The Tobacco Wives by Adele Myers is a lovely piece of historical fiction surrounding the tobacco industry and exactly how soon they knew how harmful it was. This is a time when some doctors still prescribed smoking as good for pregnant women, asthmatics, and stress release. In this case, the company had infused mint into the cigarette to make it more feminine. It was also a time when women had few rights and men held all positions of power: their husbands, their doctors, their confessors. The factory workers were all women since the war began and now those same women were getting nervous about what their lives would be once the men returned. Maddie was the great niece of the seamstress to most of these women, both the factory workers with their uniforms, and the wealthy wives of the tobacco owners and managers. When Maddie's mother dropped her off with Aunt Etta neither of them had any choice. Aunt Etta had taught her to sew over the years and she was good, good enough to help, even with the fancy ball gowns the ladies would require. She became a common sight, until one day she saw a paper she shouldn't have. She didn't know what to do or who to show it to, but she knew she needed to do something.

Some people are raised to do the right thing. Others are raised to do the thing that will net them the most. This is the story of those people, and the people in between: the ones who can't do the right thing, it is out of their circle of power, but they can do the most they can do for the people who might be suffering. It is heart-wrenching for the people who would do the right thing, but Maddie knew the limitations and she knew what to do when the time came, although it was many years later. There were many people in this novel, all doing the most they could do, although for some it was not much. People can be trapped by their upbringing and by their station in life. This was a faithful recounting of such a time and of such people. Maddie's discovery has affected us all. It is good to know the story of how it started, despite the fact it's not over yet.

I was invited to read a free e-ARC of The Tobacco Wives by HarperCollins, through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own. #netgalley #harpercollins #adelemyers #thetobaccowives

I enjoyed this book! It was a light read but it was an interesting story and a new time period for me.

4 Summer of reckoning stars

This was a stunning debut novel that I thoroughly enjoyed! Southern fiction tends to be a winner for me, and this fit the bill! Set in the late 1940s when tobacco was king in North Carolina and the Tobacco Wives ruled the town!

Maddie is a young aspiring seamstress. She’s spending the summer with her aunt in Bright Leaf, surprise Aunt Etta! It isn’t the best timing as Etta is in crunch mode with getting all the gowns ready for the upcoming gala.

Maddie is a quick study though and she’s met some of the women before, so she quickly gets to work on some custom gowns and altering some other ready-to-wear gowns to make everyone shine. Along the way, she catches handsome David’s eye and there’s a summer romance in the works.

There are some other sinister things at play as tobacco execs try to keep the bad side effects of tobacco under wraps and force the factory women out of jobs now that men are returning from the war. The other thing is the big launch of cigarettes, just for women, MOMints – especially good for pregnant women (I know, what???) Maddie is faced with some impossible choices as the date of the gala looms.

The author did a great job of putting me into the glamor and beauty of this time and place and I thoroughly enjoyed my escape reading. Can’t wait to read her next book.

4 stars

Tobacco Wives by Adele Myers is a well-written debut novel that illuminates an area—North Carolina—an era—post-WWII—and an industry—Big Tobacco. It was an era when women were expected to be beautifully dressed and coiffed while their husbands held all the power and raked in tremendous profits from the tobacco industry. In 2022, it seems almost incredulous to imagine these tobacco wives were unaware of the health risks and consequences to the factory’s working women associated with the town’s lucrative cash crop. But it does speak to the general powerlessness of women in big business. It takes an outsider, Maddie Sykes, age 15, to become a risk taker and expose the truth. This strong female protagonist won my heart!
This is a solid, well-told historical fiction novel in which I learned quite a bit about an area of the United States and an industry.

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my unbiased review.

This book was a most pleasant surprise, I loved The Tobacco Wives by Adele Myers! From the first page, I was hooked. Sometimes an author has a way of writing that just pulls me in immediately. From start to finish, I was so into this book. Everything was perfect from the main character to the storyline to the pacing, I cannot recommend this enough especially if you like historical fiction!

