I love a book that takes place in North Carolina. This is defintely not a light hearted book.

Leah's story is sad. She suffers trauma and heart break. She lost her mother at her birth. Her father passed away when she was fourteen. She and her dad lived in Holden Beach. Neighbors kept her for a while, parents of Jesse, who was probably her only friend. But then the time came for her to go to a foster family in Matthews. She thought she'd be a part of their family, like an adopted child. She was a servant.

Many lies and secrets come out and the things she endures in Matthews are sad and tragic, and some are irreversible.

Leah was a strong young woman and the fact that she perservered and you get a somewhat happy ending surprised me. What she endured I'm sure happened to many during this time period. And sad to think current laws and events are setting us back in this regard.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Sourcebooks Landmark, and RB Media for both an ARC and ALC in exchange for my honest review.

This book was beautiful. Heartbreaking, but beautiful.

This book is often compared to Where the Crawdads Sing. In my opinion, though, this book is the authentic North Carolina version of Where the Crawdads Sing. As someone who has been born and raised in North Carolina, my biggest complaint about Where the Crawdads Sing is how it didn't feel like North Carolina. It felt more like it was based on a loose generalization of the South, and the author just picked North Carolina and threw in a few cities without ever even looking at a map. But enough about that book.

The Last Carolina Girl felt so authentically North Carolina. Leah grows up in Holden Beach, which I absolutely love. The descriptions of the coast, the mannerisms, and the cultural aspects were spot on. I especially loved that the book works in North Carolina's history of eugenics. While that is a dark spot on our state's past, it was a harsh reality for many in that era, and it doesn't get discussed enough.

The story felt like a combination of Where the Crawdads Sing (obviously) and Anne of Green Gables. Like these two, Leah is a highly introspective character with a fairly traumatic childhood, and so be prepared to feel everything acutely right alongside her.

My only teeny-tiny complaint is that the ending felt a bit rushed. I would have liked a bit more time to settle in with it, and some more explanations.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book.

AUDIOBOOK REVIEW

Leah lives a simple life, and is one with the land in her small, coastal North Carolina town. Leah and her loving, widowed father live in a shack and barely scrape by -- but they have love in spades.

After a tragic accident takes her father's life, Leah is forced to move away to live with a foster family. Though Leah hopes this may be her chance at a real family, she soon learns she's nothing more than the help.

No matter what she does, or how hard she tries, just just can't fit in with this family or the upper class lifestyle, and she's horribly mistreated by the Missus. She yearns for her home and the people she left behind.

*I am being intentionally vague in my blurb as I suggest going in blind*

Thoughts:
I requested the audiobook of The Last Carolina Girl the second I saw Susan Bennet as the narrator. I have long adored listening to Susan perform audiobooks, so I chose this specifically for her.

And I am SO grateful I gave this one a chance. It was like a movie in my ears -- Susan's narration is spot on as always! 👏🏻

This was heartbreaking, moving, thoughtful... what a book!! It's a story of loss, grief, love, forgotten history, and what family and home really is. It's based in part on actual events from the 1930s.

This gave me a bit of Where the Crawdads Sing vibes. Very highly recommend!

Thank you NetGalley and Recorded Books for the ALC. This was such a pleasure to listen to ❤️

The Last Carolina Girl
By: Meagan Church

Fourteen-year-old Leah Payne’s life is forever changed when her lumberjack father dies. She has lived on a coastal town and grew up in the pines. She has always been a free-spirit.

She thought she would go to a friends to live, but ends up in another community in a well-to-do household. She hopped to be part of a family, but turns out they are wanting a helpmate. She does not want to complain to end up in a group home or orphanage.

The other children enjoy Leah, but the mother is not so welcoming. She treats her horrible and accuses her of things that Leah knows she has not done.

Absolutely heat-wrenching story.

Thank you NetGalley, RB Media and author Meagan Church for this advanced copy. This novel is available March 28, 2023.

I ended up listening to this in just 2 days! What a wonderful book about perseverance, love, secrets, and the bonds that make friends closer than those who call themselves family.

Thanks netgalley for giving me the advanced audio book so that I can share my thoughts and opinions with y'all 💛

My first book by this author and it was definitely an intense read. Leah loves trips to the sea with her father and their home in the North Carolina woods. Leah's story is heart-breaking and traumatic. She lost her mother when she was born. Her Dad died when she was fourteen. After her father dies, she is torn from this home and the only people she loves. Leah is indomitable and she needs to be as she struggles to be accepted and find a home. They had been living at Holden Beach. When Leah was left on her own she was take to live with a family in Matthews, North Carolina. She thought she would be part of the family, but that was not the case. The events that happened to Leah were tragic and scarred her for life. This is a coming of age story, but it also explores a dark spot in American history that should never have happened. I will be looking up from this author for sure.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publisher for the opportunity

My honest review is freely provided in return for the kindness by NetGalley and the author/publisher in providing me with this book.

