A moving book, The Saints of Swallow Hill is a historical novel centred on the Depression years in the south USA. It is well written, with great descriptions setting the scene and immersing you in the landscape and era. It was difficult reading in regard to the cruelty, racism and violence, but undoubtedly realistic for the times. I enjoyed the characters, both to love and hate, but found the happy ending a bit hard to believe. But satisfying! Thanks to netgalley for a advance copy of this book.

Rae Lynn Cob lives in North Carolina in a little shot gun house with her husband. He may be foolish at times, but he treats her well and she is happy… until tragedy strikes. Rae Lynn cuts her hair and becomes Ray Cobb to work in Georgia on a turpentine farm. Meanwhile Del Ray arrives on the farm running from his own past.

Kristin Hannah The Four Winds fans…. You are going to want to read this one. We follow a strong, ahead of her times, but down on her luck female protagonist and she sure has a tough time of it. We really get to know the times and what life on a turpentine farm was like. I learned a lot… especially from the author’s note at the end. There are a few cruel and mean men, and some women in their way who grow as they need to. It was a heart warming saga, with many ups and downs along the way.

“Leaving when one owed meant the boss men could do what they wanted. They were law unto themselves, would, and could, do as they pleased.”

The Saints of Swallow Hill comes out 1/25.

Thank you for the advanced reader's copy!
Poignant, reflective and hard to put down. A very immersive read with interesting characters and beautiful writing.

This is a very emotional book, one which becomes very hard to put down. I see the comparison between it and Where the Crawdads Sing and The Four Winds. The characters are so well written and the writing so vivid that you are really transported to the turpentine camp where the three main characters are working.

Rae Lynn Cobb has come to the camp at Swallow Hill after having to flee from the place where she lived with her older husband. This story is fully fleshed out at the start of the book but I don't want to give spoilers.

We meet two other main characters, Cornelia and Del and we follow the terrible conditions they work under at this turpentine camp, hacking into the pine trees to obtain the sap that will be turned into turpentine. There is an especially mean boss who expects everyone to meet their daily quota and woe betide anyone who doesn't meet it.

This is a totally gripping read as we follow the resilience of some characters in the face of some atrocious conditions. I enjoyed spending time with these characters - even more than the other two books mentioned.

Thanks to NetGalley, Kensington Books and Donna Everhart

This book is another hit by Donna Everhart that will take your heart and soul on a ride you won't soon forget. The things that happened back during the depression and the people who worked the turpentine camps. What they endured. How things were done. How the whites and blacks were treated differently. How unfair life was to hard working people.

This story is about two broken souls. Del, who was a womanizer who's luck ran out. He got caught with his pants down. What happened next was not pretty. Even reading it gave me chills. I do believe Del's out of body experience. That is completely possible. I've experienced that one myself. As a very young teen. It's a protection of sorts. He was forced in a way to run and seek employment in a turpentine camp. You start out in debt there but if you work hard you might, or might not, be able to get ahead. The things that Del dealt with were horrible. From the hard work to being put in the box. The box was a place where most never came out alive. Just big enough for one person to lay and suffer. Hot and dark. Smelly. The smells of the ones who were there before.

Then we have Rae Lynn. Rae Lynn was married to a man who was very good to her. He took her from an orphanage and married her. They fell in love and he had a turpentine business that they worked. It was almost impossible for him to have any help besides Rae Lynn because he was so clumsy and people tended to get hurt that worked for him. He was also very stubborn it seems. He took a fall and would not allow Rae Lynn to fetch the doctor. He suffered such horrible pain. What happened after was another hard to read part. I felt so bad for Rae Lynn. I felt bad for her husband, Warren, also. But what Rae Lynn went through after was really sad. She left her home and disguised herself as a man to get a job at a turpentine camp. She had no idea how her life was about to change.

Del and Rae Lynn are both very broken people. Two people who deserve to be happy. The odds are stacked against them but they fight back. They work hard and finally find a way to be happy again. Together?? You'll have to read it to find that one out. They make lifelong friends and experience things that are so hard. But they are both resilient and have a will to succeed. To prevail against all odds. To have a family. To be happy. To overcome things from their pasts. Each has a story and they are good ones.

This book is a very emotional and enduring one. It will keep you wanting to read. It will hold your interest all the way through. Very well written. Very captivating. Makes you feel things. Experience things. You will feel like you are in this camp. In the swamp with the deadly snakes. In the box. In their lives. This book is so good.

Thank you to #NetGalley, #DonnaEverhart, #KensingtonBooks for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book.

5/5 stars and a very high recommendation. Read it. Have plenty of kleenex. It's that good!

