Thank you to Net Galley and Kensington Publishing for an ARC of this book for my honest review.
I have to say that I wasn’t sure what to think it took me quite awhile to get into this book. Rae Lynn Cobb is a main character that dresses like a man to get a job in a turpentine camp. There was a lot about the turpentine’ camp but the disturbing part of it was described and that was hard to read. There was very hard work with very little pay. They were fed and housed but overcharged so they were always in debt. The abuse and the hopelessness was very depressing to me. It was a history lesson to me. I think this book would appeal to a lot of people but it just wasn’t the right one for me.

This book began promising, but soon became a slow read. I had trouble coming to grips with the woman taking off with the other woman and how they acquired the man. The story was rather harsh with the working conditions and the language used. I tried to finish the book, but my attention stalled during the escape in the truck. I did not finish the book.

A fine piece of historic fiction, Everhart's novel tells of the harsh reality and brutality of the turpentine work camps of the South during the Great Depression. With no help to fall back on, men and women struggle to survive in this harsh world, a horror that is exposed here., to many of us, for the first time.

I am sorry to say I DNF'ed this book. I read about 40%, I found it a bit slow and I couldn't feel close to any of the characters. I have to say it doesn't mean it's a bad book, I so want to enjoy reading novels on this era but I find them really hard to like.

I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and author. The book is set to release Jan 25, 2022.
This is set during the Great Depression in the gritty labor camps located in the turpentine forests of North Carolina. It's a terribly hardscrabble existence and more dismal than one can imagine. The workers jobs are to harvest pine gum and hauling it to stills where it is turned into turpentine giving the state the nick name of Tar Heels. These are low payed positions under the direction of greedy overseers and owners. They provide food and housing at inflated prices that keep the workers constantly in debt. What hit me most was the sense of desperation and lost hopes of the workers. The work was far from easy but there were some who loved the beauty and silence to be found in the deep forests. It's not an easy read but there is a sense of strength and resilience, especially among the characters who randomly are forced to interact. It's about hardships and struggles, friendship and love, truth and honor.
4*

Loved this.

Sad, creepy and tense - the title comes off as confusing to begin with - building to the climax that blossoms out into the goodness that comes of freedom and being loved well.

A beautiful book. Deserves to be huge.

An enjoyable book with plenty of action, good description, slow burning romance, and a good sense of place/time. The characters are fleshed out well, though the bad guys seem like caricatures and a little too evil to be believed. Biggest complaint: the ending of the book tries too hard to educate the reader about the harvesting of pine tar/turpentine.

I am a Donna Everhart fan and was so excited to see that she had a new book coming out and even more excited that I was granted an ARC from NetGalley and Kensington books. I have previously read all of Donna's books and even though I have loved all of them, I think this might be her best yet. As with all of her books, the characters are so well developed. I am sure that I will always remember Rae Lynn and Del. I feel like I know them. I read so many books that I often have to look up the synopsis later to remember what they are about. I am sure that will not happen with this book. The setting of the turpentine camps during the Great Depression was something I knew nothing about. The author's wonderful language made me feel like I was there. I have a vivid picture of the woods, the pine trees and the feeling of the camps. As with any great historical fiction, I found myself looking this subject up to learn more about it. It is rare that I have trouble putting a book down to get other things done, but this was one of those rare books. I eagerly look forward to Donna Everhart's next book. I am forever a great fan.

"The Saints of Swallow Hill" by Donna Everhart is a new book and author to this reader. The story puts me in the mind of "Where the Crawdad Sings", however I wasn't sure how it was going to transition throughout the pages. It was a slow plot for me and I usually like more action than what was written in the book. It was a well-written story and was just an okay read for me. I was expecting more out of this story in the way of the description but it was not there for me. However, I did learn quite a bit of history about the turpentine camps.

Thank you NetGalley and Kensington Books for this ARC in exchange for my fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

The Saints of Swallow Hill is primarily about Rae Lynn and Del that takes place in the Deep South during the Depression. Rae Lynn had been in a marriage where she and her husband ran a small turpentine camp. They had a mutual appreciation/love for each other, but when tragedy struck, she disguised herself as a man and headed for Swallow Hill, another turpentine camp. Some of the situations that come up during this disguise are most attention-getting.

Del came to Swallow Hill and became an immediate adversary to Crow, one of the woods riders at the camp. Crow went out of his way to make life miserable and treacherous for Del. Del, a former womanizer and ne’er-do-well, treated his fellow workers with respect, an almost unheard quality at this camp.

