I think I may have read a different book from the one read by other reviewers of Eden.

Many, many other readers were disappointed in the point of view character, Rowen Hart, and his lack of purpose and social courage. To me, Rowen was a very familiar entity -- the young person (sometimes not-so-young) for whom everything just happens effortlessly. Such folks are good-natured, often good-looking, mostly without ambition, but not without success. The word entitled springs to mind.

Rowen is an 18-year-old white boy of the Deep South sometime before the Civil Rights movement made its mark. He is unprepared and ill-equipped for any misfortune -- and as the book opens, plenty of it has befallen him: financial, social and cultural.

Jamie Lisa Forbes's prose style is simple, but her story and characters are complex. The heroes of the piece (the ones with gumption and character and wisdom) are mostly women, although there are three or four worthless females in the mix.

What saved Rowen from my contempt is that he *knows* he is generally useless, and in his own way he flails about for a sense of purpose. The fact that Eden (a 10-year-old runaway when we first meet her) is the title character suggests who is Forbes's true hero.

I highly recommend this book, but not for readers who are hooked on triumph-over-adversity, feel-good endings. Eden may not be full-fledged tragedy, but any realistic book about class and race in America will have plenty of melancholy moments.

I was confused about the time period. It's supposed to be the 1950s, but 18-year-old Rowen has a memory of his father comparing their maid Adeline to Aretha Franklin. The singer would have come of age in 1960, but it was years before she became familiar to white audience and established her trademark fashion sense.

Thanks to NetGalley and Pronghorm Press for an advance readers copy.

This book surprised me. It is not the sort of thing that I normally read. But I have read a few books set in the American South in the last year and enjoyed them - if enjoy is the right word.

This is the story of a teenage boy, Rowen, his sick mother, their black servant, Adeline, and Eden, the young girl they took in to live with them. They live in a small, rundown, rural cottage which is all they can afford after Rowen's father committed suicide.

We see how their lives change as various circumstances affect them.

The beginning was a good read and held my attention. Towards the middle I found my attention drifting. But the end was quite intense and I found myself being held by the book and not able to stop reading.

The book was well written and well paced, with each paragraph covering a different phase of their lives.

I would certainly recommend this book to anyone to read. I gave it 4 stars.

I have posted a review of this book on Goodreads using my online name - Cordelia.

It is 1950, as Rowen Hart is about to go off to college, his world splits apart when his father commits suicide. His mother takes to her bed and the only one left to help pick up the pieces is their housekeeper Adeline. Rowen has a summer job picking tobacco but he slacks off quite a bit. As the book opens, he has slacked off to attend a trail that 10 year old Eden is called to testify at. Her father died around the same time and Rowan’s father. She testifies that her uncle shot her father but no one believes the 10 year old, including her own mother. Eden shows up on the doorstep of Rowans and asks his mother if she can live with them.

She looks up to Rowen and takes to following him around. He goes to his Uncle, who was in business with his father to get his father’s share. His uncle said there was nothing left from his father’s share and gives him a little money for his mother. He says he will give his mother a small sum every month but Rowen will have to pay for college and also make up the balance his family will need to survive. He suspects his uncle is lying about his father’s share but just doesn’t have the backbone to argue. Against his mother’s and Adeline’s wishes, he decides not to go to college.
Rowan’s luck turns when their neighbor Claude stops by to repair the broken gate that Rowen keeps putting off fixing. Actually, he doesn’t really know how and doesn’t have the proper tools. Rowen comes out of the house to ask Claude why he is fixing their fence and then proceed to help as Claude directs them. Claude sees something in Rowen and invites him to work for him on his construction crew until the end of summer when he will leave for college. Of course he doesn’t go to college.

As the months and years go by, Rowen starts to mature. He marries and has 3 children and keeps bring money home. However, he still has a long way to go. There are many times I wanted to slap some sense into him. I wanted someone to slap some sense into him!

The characters leaped of the page and welcomed me into their dysfunctional lives. I couldn’t help joining them; I was caught like a deer in headlights. I especially loved Eden, so precocious and full of life despite her lot in life. I would love to tell you more but don’t want to risk spoilers.