The Saints of Swallow Hill by Donna Everhart is a novel I soon won’t forget. Set in the years following the Great Depression, the story tells of the blood, sweat and tears of the turpentine camps down south and the laborers that toiled just to eat and keep their heads above water.

The novel is told from the perspective of Rae Lynn Cobb and Del Reese. Rae Lynn, a recent widow, leaves her home In North Carolina under dire circumstances. Disguised as a man, Rae arrives at Swallow Hill, a large turpentine camp, looking for work. Del Reese, a recent hire at Swallow Hill, has a checkered past of his own. But no one could prepare either one of them for the harsh conditions of this particular camp. Paid in scrip, the workers never get ahead and are always in debt to the company. The dangerous work, meager food rations and the poor living conditions become a way of life. Adding insult to injury, two particular woods riders (supervisors) are cruel beyond words, making any kind of life in the camp difficult.

When an incident reveals Rae for who she really is, things change for Del. Feeling protective towards her, Del feels renewed purpose to protect her at all costs. When things finally come to a head at camp, things will not only change for Rae and Del, but for all the workers at Swallow Hill.

This was a great book, but hard to read at times. The treatment of the men was despicable and living conditions deplorable. Yet, the spirit among the men remained strong, despite everything. There was a quiet dignity to them, despite their fear and appalling treatment. In the beginning, I didn’t care very much for Del, but he eventually redeemed himself as the story went on. All the characters were authentically written (both the good and the bad), and I will remember them for a long time.

I want to thank NetGalley and Kensington Books for an ARC of The Saints of Swallow Hill by Donna Everhart. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This is a Southern historical fiction novel that I actually read over the course of one day. I found it completely absorbing and thought the subject, which was new to me, fascinating.

I’m a native North Carolinian so to learn from reading this book the true meaning of “tar heel” gave me a lesson about my roots.

The book is set in depression era rural Georgia and North Carolina and gives insight about turpentine farming. It brilliantly tells the story in two points of view, one female and one male, of their lives prior to, during, and after their time turpentining in Swallow Hill.

The main characters, Del and Rae Lynn, along with all the other characters in the book are so well described and portrayed that many times this book felt like living history instead of a fictional read.

With the living and working conditions of Swallow Hill and the fact that these workers were basically indentured servants, it was hard to imagine this book was set in the 1930s not 1860s.

I’m recommending this one to all that love an interesting historical fiction story with the bonus of well developed characters.

WOW!! Donna Everhart, the author of “The Saints of Swallow Hills” has written an intense, captivating, and thought-provoking novel that I would highly recommend to other readers. This is one book that has sparked my love of reading and constantly reflects on the characters and plot in this story. The genres for this novel are Historical Fiction, and Southern Fiction. The timeline is around The Great Depression. The author vividly describes her characters, the plot, the location, and the timeline. The characters are described as complex, complicated, good, and evil.

Donna Everhart writes about courage, survival, the importance of family and friends. The author also discusses racial inequality, prejudice, inequality between men and women, and differences between wealthy and poor people. Kudos to Donna Everhart for the intense research in the southern forest, as men and women worked to get turpentine. I was fascinated by the camps that these people had to live and work in.

Rae Lynne Cobb and Delwood Reese meet in one of these camps, and both have dark secrets and fears. There is a terrible danger for both. Will they be able to survive in the camp, or where they came from? This is an amazing book that will leave you thinking and wanting more.

Rae Lynn is a woman running from the secrets of her past. Disguised as a man, she secures a job at the Swallow Hill turpentine plant in North Carolina in an attempt to turn her life around. There she meets Del, who has his own troubles, and Cornelia, who is trapped in an unhappy marriage. This novel charts the events leading to their meeting and the story that unfolds as a result.

This is a fabulous book. The storyline was powerful and engaging though not easy to read at times. Donna Everhart’s depiction of North Carolina in the 1930s pulls no punches. The barbaric practices on the turpentine camp were brutal yet the deep, honest friendships that emerged from these dark depths gave hope when it seemed there was none.

I was captivated from the first page and completely absorbed by the description of the American South during the Great Depression. The portrayal of the workers’ lives; their meagre homes and limited existence was skilfully brought to life on the page.

I was drawn in by the slow development of each character and the friendship that developed between the strong-willed Rae Lynn and the downtrodden Cornelia. Del’s fairness and sense of justice made you root for these three characters whose paths had crossed by a mere twist of fate.

Nothing happened quickly but this made the book all the more compelling, as the events that gradually unfolded were riveting. At times I found myself racing towards the end of the page or chapter just to reach the conclusion of an event.

My thanks to Netgalley and Kensington books for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I love historical fiction its my favourite genre and i was excited to immerse myself into south carolina during the great depression

Donna Everhart describes the poverty, women of this era and segregation well. I also enjoyed learning about the Turpentine Farms which i have not seen before in any other historical fictions.

