Mustard Seed is the story of two families intertwined by slavery. Laila Ibrahim has written such an incredible novel! I read the first book, Yellow Crocus, a few years ago but Mustard Seed can most certainly stand alone. I loved reading the journey of Jordan, Lisbeth and Mattie. The civil war may have ended but slavery was still rampant during these times. Highly recommend!!

I loved "Yellow Crocus" by Laila Ibrahim and was eager to read this sequel. I'm happy to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this current novel, also. A very good historical novel, although heartwrenching at times.

Lisbeth Johnson is summoned by her mother to return to her childhood home in Virginia, her father is dying. Lisbeth's feelings are mixed to return to the home she escaped after refusing to marry the evil man her parents planned for her, after catching him forcing himself upon a slave, and instead married Matthew. In the years since leaving, Lisbeth's relationship with her family is strained. After much thought, she decides to return to her father's side and takes her 2 children with her. Sadie and Sammy.

Meanwhile, Mattie Freedman, who is Lisbeth's beloved childhood nurse, and her children Jordan and Samuel, make their way to Virginia to bring Sarah (Matties sister) back home. Sarah, however, refuses to leave without her two daughters, Ella and Sophia, who have been taken presumably to another plantation, and are missing. Mattie, Jordan, and Samuel are determined to find them, but they have no idea the obstacles they are about to face and the hauntings and relationships from the past that are about to resurface.

Mustard Seed is the 2nd in the Yellow Crocus series by Laila Ibrahim. It is heart wrenching, tragic, yet beautiful. I highly recommend it.

Mustard Seed by Laila Ibrahim

Brief Summary: This is the sequel to Yellow Crocus and the second book in the Johnson/Freedman series. Lisbeth is a farmer’s wife in Oberlin, Ohio, having left her family in Richmond to marry an abolitionist. Maddie, her beloved nursemaid, and her daughter Jordan also live there. When Lisbeth learns her father is dying, she returns to her Southern roots on Fair Oaks plantation. Maddie, Jordan, and Samuel also return to Virginia with hopes of liberating loved ones still living in oppression. I initially thought the action in Yellow Crocus would be hard to follow, but Ibrahim writes an equally engrossing follow-up novel.

Highlights: It was really interesting to watch the characters to return to the South after living in the North; as the Southern way of life was very ingrained in those who had stayed in the South post-war. Betrayals from the previous novel had not been forgotten. It was a good reminder that the Civil War did not fix everything and families remained divided.

Explanation of Rating: 4/5; one of the best post-Civil War books I’ve read. Highly recommended for historical fiction enthusiasts.

Thank you to Net Galley and Lake Union Publishing for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review

I just love books by Laila Ibrahim. This story was no exception. Well-written, well-researched, emotional. A wonderful page-turner.

I am in charge of our Senior School library and am looking for a diverse array of new books to furnish their shelves with and inspire our young people to read a wider and more diverse range of books as they move through the senior school. It is hard sometimes to find books that will grab the attention of young people as their time is short and we are competing against technology and online entertainments.
This was a thought-provoking and well-written read that will appeal to young readers across the board. It had a really strong voice and a compelling narrative that I think would capture their attention and draw them in. It kept me engrossed and I think that it's so important that the books that we purchase for both our young people and our staff are appealing to as broad a range of readers as possible - as well as providing them with something a little 'different' that they might not have come across in school libraries before.
This was a really enjoyable read and I will definitely be purchasing a copy for school so that our young people can enjoy it for themselves. A satisfying and well-crafted read that I keep thinking about long after closing its final page - and that definitely makes it a must-buy for me!

A beautifully story by an amazing author...this novel captivated my attention from the first chapter...as I sure it will captivate yours. Experience it!

I will not know which seeds will take root and flourish, but the sowing itself is an act of faith. In the midst of so much ongoing ugliness, these are the faces of hope. The faith of a mustard seed.

Two women different in the color of their skin but the same in the faith of their God. That all men are created equal and made in the image of God. In my own words - That racism of any kind is a self-righteousness that is ugly, mean, cruel, and not of the gospel. I love a good book that has heart but also brings you face to face with the ugliness of your own heart.

Set after the civil war. Lisbeth is going back home to the deep south in fear that nothing has changed in her family and in courage to say goodbye to her ailing father. Taking her children to a different environment that is so different than what she grew up in. Lisbeth grew up in a culture of racism. Her family owned slaves and treated them as property. Lisbeth grew up as Mattie being the mother she always desired. Mattie sharing the love of respect of all men and women and children. That people have value. Lisbeth had escaped that culture with Mattie to the free state of Ohio. Mattie carrying her youngest daughter Jordan on her back and her son Samuel desiring a free life full of promise and hope.