Books this good are rare. I agree that fans of Where the Crawdad’s Sing and The Girls in the Stilt House will love The Last Carolina Girl. Meagan Church brings to life 14-year old Leah Payne who is sweet and strong. Her life is a challenge on so many levels, but her spirit stands strong against the storm of hardships that she faces in 1935. Leah’s resilience is the heart of this story.

I listened to the audio book and it’s very well done. How US eugenics played a role in this story was interesting and sad. The story is told with compassion, and I felt its telling in Leah’s voice rings true. Book groups will find much to like with this choice and its many discussion topics. This is 5-stars+, and a 2023-favorite for me.

The Spirit of a Girl

Set in 1935 Caroline this coming of age story is of a young girl who's spirit cannot be broken. Leah Payne loves her life with her father in a small coastal town in Carolina. She loves the neighbors and is great friends with their son Jesse.

When her father has a accident she must go live with a family in the city. She thinks this family is going to take her in as part of the family, but finds out instead she is a maid. Through events that happen and living with sour and judgmental woman she learns that home is not always with family but with who you count as family. She learns to appreciate being alive and to never give up on herself nor on her dreams.

This is a bit sad with how Leah is treated and the new eugenics board . It is a story of society at their worst and that prejudice is always bad and can be found where we least expect it. Leah is a remarkable character and I really liked her part in the book.

I listened to the audio book and the narrator did a great job, I enjoyed her voice it was pleasant and easy to listen to. I enjoyed this story, it was a really good read.

Thanks to Meagan Church for writing a great story, to Susan Bennett for the great narration, to R.B. Media for publishing it and to NetGalley for making a copy of the audio book available to me to read and review.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for this audiobook.

The Last Carolina Girl was so beautiful and heartbreaking.

Sometimes it's the story and sometimes the characters and this time it was both. My heart ached for Leah. But Mary Ann's innocence had my ♥
Im the beginning, I found the book to be a bit slow but it soon picked up pace and I didn't want to put it down.

And I loved the narrator.

What a heartbreaking and touching novel. This story taught me something I knew next to nothing about.

Set in 1930’s North Carolina, Lea is orphaned and sent to live with a family. The circumstances of her being sent broke my heart and the woman of the family’s treatment of Lea angered me so many times. As the story progressed, I loved her interaction with the children of the family and kept hoping things would turn around.

I had heard of the eugenics movement but didn’t realize how big of a movement it was and the flimsy reasons people could use to have someone sterilized without their consent. My heart broke for Lea and all she went through and endured.

Without giving anything away, I will say the ending was beautiful in its own way. To watch Lea endure and never give up the hope of what she wanted most was inspiring.

I cannot wait to see what Meagan Church writes next. This debut novel was very well done. I highly recommend reading the author’s note at the end to learn more about the inspiration for this story.

Susan Bennett did a great job narrating this story. Her accent was spot on and her various voices for the characters made the story come alive.

Thank you to Sourcebooks and Recorded Books for the copy of this book. All views are my opinion.

Thank you Net Galley for an audio ARC of The Last Carolina Girl by Meagan Church. This is exactly my kind of story. I listened to this in one sitting. Highly recommend for all that love historical fiction.

Fourteen year old Leah Payne has grown up almost feral. Running through the woods and swamps of her small Carolina town while her father makes a living as a logger. When her father is killed, Leah is taken away from her beloved home and house with strangers who view her as little more than an unpaid servant. It’s 1935 and prejudice, ignorance and violence run rampant in the South and Leah finds that more than her independence is threatened in this powerful coming of age story. Highly recommended

If Where the Crawdads Sing (Owens) and Necessary Lies (Chamberlain) were to be blended into one story, it would be The Last Carolina Girl.

Plot: 14 year old Leah lives with her lumberjack dad in a coastal Carolina town, where she runs in the woods and attends school. When her father tragically dies, Leah is pulled from her small community and forced to live with strangers who harbor a secret. While she thinks they'll become her new family, they treat her as a "helpmate," as opposed to an equal. Matters become far grimmer for Leah, as she faces the recently formed state eugenics board.

Thoughts: As a huge fan of Necessary Lies, I looked forward to another story about North Carolina's dark history. Leah was put through so much, and reading her struggles is heartbreaking. I will say, I thought the ending felt a little bit rushed. Still, this is a worthwhile read, and I appreciated the author's note, which shares her personal connection to eugenics. Great as an audiobook