SYNOPSIS:

Maddie Sykes is a burgeoning seamstress who’s just arrived in Bright Leaf, North Carolina—the tobacco capital of the South—where her aunt has a thriving sewing business. After years of war rations and shortages, Bright Leaf is a prosperous wonderland in full technicolor bloom, and Maddie is dazzled by the bustle of the crisply uniformed female factory workers, the palatial homes, and, most of all, her aunt’s glossiest clientele: the wives of the powerful tobacco executives.

But she soon learns that Bright Leaf isn’t quite the carefree paradise that it seems. A trail of misfortune follows many of the women, including substantial health problems, and although Maddie is quick to believe that this is a coincidence, she inadvertently uncovers evidence that suggests otherwise.

Maddie wants to report what she knows, but in a town where everyone depends on Big Tobacco to survive, she doesn’t know who she can trust—and fears that exposing the truth may destroy the lives of the proud, strong women with whom she has forged strong bonds.

Shedding light on the hidden history of women’s activism during the post-war period, at its heart, The Tobacco Wives is a deeply human, emotionally satisfying, and dramatic novel about the power of female connection and the importance of seeking truth.

I love historical fiction that dives into a specific situation. I love learning more about parts of history I knew little to nothing of before. Adele Myers does that with Tobacco Wives. In her novel we learn about the classes in this little North Carolina town. The divide between not just the "haves" and the "have-nots," but also the divide within the upper-class. How the cream of the crop held a strict line defining themselves from the women just below it. While this book focuses mainly on the wealthy women that young Maddie makes dresses for, we get to see glimpses of the issues that arose at the end of World War II. During the war, women were encouraged and praised for entering the factories and workforce, but as the war ended, they were expected to happily and quietly get back into the home. That wasn't going to work for many women. War widows couldn't leave good paying factory jobs to make room for veterans returning home, they needed to continue to provide for their families.

The book focuses on a tobacco factory and farms, of the pride that was plentiful when it came to tobacco industry in the early 20th century. Doctors prescribed cigarettes to calm people, to aid in asthma, as a medication for many ailments and did so proudly. They felt this was a safe and natural healing remedy. The Tobacco Wives not only showcases the stirrings of learning the harm of tobacco on the body, but the devastating way that would go on to affect many families, from the wealthy to the poor.

It also showcases female empowerment - women fighting to be given the credit and recognition they deserved. The wages they were warranted and their place at the table inside companies, not just as workers, but as decision-makers and industry leaders.

There was an element of suspense threaded throughout the book that was very engaging. I enjoyed the characters and felt they were well developed. I look forward to seeing what else Ms. Myer comes out with in the future.

Imagine being 15 year old Maddie, helping your aunt create beautiful dresses for the elite women in town—the Tobacco Wives. In the mid 1940s, tobacco was king, and funded everything, from the town's factories to the schools and hospitals. But. Maddie accidentally stumbles upon a truth, that the town doctor is promoting cigarettes to pregnant women, despite knowing the serious health risks. Maddie isn't sure who to tell, or who will believe her, but she knows she has to act.
An intensely researched, and thoroughly enjoyable piece of historical fiction.

Thank you so much to NG and the publishers for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

The Tobacco wives with a deeply inspiring book that took me straight to North Carolina in the 40s! This coming of age novel is great for fans of HF especially southern HF! The author had great pacing and wonderful characters!

It’s 1946 and 15-year old Maddie has suddenly found herself thrust into the roll of seamstress to the “Tobacco Wives”— a very chic group of women married to the top cigarette executives. Maddie comes across documentation that suggests that the tobacco may not be so safe after all.

I wanted to love this book. The author definitely has an engaging writing style, but ultimately this book falls short. Major plot points hinge on things that didn’t happen until years later. The characters are flat and undeveloped caricatures. The resolution was unrealistic and unsatisfying. Some people will enjoy Tobacco Wives solely due to the author’s captivating prose, but it wasn’t enough for me.

I adored Tobacco Wives! The writing is excellent. I felt as if I was peering over Maddie’s shoulder, living the experience alongside her. I loved all of the fashion descriptions, dresses, and hairstyles of the post war era.
Maddie is a strong character who quickly has to mature the summer she is 15. She is abandoned by her mother, has to assume responsibility for her aunt’s dressmaking business to the town’s preeminent Tobacco Wives, and grapple with an ethical dilemma.
She realizes that life and decisions aren’t always so black and white, the hard way.
I loved the author’s note, detailing her inspiration for the story, and mining her family history for part of her research.
A must read indeed.