This was a very slow read and i wasnt really interested in how the author chose too add in full detail the sexual encounters that were mentioned

My thanks to Kensington Books who allowed me to read this ARC via NetGalley. The book is scheduled to be published on 1/25/22. The opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.

This is the first book I’ve picked up from Donna Everhart, but it definitely won’t be the last.

This story is set during the Depression in North Carolina and is mostly based at a turpentine labor camp, Swallow Hill. Rae Lynn Cobb has just lost her husband and knows she needs to leave town to keep herself safe from a man that won’t stop coming around. She learns of Swallow Hill and feels her chances of starting over are better off if she pretends to be a man and take whatever shelter she’s offered. She leaves home with her dead husband’s truck and clothes, chops off her hair and becomes Ray Cobb.

Upon arriving at Swallow Hill, she meets a man named Del, who instantly takes a liking to Ray and looks out for ‘him.’ The conditions at this camp are rough and their boss is even worse. Del and Ray both realize coming here may have been a mistake, but they’re both running from their past. In order to move on they both need to confront their past and heal from it and escape this camp before it’s too late.

I loved The Saints of Swallow Hill-the characters and the setting really created quite a story. The labor camp is just one part, what happens to the characters outside of the camp is really the heart of this story. I highly recommend checking this one out and you can do that soon- 1/25/22. Thank you Netgalley and Kensington Books for this advance reading copy.

Much appreciation to NetGalley and Kensington books for an advance copy of this book.
Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres. It’s entertaining and I generally learn a little something. Taking place in southeastern America during the depression, we meet Rae Lynn, who lives with her husband Warren on their small turpentine operation. It’s a small, but good life. When tragedy strikes, Rae Lynn has to make an impossible choice, which leads to another choice that will affect her for the rest of her life.
Eventually she winds up at a turpentine camp called Swallow Hill and meets Del, a man who’s made a few life altering changes of his own. They both meet a horrible man called Crow, who makes their lives as awful as he can.
Really enjoyed this one and look forward to checking out other books by Donna Everhart!

Written in the gritty voice of the Great Depression, this historical fiction draws the reader into the difficult lives of three characters in North Carolina. All three are at the Swallow Hill turpentine camp, and while their backgrounds and stories are different, their lives intersect, and we see friendships and bonds form.

I really enjoyed this story. The atmosphere of the story was built with amazing detail, creating a world that I completely immersed myself in. Then add in the beautifully created characters, and it’s a story you can’t put down! I really enjoyed the little details that the author adds throughout the story. The characters became real people, and the location became a real place. I learned a lot about turpentining too!

I would definitely recommend this to any readers that enjoy historical fiction with character-driven stories!

I was provided a gifted copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this title.

Rae Lynn Cobb and her husband run a small turpentine farm in North Carolina. Upon her husband's death, she is left scared and alone. She decides to assume a new identity, and Ray Cobb is born. "He" travels to Swallow Hill, another turpentine farm down in Georgia where things are much harder. She meets Delwood Reese. who had also come to Swallow Hill to escape his past.

I enjoyed this book a lot. I found the characters to be distinct and realistic. I found the setting to be incredibly well described and it made the book hard to read at times because it was so realistic.

Highly entertaining storytelling with great character development! I actually could have kept reading if the author decided to extend the plot further on the timeline. Totally fell in love with the protagonists and had such strong feelings of hate toward the antagonists...hard to put down!

It Takes Courage to Save Yourself

This intriguing story is set during the great depression in the 1930's. Set in the South among the turpentine camps, it showcases the lives of three people each running from something, each trying to save themselves and find their way in life.

Times were hard during the depression. Homes were lost, poverty was high and employment was hard to find. One took what they could get and sometimes the places they worked were hard, unforgiving .

This is the case in the turpentine camp of Swallow Hill is isolated and ran by a racist Woods Rider named Crow. The store is ran by a man named Otis who wishes to control his wife Cornelia. He is mean and cruel to her. The housing is sub standard and the job of collecting sap from trees for turpentine is grueling and dangerous.

Del Reeves arrives to work there, he runs afoul of Crow and suffers for it. He tries to make the best of it even though Crow makes it almost impossible for him to do so.
Rae Lynn, running from her past, starts working at the camp. She goes by the name of Ray and poses as a man to get the job. Although she works hard all day, she never meets her quota and is dogged by Crow although Del tries to give her some protection.

Rae Lynn forges a friendship with Cornelia and when it is found out she works at the store with her instead of in the field after Crow finally has his revenge on Rae Lynn.

