No spoilers about the storytelling - specifics about the wonderful storytelling....
More about how I felt....plenty to give a flavor of what readers are in store to read.
I LOVED IT!!!!

Belmont
Roanoke, Virginia 1962

I was excited to read Susan Rebecca White’s novel - the minute I read the blurb. The eye-catching book cover didn’t hurt to pique my interest either...
but when I ‘knew’ for sure that I was in great hands by a new author -to me- was when I read this - only 2% into this novel:
“Oh, I’m so excited to meet you! I don’t mean to be such a *spaz*, but I’ve been looking forward to this moment all summer!

Wow....Rebecca Susan White took me back about 50 years. For some of us old farts - we remember using the term, “you spaz”....
nothing politically correct about the slang word...
So, I don’t mean to be a ‘spaz’, either...when I say...
this novel kept getting better...and better....
Daniella wore “a kelly-green sleeveless shirtdress and a pair of Keds printed with watermelon halves”.
“KELLY-GREEN”... a “SHIRTDRESS”.... and “KEDS”......
My goodness ... did the author find these clothes in my old teenage closet?
Daniella’s shoulder-length blond hair was *teased* ...
*flipped* at the ends... and of course a *barrette*.
Oh my! I feel like I’m 16 years old, again ... smiling down memory land before the internet.
This book is MUCH MORE than Hersheys chocolate over vanilla ice cream, vanilla wafers, hot cocoa, tweed dresses, Peter Pan collars, Capri pants, cashmere sweater sets, and saddle oxfords......
AMERICAN HISTORY WAS CHANGING.....

My heart, mind, and soul were activated.... reawakening feelings in me that had been dormant.
I mostly just want to say ‘amen’ to this luminous book as a calling to us all.....

The memories kept on flooding - page after page. As Bob Dylan’ sang to the world......changin’....in American History.....
Susan Rebecca White captures visuals, smells, sounds, language, (BUMMER...SEXIST PIG, DIG IT?), music, hygiene, style, families, education, injustice, racism, discrimination, black inequality, casualties of war, Vietnam, smoking joints, long hair, hippies, McGovern buttons, spanning history from when President Kennedy’s assassination to president Bill Clinton.

I felt the anger - sick over violence - sadness - and the confusion of the characters resistance to change - ( especially the privileged).....The lies of the bourgeoisie were disturbing.
I felt like I WAS IN MISSISSIPPI during the civil rights movement.
The right to vote came.....( with worries)....
....We look at morality, political choices, love, sex, free love, friendship, marriages, babies, divorce, deaths, and struggles of the times through the most wonderful intimate storytelling imaginable: stunningly brilliant!!!!!
I actually cried from so much pride and enjoyment. Literally my entire body felt the impact.

I couldn’t resist.... I downloading Bob Dylan’s 1964 hit release to “The Times They are changin”. With little tears in my eyes - I listened.

For my generation.... Life was never more confusing, chaotic, and politically brutal
than this period of history.
Feeling of Melancholy.....

A message I took away - equally true today....
“Change would not happen without women who held power in the workforce”.

Thank you Atria Books, Netgalley, and Susan Rebecca White

I loved this twisty family drama . It showed the the human foibles of real life families with all their complexities.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this book

Compelling and timely, with an ambitious canvas and nuanced portraits of women who spring to life on the page. The legacies mothers bequeath their daughters--and the daughters' response to those legacies--is an instantly enticing foundation for a poignant read.

(Resenting this review, as earlier one vanished mid-point.)