The story is intricate and complex and every word is interesting. This is a book that I hated to put down when life called; I even found myself sneaking in some reading time when I should have been doing other things. The writing has just enough ‘Southernisms’ to make the book authentic but not so much as to make it annoying.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review The Saints of Swallow Hill. I enjoyed it immensely and would give it more than five stars if I could. Well done, Ms Everhart. Well done.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It provided a fascinating glimpse into the history of turpentine camps in the American South during the Depression, about which I previously knew nothing. I also liked the way the story unfolded from two points of view and how the characters came together in the end to triumph over their difficult pasts.
I'll be recommending it to anyone who enjoyed The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah - or just to fans of historical fiction and slow-burn romances.

Book: The Saints of Swallow Hill
Author: Donna Everhart
Rating: 4 Out of 5 Stars

I would like to thank the publisher, Kensington Books, for providing me with an ARC.

This one has been compared to Where the Crawdads Sing, which I do kind of agree with that comparison. The writing and the overall feeling of the book is pretty similar. We also have characters who are judged before people really have a chance to get to know them and these judgements follow them throughout the course of the book. We see how those who are different are viewed. We also have characters who don’t really follow what society says they should do.

However, the plot is very different. We have a group of people who are gathered to find work during the Great Depression. Even though these people come from different backgrounds, we see them in this place in order to survive and to keep themselves from dying-even though people can and do die at Swallow Hill. However, the world has thrown them a hard ball and taking on these dangerous jobs are the only choice that so many of them have. It really makes you stop and wonder what you would have done had you been in these characters’ situations.

All of this pulls at you. The book starts out moving very slowly. At first, I didn’t know how this was going to come together in the end. We get to see these characters before they end up at Swallow Hill. At first, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this. As many books as I have read like this, I shouldn’t have even had my doubts. This slow burn in the middle is what allows us to really come to understand why the characters came to make the choices that they make later on in the book. We get to see just how complex and well thought out these characters actually are. It becomes clear just how much thought and care that the author put into every action and every word that the characters spoke. We can see how the little details in the start of the book go on to play a role in what the characters do later in the book. It also allows us to become attached to the characters.

The writing is what really pulls you in. Like I just got done saying, everything is planned out in a way that pulls at you. Every little detail has been presented in a way that allows you to develop this care and attachment to the book. You will want to keep going because you want to know what is going to not only happen to the characters, but what is going to happen next. Once you are in the world, you are in the world. You are right there in the camp with the characters experiencing everything along with them.

If you are looking for a highly emotional book and one that is going to be hard to be put down, then you need to pick this one up.
This book comes out on January 25, 2022.

Youtube: https://youtu.be/6jpARpuroWs

The Saints of Swallow Hill is an okay read with good character development but very slow plot. There was not quite enough action and relatability to keep me engrossed the whole time, but the sense of place is well painted, bringing me into an era I had never known. It was enjoyable overall and I think fans of historical and literary fiction would enjoy this novel.

I have read many books which are set during the Great Depression but never one like The Saints of Swallow Hill.

Two protagonists, Del and Rae Lynn are put in circumstances that each need to escape from. They each seek refuge on a turpentine camp and thus continues the story. Hounded by a supervisor named “Crow”, Del and Rae Lynn learn the hard way what happens to those who get on his wrong side. Each , in the end, learn to face his/her demons and confront the truth about their respective past.

From the initial chapters, this book had me interested in its characters. The author choose a unique setting for her novel and I entered into a part of history that I new nothing about. The turpentine camps gives the reader a glimpse into the racism and difficult life many black workers faced during this era. Everything about his story was intriguing. The variety of characters which are multifaceted added to its interest, along with the circumstances surrounding Del and Rae Lynn. This is a novel which had the right blend of all literary elements but yet did not seem contrived nor formulaic. A great read!

My thanks to Kensington Books Publishing, as well as to @NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review an early copy of The Saints of Swallow Hill.

This book takes place during the Great Depression and it's a well-researched story that occurs in a setting I had been unaware of: turpentine camps. (How is it that I've never questioned where turpentine comes from??) It was interesting to learn that the turpentine industry was once centered in the South, where pine trees, especially longleaf and slash pine, were tapped for turpentine in the same way sugar maples are tapped for sap to produce maple syrup.