Del and Rae Lynn are both running from their past, Cornelia is running from her present and all three need to find a way to come to terms with their past and present to forge a future.
It is a story of survival and of friendship. A story of heartache and finding redemption. Learning to trust again. It shows the ugly and the despicable in people and it shows the kindness and compassion as well.

A well written story steeped in history a good portrait of the sorrow during the depression era and the turpentine camps in North Carolina during this time in history. It was an interesting and educational read for me as I know little about this time in history.

I enjoyed reading this book and I would recommend it.

Thanks to Donna Everhart for writing a great book, to Kensington Books for publishing it and to NetGalley for making it available to me .

This story is dedicated to all the chippers, dippers, and tackers of tin’

Set during the years of the Depression in the south, this shares the stories of those years, how difficult life was for so many, focusing on the turpentine camps where they harvested the sap of trees for turpentine, a practice that had been ongoing for over 200 years as this story begins. Collecting the resin from the trees was both difficult, and potentially dangerous. Originally harvested by slave labor, the workers in the 1930’s were treated only marginally better, and had little hope to leave their employment since their wages barely covered the cost of their housing, let alone food and other necessities, leaving them always in debt to their employer, despite how hard they worked.

This story revolves around Rae Lynn, a woman who was raised in an orphanage, as well as recently widowed through extraordinary circumstances. She finds herself working in one of these camps, needing to disguise herself as a man in order to find work. Having some experience with harvesting turpentine since she and her husband had a turpentine farm, if only a small one. Disguised as a young man, she tries desperately to keep up with the men, but fails to keep up with the amount required by the camp.

Del Reese is another person who seems to be earmarked for harassment as he chooses to work with the black workers, although he is white. Del watches over Rae/Ray to some extent, when he realizes how desperately Ray needs protection. And then there is Otis Riddle, who owns the commissary, and his badgered and oppressed wife, Cornelia, who eventually befriends Rae.

There is more to this story, of course, the fourth of Donna Everhart’s books that I’ve read. A story of the evil that some men inflict on others, a story of survival, but a story of friendship, compassion and love, as well.

Pub Date: 25 Jan 2022


Many thanks for the ARC provided by Kensington Books

The Saints of Swallow Hill is a powerful and haunting story, sometimes horrific, sometimes exquisite, always intriguing and well-written. The characters are outstanding, each one flawed and human, but most were strong and trying to do the right things.

The setting for the book is southern Georgia, in the turpentine labor camps. The workers are cruelly mistreated, sometimes to the point of death. It’s incredibly severe punishment, often for the smallest rule infringement, just because the person in charge could. At best, it’s twentieth-century slavery, brutal working conditions, unspeakable punishment, being forced into debt that can never be repaid.

However, out of adversity comes love. Sometimes, you’re in the right place, even if you don’t think you are, at the right time, and you meet someone who will change your life. That’s what happens with Del and Rae Lynn. They each come to Swallow Hill from different places, each having suffered something tragic. Something begins to draw them together from the moment they meet.

This is brilliant southern fiction, intense, profound, and at times, disturbing. It will set you in the deep woods of Georgia and allow you to feel what the characters feel, both physically and emotionally. The book will also take you to the lives of the characters before they arrive at Swallow Hill and after they leave.

I highly recommend this book. It will not disappoint.

I received an advanced reader copy of this book from Netgalley. I thank all involved for their generosity, but it had no effect on this review. All opinions in this review reflect my true and honest reactions to reading this book.

Really enjoyed this book! Set in the time of the Great Depression, which is always interesting to me, and takes place in Georgia and North Carolina turpentine camps, which i had never heard of before.

When Rae Lynns husband dies, she dresses like a man to work in the Swallow Hill turpentine camp which is definitely not easy. We see how difficult it is to do such hard work and still try to live with the rest thinking she is a man. They are paid in scrip so can never get ahead.

Along the way she makes friends and has to deal with unscrupulous bosses.

There is a bit of a love story to it. The ending was very satisfying, not left up in the air.

I would definitely recommend this book. Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books for allowing me to read this very interesting book.

This book brings to life 3 characters in the tough fields of North Carolina. Named the Tar Heel state because of its history of turpentine camps and naval stores, we hear about Rae Lynn, Del and Cornelia.
Rae Lynn escaping from a previous life, arrives as a young lad to undertake back breaking work in the forests,
Del, trying to escape his past misdemeanours finds himself a the scapegoat for Crow,the Woods rider,
and Cornelia, whose husband treats her so cruelly, find themselves united in their wishes to stick up for whats right and wrong.
The book, showcases the hard, back breaking work and conditions the "Tar heelers" had to endure during the great depression.
I am under no obligation to leave my honest review on this advanced copy from Netgalley and Kensington books.
Published 25th January 2022 its a must read for lovers of the great South and historical fiction