I really had a hard time putting this book down and be warned, there were parts that made me cry like a baby. Jamie Lisa Forbes owes me a box of tissue! She really captured the 1950’s south, warts and all. Her take on the human condition reminds of the greats like John Steinbeck and Harper Lee! This is her third book and I also read and loved the first two. The first two won awards and I believe ‘Eden’ is just as deserving! She really captures the heart and soul of her characters. I imagine they haunt her as they will haunt me for a long time to come. I just can’t get them out of my head. I highly recommend ‘Eden’!

I really wish I had liked this more. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t particularly good either. Overall, I found it depressing and didn’t see the point. It followed Rowen and how Eden had changed his life, but he never really did much with himself, was a victim of circumstance, and just irritated me. He seemed to float from one circumstance to the next, never really examining his life and figuring out what he wanted. He never stood up for himself or the people he cared about. At least, I thought he cared about people, but it was hard to tell. At times, I wondered if the book was about Eden or about Adeline, but Rowan was the main character so anything the reader saw about them was filtered through the eyes of Rowan. Either of them would have made a more compelling main character. Eventually, Rowan did the right thing, but by that point, it seemed like he was just trying to make up for all of his mistakes.

The author has a talent for description, employing copious sensory details to create vivid and memorable scenes. Unfortunately, the plot followed the life of Rowan without any indication of turning points or self-revelations. I didn’t see any real growth in him, so this was not a hero’s journey in any sense of the word. It was disappointing and I’d rather not have read it because I now have clear memories of scenes but no understanding of why they matter.

I give this a 3.5.

Set in rural North Carolina in the 1950s, 18-year-old Rowen Hart is forced to "grow up" real fast after his father kills himself and his mother has a nervous breakdown. The problem is, Rowen has lived a life of extreme privilege and doesn't really understand what being an adult means. In the meantime, his mother and her long-time housekeeper Adeline take in 10-year-old Eden, who has been kicked out of her house by her mother after testifying against her uncle for murdering Eden's father right in front of her.

This book opens in a courtroom where Eden is called on to testify against her uncle for killing her father. (When I started this book, I was worried that it was just another courtroom drama focused on racism in the south in the midcentury -- complete with lots of use of the n-word and good old Southern boy attorneys, but it quickly veered away from this.) The negative feelings against her from everyone in the courthouse, including the judge and her own mother, are obvious, but also obvious is Eden's extreme sense of standing up for what's right, even when she has to struggle to make sure she survives.

This is quickly juxtaposed against Rowen's character, who seems to have been living in his own little bubble his whole life, somehow oblivious to the racism and sexism in his community, and shocked that people don't respect his family the same way now that they're poor. Rowen is very self-centered, even as he sees himself as making lots of sacrifices for his family, and even turns his back on Eden over and over again, putting her in extreme danger, while never recognizing his responsibility. It seems like the author is trying to show him struggling between doing what's right and wrong, but it's clear that he will consistently do what's best for himself.

Even at the end when it appears that the author is making an attempt to redeem him, Rowen continues to hurt the people who love him while focusing so much in assuaging his own guilty conscience. Overall, while Rowen (and Eden) are both interesting characters, we seem them make bad decision after bad decision with neither of them ever learning or growing from their mistakes. Even so, while the characters frustrated me and it was a sad novel, it did seem to describe much more human characters than many books, and I still enjoyed reading this book for what its literary merit.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc of this book. It has not influenced my opinion.

At the young age of eighteen, Rowen Hart is forced to become a man when his father commits suicide. Additionally, his mother decides to take in Eden, a ten year old orphan whose father was murdered by her uncle. Rowen has to put his college plans on hold to find work to support the household all while coming into his own and deciding what his true future holds.

Set in the 1950’s in rural North Carolina, Eden is a coming of age love story that deals with poverty, racial, social and gender inequalities. Easy to read and engaging, although not the lightest or happiest material, I enjoyed the story and the thought provoking nature of events.

Eden is set in the 1950s, in White Rock, North Carolina, not far from the Cape Fear River. The book highlights many of the stereotypical issues of the 1950s South. Rowen Hart is a high school senior when his father kills himself and his mother has a nervous breakdown. As a young man raised in privilege he has no understanding of how the world works and has absolutely no clue how to think for himself. The only thing that he figures out in that first year is that he does not to travel the path his parents expected him to travel.

Eden Whitney is ten year old girl that has watched her uncle, her mother's brother, murder her father. She has a keen sense of right and wrong and is not afraid to speak her mind and do right by others. Soon after she testifies against her Uncle Franklin, the bank president, she runs away and is taken in by Rowen's family.