The two main characters, Rae Lynn Cobb and Del Reese both end up at a brutal turpentine camp in Georgia for different reasons. Rae Lynn has disguised herself as a young man and she has enough grit that she just might pull her plan off!

Although it was very difficult to read about the trials that nearly every character experienced, the resulting friendship and love were the backbone of the book.

I recommend The Saints of Swallow Hill!

🌾The Saints of Swallow Hill 🌾
By Donna Everhart
Publisher: Kensington Books (Jan 2022)

Not being released till January but the description between ‘Crawdads’ and ‘Four Winds’ made me pick it up.

The descriptive words, the language and slang of the characters brought me right to The Depression time in our history. It also opened my eyes to the naval store industry. To which I knew nothing about before opening these pages.

Quick synopsis: Del has an eye for the missus, gets in trouble with the big boss and heads out on the road. Rae Lynn was in a marriage from convenience that turned into love, which then turned into her running instead of being accused as a murderer.

It’s at her new camp where she’s posing as a man to find work that these two meet up. Between the hard life they’re living and the abuse that they both faced by their employer, it’s no surprise they become friends and learn to trust each other.

A character built novel where the author doesn’t shy from abuse, near death experience and triggers that might pause a reader. Bottom line i enjoyed it but didn’t love it.

Historical fiction with a slow build. 3.5 stars, thank you Kensington for the gifted copy in return for an honest review.

This book is a wonderful read - the characters are so well developed, the language is descriptive, and the story is fascinating. Set during the Depression, Del and Rae Lynn cross paths at a turpentine farm. I found myself Googling turpentine farming processes as described in the book as the author wrote about it in such wonderful detail that you could smell the pine tar and feel the mosquitos buzzing around. I couldn't put it down - it is well worth your time.

In this book we follow the live of Rae Lynn, who through a hard life in an orphanage finds herself in a trying marriage. Her husband, Warren is just not the most able man and accidents befall him. As a result of one of these Rae Lynn finds herself on the path to Swallow Hill a turpentine camp in Georgia.
Del Reese also finds himself in the same camp and the two form a bond. It must have been so had living during this time especially as a woman alone.
This book does not shy away from sexual scenes or difficult topics. It gives a look into the South during very dark times. The writer writes with a very descriptive pallet and you can see the images in your mind as she writes.. I visualized her narrative of the South and the forests and farms. This is a well written book with a difficult but interesting story full of emotional conflict.

This book takes you on a journey of hardship and friendship, set on the farms and in the small towns and turpentine camps of North Carolina and Georgia in 1932, during the Great Depression. It will take you on an emotional trip to a time and place when life was difficult and money was hard to come by. People worked from morning to night and often lived in small, squalid shacks or shanties. This is a story of hateful people, and kind people, and people who were treated poorly.

The storyline follows Rae Lynn Cobb, who owns and works a small turpentine farm in North Carolina with her husband, Warren. Upon her husband's death, she is made to flee to a grizzly turpentine camp in Georgia, masquerading as a young man. It is here that she meets Del, who has arrived at the camp trying to escape his own demons and Cornelia, who's husband runs the commissary at the camp, who is hiding her own secrets. They must all work hard to survive against a harsh environment and a brutal crew boss or husband.

I would definitely read anything written by Donna Everhart. She is one of the queens of writing about the American South. Her characters are very well developed and you will find yourself cheering for the downtrodden as they overcome the odds against them and you will feel anger and hatred towards their oppressors. I loved her books, "The Road to Bittersweet" and "The Forgiving Kind", as well as this one.

My sincere thanks to Kensington Books and NetGalley for sending me a digital ARC of this book for my honest review. #SaintsofSwallowHill #NetGalley
Publication Date: January 25, 2022

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I can honestly say that I think this is Donna Everhart’s best book yet. She often puts her main characters in peril With a Capital P. In this story, it starts right out of the gate and having read her other books I know that they don’t always make it out alive. So as I read this story, I became heart sick for poor Rae Lynn who lost everything because she married good man who unfortunately is a 1930s version of “Tim the tool man Taylor”- accident prone, and OSHA resisting as all heck. The story alternates between her and Del the skirt chasing, hard working guy that has a life altering experience when his poor choices catch up with him. Wont give anyway any details but they both end up turpentine labor camp, with her disguised as a man. This time period was rife with rampant racism, especially in the south. It was was painful to read. The story’s bright spots are the characters who go against the grain despite the risk in doing so. I feel in love with them and worried over their fates as I came away with more knowledge about this period of history and the work done in turpentine industry.