family.

Somehow, I did not realize The Indigo Girl was historical fiction until I finished reading it. Though the issues of slavery and women’s rights in the book bothered me, that stuff happened, and erasing history means we won’t learn from it. Eliza was a wonderful character—and the fact that the character is at least partially based on a real-life woman who fought tradition and oppression is even better—strong, determined, and with the courage to stand up for what she believes in and fight even her family to do what’s right. This is a great read!

(Galley provided by Blackstone Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)

I found this to be slow and hard to read. I tried several times to read it but was not able to finish it.

Certainly stories of strong historical women aren't unusual; even if history barely remembers them. We seem to want to tug on these journeys until their story unravels. Indigo Girl is a mostly true story. Eliza, our lead gal, was a women of not even 17 living in the American colonies in mid-1700s.

The primary purpose of the story appears to be about Eliza but I actually think (based on the afterword); that this is really a story about indigo production and how to get by in the mid-1700s.
The perseverance and no quit attitude portrayed by Eliza in The Indigo Girls is something I think anyone can admire and wish for; regardless of time period or gender.

As it's the mid-1700s on a plantation in what would later become South Carolina; inevitably much of the book is about slavery. Eliza was a very progressive woman for her time and truly loved her slaves like family. This caused her a lot of heartache but also meant she fought hard for her slaves and treated them well.
At one point I did get tired of how 'special' Eliza was that she saw her slaves as real people instead of, well, slaves. I suppose that is because to us, today, it seems so obvious that everyone should be seen and treated equally. This was the largest annoyance I had in Indigo Girl is that it got a bit repetitive about Eliza's special bond with the slaves.
However, without a doubt Eliza's love for anyone with a good heart is what makes this a poignant and sometimes sad story. Especially the elements of it that are definitely true. Natasha Boyd makes a point at the end of letting the reader know what characters were fiction and which were real people. In a historical book built on truth I always appreciate this. There's also a bibliography if you want to read more about Eliza. I love that most of the letters are quoted direct from Eliza's real life letters.

I would highly recommend The Indigo Girl for anyone that loves historical stories; but also to those with a keen interest in some of the building blocks of the future that people in the USA laboured so hard to create. This Canadian is very glad to have learned the story of Eliza and her Indigo dye.

This Indigo Girl is the perfect example of why I adore historical fiction. Natasha Boyd has really outdone herself with her latest novel. With completely immersive writing she brings to life the story of an exceptional young woman, Eliza Lucas Pinckney.

Eliza was a sixteen year old girl living in South Carolina in 1739. Her father left his plantation and family to attend to his interests abroad. Having no of age male children on the land, Eliza's father makes the choice to leave her in charge of seeing to the Plantations.

Struggling to deal with life in the new colony, a looming war with Spain and financial distress both personal and of the budding colonies, Eliza seeks to find a way to keep her family's land. She has a vision to do the near impossible. She wants to make indigo dye, a precious and lucrative commodity.

Meeting with adversity on nearly every front, Eliza endures and over several years finally finds success. Nearly forgotten, her life and important contributions arguably altered the course of colonial history. Eliza Lucas Pinckney would be considered remarkable in any time period but was nothing short of a miracle in the 1700's when women were at such social disadvantage.

Natasha sought to bring to life Eliza and highlight her intelligence, bravery and accomplishments. She has undeniably succeeded. The Indigo Girl is Natasha's first work of historical fiction and I truly hope there is more to come from her.

The Indigo Girl was a captivating story! I was pulled in from the first page.

2.5-3 stars

I am a fan of historical fiction and Natasha Boyd but I’m afraid this book didn’t thrill me in the way I was hoping it would. I will keep this fairly short but also aim to explain my thoughts and feelings. This is not romance, I would consider this straight historical fiction which might confuse other Natasha Boyd fans as she is known for successful contemporary romance. This wasn’t a problem for me per se, but there were two different strands of suggestion of romance and both of these storylines lacked depth and execution for my taste.

The story of a strong young woman coming of age with huge responsibility was an interesting concept and I wanted to be engaged but a slow start made investment difficult. I felt more pulled in at 25% and I found Eliza’s botanical endeavours initially interesting but eventually less so in the long run. The stories of the slaves were my favourite thing about this book. On the whole, I wanted more excitement in terms of storyline and a little more in character development.

Whilst this book wasn’t eventually what I expected or wanted, I’m sure some will enjoy this tale, the setting and colours it conjures. THE INDIGO GIRL excels in description and painting the landscape. I remain a fan of Natasha Boyd and just wish my review could have been more favourable.

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through netgalley, in return for a honest review.

Reviewed for Jo&IsaLoveBooks Blog.

4+ stars

If I didn't know that this was based on a true story, a real person in our history, I would have found it to be pretty unrealistic that in the 1730's, a British man would leave his sixteen year old daughter in charge of his plantations when he leaves South Carolina for Antigua to further his military career. There are several things that I really liked about this book. While this is a fictionalized account of the life of Eliza Lucas, it not only appears to be well researched, but excerpts of letters written by Eliza Lucas are interspersed throughout. Eliza Lucas was a determined, smart and tough woman who was in many ways, a woman ahead of her times. How heartening to know that in spite of the societal demands of the times, that there were women who were bold enough to do things considered to be only in the realm of men. She is remembered for bringing to SC the indigo crop that changed its economy.

The author in her notes tells which characters are based on real people and which are imagined. I always love to hear what the creative spark was that prompts an author to write a particular story. In this case, Natasha Rosenfeldt Boyd was attending an indigo exhibit in South Carolina and overheard a conversation between the gallery owner and one of Eliza's descendants. "I caught snippets of a story that would light a fire in me. It was a story about a sixteen-year-old girl who ran her father's plantations in her father's name. "This girl," the unknown person said next to me, unaware of my eavesdropping, " made a deal with her slaves : she would teach them to read, and in return they would teach her the secrets of making indigo." And thus the spark for this novel and the story of this young woman whose story is inspiring and relevant even today.


I received an advanced copy of this book from Blackstone Publishing through NetGalley.