Unbeknowst to both women, they both take the journey back home for different reasons. Mattie in search of her nieces and sister to bring back to Ohio for a better life and Lisbeth to say goodbye to her father. Their paths collide and they both learn that much has not changed and come together again to face the ugliness of racism. This time with courage and hope, they plant seeds in their own family to spread liberty for all.

I loved the characters in this book and how it brought racism to the fore front. You got a taste of what it must of been like after the civil war in the south. The bitterness and slave owners got around in keeping their slaves oppressed. I also was encouraged with the hope that this book gave as well. I highly recommend it.

A Special Thank You to Lake Union Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.

I honestly could tell by the writing of the first 2 chapters that it wouldn't be a good fit for our box and had to put it down. I may read it again in the future!

This is the second book in the series after Yellow Crocus. It's great to catch up with the family and how things are now. When Lisbeth Johnson,who was born into privilege in the antebellum South is called back home by her mother she must go,her father is dying. She is estranged from her family, their beliefs are not her own and she made a clean break when she married. Her family believes in slavery and all that entails and she knows it's wrong. Family is family though,blood is thicker than water and attend to her dying father she must . Her conscience won't let her deny her family. Once home she must face the Confederate family she betrayed by marrying an abolitionist. Characters we met in the first book Jordan and Mattie return to Fair Oaks, too, to save the family they left behind, who still toil in oppression. Family is not just family by blood,it's also by adoption and marriage. Oftentimes,as it's shown in this book the children,even the adult children don't comprehend or appreciate the hardships and sacrifices their parents have gone through to make sure their children have a better life than them.
Amazing book! I look forward to reading more by this author!
Pub Date 07 Nov 2017
Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for a review copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you netgalley for the copy of this book. I finished it awhile ago and forgot to send my review. I did enjoy this book. A story that took place just after the civil war. Shows how long it took for things to really change for former slaves. Good character development. Would make good movie.

I know this was a bad time in our US history. This story was so depressing to me, the more I read the more depressed. It seemed no matter who you were in the south, there was nothing getting any better.

Mustard Seed is a pretty good historical. It is set during my favorite time period, with a great setting, and likable characters. 4 1/2 stars

This is a story told in two perspectives: both colored and influenced by the issue of slavery and the Civil War. Set in the Reconstruction area, both Lisbeth and Jordan live in Oberlin Ohio in 1868, even if their situations couldn’t be more different, or more similar. Lisbeth left her family and home in Virginia to marry a man of her own choosing, an abolitionist, and head north to start their life. Growing up on a tobacco plantation, she was expected to marry and remain solidly a daughter of the south, maintaining the status quo. Jordan, the youngest child of her mother Mattie, never knew or truly understood the hold that slavery held over her parents and brother: although born into slavery, on the same plantation that Lisbeth lived, she never really understood her mother’s stories about Lisbeth or life in the south, even as she repeatedly heard the stories of her mother’s flight to Ohio to join her husband Emmanuel and her son Samuel. Living a free life, Jordan and her brother Samuel both took advantage of educational opportunities for university and freedom of choice: him to be a lawyer, she to be a teacher. In fact, Lisbeth is teaching in a non-segregated school, with Lisbeth’s daughter Sadie as one of her pupils. But, Jordan wants more: the talk about offering voting rights to the recently freed slaves does not include women, and Jordan is a strong believer in women’s right and duty to vote. She’s been planning to work with a woman’s rights organization in New York, a plan she has yet to share with her parents.

And then there is Lisbeth: her parents were furious when she broke an understanding with a man of their choosing to marry Matthew and head north. While she’s missing her parents, guilty for disappointing them, and concerned for their well-being, her first visit home when her son Samuel was an infant: her mother’s callous and cold treatment mirrored her childhood and recriminations for her beliefs, choices and what her family saw as abandonment and rejection left her reeling. But, ever the dutiful daughter, her mother’s letter containing news of her father’s illness and a request that she return to sit vigil spur her planned trip to visit her family, bringing her two young children (Samuel, 9 and Sadie, 6) along to see their grandparents and where she grew up. Simultaneously, Mattie has decided that she, her son and daughter will take a wagon back to Virginia, to convince her niece Sarah to return to Ohio with them.