I'm still trying to describe this book! Not a whole lot happened, but it is such an entertaining read and beautifully written book. 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙏𝙤𝙗𝙖𝙘𝙘𝙤 𝙒𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙨 by Adele Myers feels like a combination of The Help and Mad Men - two of my favorites. Set in North Carolina in the 1940s, tobacco is king. Doctors encourage everyone, even pregnant women, to light up and relax. It's actually jaw-dropping when you think how influential marketing campaigns were for cigarettes. It's fascinating to read how large tobacco companies got away with deception. ⁣⁣⠀
⁣⁣⠀
Thank you, @bookclubgirl and @williammorrowbooks for my #partner copy! This one publishes on March 1. ⁣⁣⠀

It is 1947 and 15-year-old Maddie Sykes has lost her father in the war. Her mother sends her to live with her Aunt Etta in Bright Leaf, North Carolina – the tobacco capital of the South. Etta is a popular seamstress whose clientele include the women whose husbands run Bright Leaf Tobacco. Mitzy Winston, the beautiful wife of Richard Winston, president and chief operating officer of the company, takes an immediate liking to Maddie. As the company’s annual gala approaches, Maddie finds herself working to complete the gowns for Mitzy and several of the “Tobacco Wives”. The big news of the charity ball is the launch of MOMints cigarettes, which was created to appeal to women and features pseudo health claims by the town’s local doctor. The new line of cigarettes is being made by the women who are working at the company’s factory to fill in for the men who went off to war.

In this appealing coming-of-age story, Maddie discovers that behind the seemingly perfect lives of Mitzy and her friends is a company that is lying to the public about the health hazards of cigarettes. Maddie learns of dangerous work conditions and unfair treatment of their women employees. Author Adele Myers, drawing from family history and research, creates a post-war story of a young woman with a conscience who is much wiser and braver than her years. I had yet to read a work of fiction which tackles the cigarette industry’s efforts during this period to mislead the public, so kudos to Myers.

The Tobacco Wives is a book that falls into the category of books that I like to call light historical fiction. If you’re expecting a book with a hard-hitting examination of the problems of the tobacco industry in 1940s North Carolina, you’ll probably be disappointed. But if you’re looking for a novel a bit on the lighter side that focuses on a young woman learning to believe in herself that happens to take place against the backdrop of the tobacco industry in the 1940s, I think you’ll be charmed by The Tobacco Wives.

This story is more about women learning to find their voices and struggling to find their place in a world that wants to celebrate them but doesn’t truly value them. That’s always an interesting exploration for me, so it was enough to keep the plot moving. Maddie is a likable heroine, so it’s easy to want her to succeed.

There are also lighter themes around what it was like to be part of the tobacco world and take take pride in what the community offers and then to grapple with new information that threatened that entire community. Myers manages to show the humanity of the tobacco wives and their struggle to make sense of devastating new information, but at the same time, I’m not sure it’s deserved. It sometimes felt like the book was glorifying the wrong people, and I’d be more interested in reading about the women who worked in the factories or the whistleblowers who came later. It’s a bit unrealistic how things seem to work out well for so many of the women, and there was only a passing reference to the racism of the tobacco industry and the time. It can be hard to write historical fiction against the backdrop of problematic times, but I would have liked to see a little more nuance.

Overall, The Tobacco Wives is a fairly light read with an endearing story about a young woman finding herself amidst a challenging time in her life that I think many readers will enjoy.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review!

An easy read that keeps you interested until the very end, I could have read more of this story. I liked that you were able to picture everything that was happening clearly.

