Great for lovers of Black Cake, The House of Plain Truth by Donna Hemans is a rich family drama with an unspooling mystery at its center.

Pearline leaves her daughter and grandchildren behind in Brooklyn to return to her childhood home in Jamaica before her father passes away. His deathbed wish is to find the siblings they left behind in Cuba sixty years ago. The story explores the plight of migrant workers who left their Caribbean Islands in search of work and the generational trauma they pass on.

Inspired by the author’s own family story, The House of Plain Truth explores the true meaning of home and family and what we owe to loved ones who have left us.

Thank you to Zibby Books and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

The House of Plain Truth follows a family who lives in Jamaica but immigrated from Cuba in the 30s. After their father dies the sisters must find their missing siblings who were left behind. While I usually love books that deal with generational family dramas this one just didn’t do it for me. I did love the descriptions of the place and characters though!

Pauline leaves her home in Brooklyn to return to her native Jamaica when her father dies. Reuniting with her siblings, they pursue her father's deathbed wish and discover secrets from the past 60 years.

This is a family saga that explores the dynamics and difficulties of sibling relationships. I enjoyed it.

The tie that binds, family. Pearline returns home to Jamaica from Brooklyn just before her father’s passing. She cherishes her family home as aged as it has become. Her sisters, however, are ready to move on. Pearline struggles to convey her feelings with her family members in Jamaica and NY. Along the way she also tries desperately to uncover what has happened to her older siblings left years ago in Cuba. This family drama encompasses so many aspects of life. The history between the islands is rich, as is the descriptions of the land and food.
Thanks NetGallet and @thoughtsfromapage

This book shares history of Cuba and Jamaica that I was not aware of. The perspective of an immigrant family traveling to survive and make things better for the next generation is a strong theme.

This book explores memories versus truth and how our loved ones can influence us even after they pass.

Pearline struggles to identify with her sisters in Jamaica but also identify with her family back in the US. She feels a need to return to her roots and fulfill her dying father’s last request.

This book is rich in character development and Jamaican culture. The pace is slow but full of wonderful stories and memories.

I enjoyed hearing Donna’s story of how she wrote this book and became an author when the Early Reads group met with her.

I read this book as part of @thoughtsfromapage’s Early Reads program for patreons. Thanks to @netgalley and @zibbybooks for providing the ARC.

The House of Plain Truth by Donna Hemans is a book full of family secrets and stories. The story starts with Pearline returning to her childhood home in Jamaica to say goodbye to her father. Before he dies, he tells her, "Find them for me. You are my memory now," leaving Pearline with a desire to remember more about her family history and to search for her long-missing siblings. This story tells of complicated family dynamics as Pearline moves back to Jamaica to live near her sisters after living in New York for many years. There are typical sibling disagreements about what to do with the house and the property after the death of a parent, but the story goes deeper into the sisters' and their parents' pasts. Pearline dreams her family's story at night, feels her father's presence, and seeks to allow her father to rest in peace.
What I enjoyed most about this novel was the descriptions of Jamaican culture and the history Hemans tells of the people, including touching on the history of Jamaicans in Cuba. Her beautiful details of the lush, tropical setting, as well as her descriptions of the food, made me want to visit Jamaica. I also liked that the family house played a significant role in the story. I highly recommend this book if you enjoy books with complicated family histories and learning about other cultures.
Thanks to the Zibby Books and the Thoughts From a Page Podcast Early Reads Program for the advanced copy of this book!

I started reading The House of Plain Truth with high hopes. The beautiful setting, family drama and it’s a Zibby book! I’ve loved every Zibby book I’ve read so far. But this one just didn’t do it for me. I was not wanting to pick it up all the time and I felt no connection with the characters. It also seemed to go on and on. Unfortunately this was only 2 1/2 stars for me.
But thank you to Netgalley and Zibby books for the eARC.

4.25 stars

In THE HOUSE OF PLAIN TRUTH the author Donna Hemans paints a beautiful portrait of Pearline, a Jamaican woman who went to the United States for a better life and returns home to Jamaica to live out the rest of her retirement. Upon returning home, her father Rupert passes away soon after, and she embarks on fulfilling his dying wish to find her missing siblings. Rupert and Pearline have always had a special relationship. "She is the daughter he always said was most like him: fearless and stubborn."

This novel resonated for me, as there seems to be a need to return your roots as you age, whether it be that feeling to go back home or to discover your family genealogy. Pearline had a doggedness that I rooted for. Even after having a minor stroke, she got right up back again to figure out her family history.

There was a great sense of place in this novel, which mostly takes place in the hills of Jamaica. Hemans' writing is so lyrical and detailed that I feel like I'm at Pearline's family home.

What I really liked was how real the relationship among the sisters was. Pearline's older sister Aileen and younger sister Hermina had been functioning for decades with Pearline in the United States. With Pearline suddenly coming back, the dynamic has changed. Pearline wants to soak in the family home that she's missed all these years while the other two sisters see it as a liability until it's cashed out. These dynamics surrounding the family home are so accurate and real.