A journey fraught with new revelations and understanding: both Lisbeth and Jordan are convinced that now the war is over and emancipation the law of the land that slavery and the inequities based on nothing more than race and antiquated beliefs are over. Never did either expect nor allow for the hatred and anger that remain: that ingrained belief of many (then and now) that there is an inbred and biological superiority held by whites, and that their way of life, made possible by slave labor and impossible by actually paying for the labor that works their plantations. Jordan believes that her mother, while loving her to bits, is overly cautious and fearful for their safety in returning, and Lisbeth hopes that her return will herald a new start for her relationship with her mother and brother as she says goodbye to her father.

From the tension and guilt that Lisbeth carries, worries about her mother and their welcome, the questions and reactions her children will have, the emotions brought back from being home and the constant guilt trip from her parents’ reduced circumstances and the shock when she realizes that circumstances haven’t truly changed: her family still clings to the ‘old ways’, her mother’s behavior more erratic than ever, and even her children are full of questions that she can’t always answer. For Jordan – from the first meeting with overseers to experiencing the slave quarters in which her cousin Sarah lives, the ineffective (if mostly well-meaning) function of the Freedmen’s Bureau, and the capture and imprisonment of her brother under the questionable claim of ‘vagrancy’ start to show her the error of her beliefs. From the first page until the last, Ibrahim manages to maintain levels of emotional tension that never quite disappear: bringing the concept of a country (and families) torn apart over the mistaken belief in the right to own another human being for one’s own purpose. The strength and faith that Mattie clings to is remarkable to behold, her simple and well-defined faith in the rightness of her convictions and actions, her openness and enduring love for her family and children, and the affection she carries for Lisbeth – a child not of her flesh but one she cared for as her own nonetheless influence the impact of this story in human terms. The facts are there for anyone to access, but it is the emotional impact of the telling and showing here that put this firmly into the favorites.

I received an eArc copy of the title from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.

Review first appeared at <a href=”https://wp.me/p3OmRo-9v4/”> <a> I am, Indeed </a>

It was great to once again read about the continuing lives of the people in her previous book Yellow Crocus, which took place during the civil war and slavery in the south.
This book continues after the civil war and follows the friendship between Maddie, a former slave and Lisbeth who's family owned her.
Lisbeth, who married a man that her parents did not approve of, left with him to find a better life in Ohio. Mattie and her baby daughter Jordan ran away from the plantation and made it to Ohio when Jordan was a baby. Now with her grown children, Jordan and Samuel, Maddie heads back to see if they can convince her cousin Sarah to come back to Ohio with them.
Now years later Lisbeth's father is dying and she and her children take a trip to see him before he dies. Not much seems to have changed in the south, people still working in the fields harvesting tobacco, without pay, even when they were supposedly free.
The story alternates between what is going on with Mattie and her family and then to what is going on with Lisbeth and hers. Coming together for some major events that happen.
It was interesting to hear about how the end of the war effected these different people. I have a feeling this story may continue.
The author is a wonderful story teller and writer, and I have so enjoyed these two book.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC of this book

Such an interesting story regarding post civil war feelings between north and south, freed slaves, forgiveness, and healing. I recommend reading Yellow Crocus first, although this one could stand alone.

What an incredible book! And I mean that sincerely! I would give "Mustard Seed" 10 stars if I could. This book is so apropos to what is going on in our country today. It gave me a lot to think about personally and a huge amount of "uncomfortableness" (I know that's not a word) with the world I live in.

The story itself takes place in post Civil War in Ohio and Virginia thus showing the differences between North and South after the War. I will not go into specifics because I had none when I started and think it is well worth going in with no expectations.

I suggest reading the author's first book first, "Yellow Crocus." The characters and story will make much more sense. But it is a book everyone should read. It is a part of US history come to life.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the opportunity to read and provide an honest review of this book.

A worthy sequel to Yellow Crocus, I believe this book could be read without reading the first book. After the Civil War, Lizbeth and Mattie are both facing injustice and prejudice in their own ways. Their friendship is explored very empathetically and the writing is enthralling.

When I saw there was going to be a sequel to "Yellow Crocus" I just had to request it!

Following on from Yellow Crocus, the Civil War is now over and Lisbeth and Mattie have found themselves being called back to Virginia to face their past. Slavery has been abolished - but what difference has it made in their home state? Both women go home to clear their unfinished business.

I absolutely love the authors style of writing and it's so easy to get drawn in and imagine you are in post civil war Ohio!

I thought the plot was captivating and it was nice to find out what had become of Mattie and Lisbeth after the civil war. Everything tied together neatly at the end (almost too much so for my liking). Great feel good historical fiction read that also gets you thinking!

This is apparently a continuation of Yellow Crocus which I haven't read so I don't feel as though I got that deep, personal connection with the characters. That being said, it was still a lovely story. The injustices these women face are crazy. Overall a nice read!