The Tobacco Wives is a fascinating story set in the 1940's in Bright Leaf, North Carolina which is the tobacco capital of the south. Maddie Sykes, a 15 year old seamstress, is there to visit her aunt who runs a successful sewing business for the summer and is tasked with helping dress the tobacco executive luxurious wives. She's beginning to love this life of "royalty" but inadvertently finds evidence that is putting the health of the women in the town and their babies at risk. But what can a female teenage outsider do where there's no one she can trust in a town made from Big Tobacco?
I really enjoyed this story from Adele Myers. Maddie was such a great character, way too insightful and progressive for her time. I loved seeing her grow and find her voice. The other characters were really good too and very typical of the 40's in the south with the men thinking women belonged at home and the women way too concerned with their status. And there were a few women and men in the story that were trying to break out of that stereotype which I enjoyed seeing.

This turned out to be a pretty shallow look at a North Carolina town in the late 1940s…one reliant on tobacco. Even the characters seemed one-dimensional, mostly preoccupied with parties and social life. Many possibilities existed to give the novel a little depth and were mentioned only in passing: racial pay inequality among the women who assumed cigarette factory work while men were in WWII; sexual stereotyping of both men and women; union organizing for better work conditions and job security, etc.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the ARC to read and review.

The Tobacco Wives by Adele Myers takes place in 1946 Bright Leaf, North Carolina - the heart of tobacco country. Maddie Sykes has been left on her seamstress Aunt’s doorstep with no idea when her mother may return. Maddie has learned her sewing skills from her aunt so she is quickly enlisted to assist in preparations for the Gala season and is in awe of the beautiful wives of the tobacco executives and the wealth of the community after having lived through the war’s rationing. Maddie soon discovers the uglier side of Bright Leaf; women who have been used during the war years to keep the tobacco factory afloat are now being pushed out, and many of those women, as well as the elite, are having unexplained health problems. Maddie finds evidence to explain why but she is not sure who she can trust to right the situation since everyone in Bright Leaf depends on the tobacco business to survive.

I found this little known history of women fighting for rights during the post-war period to be enlightening, especially in the sector of the tobacco industry. The author told the story through vivid descriptions of the homes and women and by introducing well-developed characters; many of whom were strong women. These women, coupled with Maddie’s heightened sense of what is right and true, brought the book to a very satisfying conclusion and demonstrated how women can mentor and empower others.

Thanks to Harper Collins Publishers and NetGalley for the ARC.

#TheTobaccoWives #NetGalley

I definitely enjoyed this one but it didn't stand out for me. I wasn't immediately captured and didn't feel like I could connect with the plot in general. I think I may need to give this a re-read later.

In the post-WWII years, teenaged Maddie is unexpectedly dropped off at her aunt's house in North Carolina for an extended stay. Maddie is thrust into the world of the Tobacco Wives, the women who are married to the bigwigs in the local tobacco company. Maddie's aunt is a seamstress for the Wives, and Maddie has to step up and take over the business during the all important Gala season.

Maddie unintentionally discovers a link between tobacco use and the health ailments of the town's residents. Tobacco is a way of life and industry for all involved. Maddie has to decide what to do, and who to trust, with her knowledge.

While this coming of age book embraces an interesting topic, I wish that the characters were more vivid and the dialog flowed easier. It was an interesting time hop to the concerns working women had when men returned home from WWII and wanted to resume their former jobs.

I received a copy of this book from NetGally and the publisher for free in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are mine.

I thoroughly enjoyed this easy read book about the different classes in the South and the tobacco business. We all know that tobacco is bad for you but in the beginning of the cigarette business the heads of the industry made smoking look glamorous and fun. Whether they new about the addictive and health issues that would ensue is unknown. In this book though, when they did find out about it they kept it under wraps. Because who doesn't want to make more money. I guess the MoMints that were produced for women to smoke were like Virginia Slims of the past. The story takes place during the war and the women were working in the tobacco factory to help out while the men were fighting the war. It also focuses on Maddie a 15 year old whose Mother dropped her at her Aunt's house and left. Aunt Etta was a seamstress and Maddie was also a sewer so they helped each other out. The rich Tobacco Wives were always needing beautiful dresses for their Gala events so Aunt Etta was always busy. They had the working class and the rich wives. The author wove the lives of all together into a story that I felt was well portrayed in the 1940's. The author's note at the end also shed light on the story. The story itself flowed nicely. I would highly recommend.
Thanks to #WilliamMorrow, #netgalley and @adelejam for an ARC of this book