As we progress through Rowan's life from young man to married man, to adulthood, Eden is a catalyst of change in Rowen's life. She represents a side to the story that he is too afraid or blind to consider. Throughout Eden's life she makes people face that lies, the one's we tell ourselves, as well as, the one's we tell others, poison us and need to be atoned for.

The writing in the book is descriptive and the dialogue I feel moves the story along. However, the jumps from one part of Rowen's life to the other were unpredictable and abrupt. There was no time to process the scene I had just finished reading and the implications that it might have on the story as a whole, when boom the storyline had moved years down the line. This made the book feel disjointed as if a bunch of short stories with the same characters had been shoved together into a book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pronghorn for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Rowen's world suddenly changes when his father commits suicide and he is forced to go from spoiled child of a wealthy family to provider as his mother's grief causes her to shut down. Since they find out there is no money, Rowen is forced to work versus attending college. The journey from spoiled child to responsible adult is written in a realistic manner and the characters were easy to feel invested in.

The style of writing is good and the characters are believable; but the story itself is just so sad and depressing. I kept waiting for something to get better. It's a pretty depressing book.

This book left me confused, from the description I thought it would be a book I would certainly like it, but I had a hard time reading it.
I do not know maybe it is a little too depressing maybe the characters were so different from me. I want to say it is a good book if you like this genre, the characters are well described, and the story is interesting and believable. I read some reviews and some reviewers were not very sympathetic with Rowen the main character and I partially agree he seems to be out of his natural element, and he have difficult time to accept and move on but all his actions (and non-actions) make his real.

I want to thank NetGalley and Pronghorn Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Eden by Jamie Lisa Forbes takes place in 1950s North Carolina and tells the very sad story about very sad people. Eden, the title character, is a 10 year old girl who is the star witness in a murder. She saw her uncle kill her father. Problem is she isn't believed and when her uncle is exonerated her emotionally abusive mother kicks her out! She winds up in the home of of high school senior Rowan Hart. I

Spoiled only child Rowan has he own sad story. His dad committed suicide because of being in debt. His mother takes to her room in depression and only their housekeeper, Adeline, tries to keep things together for them.

This story for me was just too sad with little growth for the main characters. Rowan is a middle age man before he shows any sign of real emotional growth. Though there are townspeople who come in and out their lives I did not find them quirky and interesting enough to care about them.

The author is amazing at writing detail prose. The scenery is gorgeous and beautifully described. The characters are distinctive and maybe a bit too realistic. I wish there had more about Eden than Rowan. I just wanted to shake him and say grow up. Life is hard sometimes. Deal with it!

I received a free copy of this book from the publishers via NetGalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

The premise and the setting of this book were very promising, but sadly it did not meet my expectations. I have no trouble reading books about difficult subjects, but I just found this book depressing. One of the things I look for in a book is growth and change in a character, and this book was lacking in that area.

I received a free electronic copy of this historical southern noir novel from Netgalley, Jamie Lisa Forbes, and Pronghorn Press on April 30, 2020. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read Eden of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. I am pleased to recommend Jamie Lisa Forbes to family and friends. Her prose rides right up there with the classic southern novelists. This is a story to savor.

We are peering into the lifestyle of White Rock, Purdie County, North Carolina in the spring of 1950, and we see this world through the eyes of spoiled high school senior Rowen Hart. Rowan was raised with the proverbial silver spoon, living in the town in a nice house, expecting college just around the corner. Then his father kills himself, heavily into debt with his brother/partner in business, leaving Rowen and his mother Rita destitute and having to move immediately to the tin-roofed shack on the old family farm and learn how to be poor. Immediately after the funeral Rita takes to her bed, and without their housekeeper Adeline, both Rowan, and Rita would have never made it in the poor world, but she sticks with them, through thick and thin, and they all muddle through. Added to the small family ruled by Adeline is Eden Whitney, a young miss just 10 years old, mentally abused by her mother Coman White Whitney, and traumatized by seeing her Uncle Franklin White murder her father Birch Whitney. Eden is called to the stand to testify in the trial of her uncle Franklin, the only physical witness of the murder. Adding greatly to her trauma, no one believes Eden's version of the crime, as Franklin is normally mild-mannered and well-liked, and he insists that Birch came after him with a pipe wrench and Eden was in the house. Franklin is found not guilty, the shooting was self-defense. Coman immediately kicks Eden out of her house with nowhere to go.