As a character-driven novel, mostly about Pearline and - by extension - her father, it has a slower pace to it, which might not be ideal for all readers. And I think the subject matter and plot might resonate with more mature readers.

Thank you to @thoughtsfromapage and @zibbybooks for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The expected publication date is January 30, 2024.

This is a book about a complex, messy family with secrets in the family history that propels an interesting mystery to unravel. It poses the question, when is something a secret and gets to remain a secret, and not shared with others vs family members having a right to know all their family history. It is a powerful examination of grief, and family relationships and a question of where is home.

Thank you to Cindy Burnett at Thoughts from a Page and Zibby Books, and Netgalley.

A family drama ensues throughout The House of Plain Truth. The question that kept arising was - do people have the rights to their own secrets after they pass away? Should remaining family members continue to unravel the truth of their family history?

Another common theme in this book is the generational grief and trauma that carries through the next generations that follow.

I had empathy towards Pearline as she tried so hard to build a good life for her family. Consequently she kept enduring heart ache and I wanted more resolution for her. However, this does portray real life in that not everything is wrapped so neatly.

Like several novels I’ve read in 2023, an old house and the land it rests on are front row and centre in this novel.

I give this Novel a 3.5.

Thank you to Cindy Burnett at Thoughts from a Page and Zibby Books, the author, and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When Pearline learns her father is dying, she travels back to her home country of Jamaica and promises to fulfill her father’s dying wish of finding her long lost siblings. The premise sounded right up my alley with themes of family drama and secrets, inter generational trauma, and a mystery. Unfortunately the execution fell short for me. It was well written and descriptive but I was not able to connect to the characters or feel anything for them, which is important in a more character driven novel. Despite its short length, it took me a long time to read, mostly because it was not holding my interest.

Thank you to Cindy Burnett from Thoughts from a Page Podcast, Zibby books, and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest reviews.

My thanks to Net Galley, Zibby Books and Thoughts From a Page for an advanced copy of this e-book.


With this as the premise of this book, I anticipated a more interesting story.

"With news of her father’s passing, Pearline abruptly leaves her daughter and grandchildren behind in Brooklyn to return to her childhood home in Jamaica. But Pearline isn’t prepared for her father’s puzzling deathbed wish that she find her siblings―whom she hasn’t seen in 60 years―and discover the secret that tore her family apart."

However, for me, every time I pick up the book and read, I got bored and put it down. I finally decided to skim through to the end and still felt like it was a bit boring for me. That said, it isn't fair to rate this book.

I picked up THE HOUSE OF PLAIN TRUTH based on the stunning cover. Unfortunately, this was a mixed bag for me. I love a sweeping family saga, but I wasn’t quite swept away. The pacing felt quite slow to me and I never felt like I had a strong drive to return to the story. I didn’t feel as connected to the characters, the mystery, or emotionally invested as I anticipated I would be.

The story’s biggest strength was its strong sense of place. I loved the lush Jamaican setting, the cuisine, and the dialect depicted on the page. I also appreciated the Jamaican and Cuban history the author brought to the story.

I am eager to participate in an author chat hosted by the Thoughts From A Page Early Reads program to hear more from Donna Hemans.

Many thanks to Zibby Books for an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Pauline, who has lived for the last 30 years in Brooklyn, repatriates to Jamaica upon the pending death of her father. Prior to her death, he tells her "Find them for me. You are my memory now". Upon the reading of their father's will, Pauline, Hermina and Aileen learn that part of the family homestead has been left to Annie Headlam. This combination of events leads Pauline and her sisters to uncover the unspoken story of their family history.

It's, as they say, a sweeping family drama.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy from Zibby on NetGalley via Thoughts from A Page Podcast.

An enjoyable novel about a fractured Jamaican family with a history that is a bit more complicated than most of the family members realize. This tale covers Cuba, the US, and Jamaica, and one sister decides to grant her father's dying wish to hunt down some estranged family, against her sisters' wishes. It takes most of the novel to discover the secret that separated the many siblings, but their characters are well-developed along the way, and the reader needs to get to the bottom of the mystery. What they all have believed about their family is brought into question by their Dad's deathbed request.

So well written so involving.a story of family relationships.I became totally involved in the characters of their drama their stories.Well written kept me turning the pages.#netgalley #zibbybooks

This book was quite the story. I enjoyed it so much. Hemans crafted a fantastic tale of characters and then set them in motion. It was a powerful look at fathers and daughters and also other family relationships. That was the part that I liked the most. It was told in an authentic voice. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Five stars.

Phew. What an emotional ride. What do you do when you feel guilty for leaving the ones you love behind in search for better? How do you deal with the emotions that sifting through childhood memories, good and bad, bring to the surface? The House of Plain Truth does a good job of touching on these things and so much more. Growing up in a Caribbean family that moved to America myself, reading this felt like reading my own story at times. Eloquently and emotionally weaved.