Will Rita ever get back into life? Will Rowan ever grow up, marry, have a couple of kids, manage to still spend quality time with his mother and Adeline, and with Eden and childhood friend Sammy Little?

Adeline and Rita will, of course, soldier on, taking care of one another as best they can, and along with them, we will be watching life happen in White Rock. The highs, the lows, the good luck and bad, the babies that come along and need warm mothering hands to keep them ticking along. Life, southern mid-twentieth century life as it was in a small town in North Carolina. Warts and all.

As Rowen was preparing to leave his small town for college and live the life that was planned out for him life changes in a moment. He goes from living a pampered spoiled life to losing his father to suicide, his mother to depression, becoming responsible for taking care of his mother with no money, having little ambition as he has always been told what to do and becoming reliant upon his unscrupulous uncle. He is lost and unsure of how to do all he needs to do and really never figures it out. He just goes along. All of the time. For his entire life. Okay, at the very end he did grow a bit of a spine, but it was so late in the story that though happy, didn’t care all that much, That is what made this a tough read for me. I kept waiting for him to grow up if even only a little bit. It did happen, but so close to the end that I was done and didn’t care all that much. The uncle and the mother were terrible people, for different reasons, but both took advantage of what was going on around them and as Rowen was low hanging fruit, he was the biggest patsy in it all and did nothing about it. The only bright spot was Eden. Brave beyond her years, smart and wanting a better life for herself. Well written and interesting period piece.

This book really grabbed me from the beginning. This is the story of many unfortunate twists and turns of lives that revolves around Rowen Hart and a young girl named Eden. The book does seem to hop from one time period to the next. If I could change anything about the book, it would be to let us see more of Eden’s life and how her relationships, from her childhood to the end of her life. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to read the advanced copy.

I thought "Eden" by Jamie Lisa Forbes was an excellently written book. Jamie did a great job of depicting the south in the 50's. From the moment I picked up the novel, I did not want to put it down. The story line was tender and thoughtfully done and the end did not disappoint. I highly recommend this novel as a must read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pronghorn Press for providing me with an advance copy of this book. I freely give this review.

Eden by Jamie Lisa Forbes should be at the top of your beach read list this year! Warm sweet southern drawl oozes off the pages, and wraps you in its smooth delivery of southern fiction at its best.

Set in 1950’s North Carolina, Eden is a coming of age story about life and everything good and ugly about it. It seems in every chapter there’s an self-proclaimed hero, but as in life so many prove false. I loved the title character Eden, and the maid Adeline in all their strength. They are the constants to everything that swells around them.

Eden if full of characters both lovable and ones you despise. They’ll linger in your memory. You’ll feel the weight of the choices for the paths they took. You’ll have lived and felt the pulse of the times with them. This book will stay with me for some time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pronghorn Press for an ARC of Eden by Jamie Lisa Forbes. I'm always interested in novels set in the South and this one did not disappoint. I expected a female point of view since the title is Eden but found that Rowan would be the main character. Set during the 1950s, Rowan is an 18 year old who becomes responsible for 10 year old Eden after the deaths of both of their fathers. What follows is a well developed journey following their lives with a well written ending.

This author was new to me but I because love Southern fiction, I'll read pretty much any book set in the South (or at least give it a try). This one didn't disappoint, though the main character had my sympathy for the total lack of useful guidance he seemed to have received growing up. Being pampered and sheltered doesn't do anyone any good. Rowan didn't exactly blame anyone for the situations he found himself in but wishing for different outcomes without taking thoughtful action won't guarantee wishes coming true; not asking for guidance or advice seemed to be a weakness that was never corrected.

What frequently came to mind was "houses built on sand". It's hard to make good decisions if you've never been permitted to make any at all, until really hard choices forced you to learn. I kind of felt sorry for Rowan but I really felt for his (biological) children at the end. All of these points made for an interesting, believable story set in small town North Carolina the 1950s-70s.

Forbes has a deft hand at crafting space, time, and character. This book talks of taking the road less travelled in life and the costs of traveling that road. Rowen and Eden meet when she is 10 and he is 18 at a moment when both their fathers have died and he is on the verge of going to college. However he chooses a different path, taking the child into his care for a year. Each person in their families deals with the ripples from that moment. Each day is lived with hope and frustration, until all families sunder when Eden is murdered by her husband. Moving and thought-provoking.