An unusual story that rings of truth. It took me a little time to get into it but once I got hooked it was hard to put it down. A surprise ending.

I really tried to get through this book. Really did not enjoy it.

An exceptional book with believable, relatable characters. Wow, what an ending. I'm hoping for more from this author so that I can continue to follow the characters I got to know. A must read!

5 Stars.
If The Creek Don’t Rise is a stunning and extremely poignant character study of life in a North Carolina mountain town. Most of these characters have heart and they make you care right off the bat. For the life is hard fought in Baines Creek. No one has it easy. And evil lurks in this small Appalachian town, causing its residents to ban together to take care of their own.

Sadie Blue is seventeen, a newlywed and pregnant. She has been married for fifteen days. To a man named Ray Tupkin. When she met him, he seemed sexy, mysterious and fun. Once she married him, Sadie realizes he was none of those things. He was abusive, mean and he has no love for Sadie whatsoever. Within the first few weeks he beat her within inches of her life and Sadie realizes the depth of her mistake. Now she just has to figure out how to fix it. Sadie might not have much, but she has friends. Lots of them. Including Marris Jones, a woman who takes care of everybody. Marris cooks for half the town, bringing food and comfort to those in need. Her best friend is Sadie’s Granny, Gladys whose life has also been plagued with difficulties. She is a widower. Roy, Sadie’s husband, reminds Gladys of Walter, her deceased husband, who Gladys is glad to be rid of.

Baines Creek is a town where hearing about town gossip is the often the most exciting thing to happen. That is, until Kate Shaw, the new teacher arrives. Kate never thought she’d like living alone or be able to endure the isolation of living there. She was wrong. There are however, lots of people who dislike Ms. Shaw, including Prudence Perkins, a mean spiteful woman who hates life. But there are lots of people who like her and keep an eye out for her, including Preacher Eli Perkins (Prudence’s brother), Birdie Rocas, an ancient medicine woman, Jerome Biddle, a harmless man who does odd jobs around town and Ms. Sadie Blue. Shortly after her arrival, Kate immediately becomes enmeshed in her students’ wellbeing’s and in the town-folks’ lives, especially Ms. Sadie’s.

If The Creek Don’t Rise is a character-driven novel, with a cast of individuals that leap of the page. These characters are real, their pain, their suffering, their loss. You feel it. Each chapter is narrated by a different person, yet the author, Leah Weiss, expertly navigates each chapter and is able to distinguish between each character extremely well. This novel contained several standout characters and strong females: Kate Shaw, a woman who, at first is out of her element; Marris Jones, a kind amazing woman who takes care of everybody; Birdie Rocas, an extremely smart and spiritual woman; and last but certainly not least, Ms. Sadie Blue, who faces the ultimate danger, and finds strength in her friends, never giving up hope.

This is a quick, fast-paced, easy read and is a book I can’t recommend highly enough. If The Creek Don’t Rise is a book with heart my friends. That’s all I can say. And the ending? Loved it.

Congratulations to Leah Weiss on a fabulous debut.

Thank you to NetGalley, Sourcebooks Landmark, and Leah Weiss for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Published on NetGalley and Goodreads on 3/15/17.

*Will be published on Amazon on 8/8/17.

Set in the 1970s in a small settlement called Baines Creek, this is mainly the story of Sadie Blue, a 17 year old Appalachian girl in an abusive marriage. Told from multiple points of view including Sadie herself, the preacher and his spinster sister, her grandma who survived her own abusive marriage and the new school teacher Kate who befriends her. The town may be tiny but the kindness of some of it's inhabitants is huge as they try to bring a bit of comfort to those in need. Not to say that all is sweetness and light here because there are certainly some characters I loved to hate! Many characters also have their own back stories going on which add a lot of heart and drama to this mesmerizing story.

Holy crap! This book was good! From the 1st page to the very last, you're sucked in. I could have easily read this book in a day, but like a good meal, i wanted to savor and appreciate the goodness of this book. You immediately fall in love with woman-child Sadie Blue. Her innocence, timidity and strength have you rooting for her the whole way through. All the characters are fully and thoroughly developed to a point where you can visual and "hear" them clearly. I enjoyed how the book is told in alternating POV...it ties the characters together and the book together as a whole , but at the same time, let you see who the character is individually and how they contribute to the story. Definitely a book I will recommend and read again . Solid 5 stars!

I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Set in Appalachia, this is more than historical fiction. It is culturally and emotionally driven. From family secrets to marriage dynamics. Sadie Blue, love the character name is married to Roy. He likes to speaks with his fists. We will just leave it at that. As we venture through the story we learn about her parents, her Grandmother and the questions that begin to represent themselves to Sadie. I couldn't put this down! Powerful! I will say you have to get used to the dialect, but it won't hinder the story. In fact, it puts you right there on the mountain.

It was a great read. I feel the character development was good and I would recommend to friends.

A moving story of poverty and desperation! Sadie Blue lives in Baines Creek, NC, a small town deep in the Appalachian Mountains. Baines Creek is full of secrets. Sadie is married to Roy Tupkin who takes pleasure in beating her up, but violence has always been a part of Sadie’s life. This story is told by several members of the community who each gradually reveal the town’s secrets. In a place where people depend so much on each other for survival, betrayal runs deep.

I was completely captivated by this story. The characters are carefully crafted and they develop in the reader’s mind as the story grows. I thought that the author’s choice to tell the story through the eyes of different members of the community, each revealing their part, was very clever and engaging. This story is dark at times but it captures well the life of the residents. This is a beautiful debut novel and I highly recommend it.

I liked the way Leah Reiss, gave each character such a distinctive voice by alternating the narrators of the chapters. I enjoy this style as it allows us to get to know them all separately. The character's stories tragic and seemed to be firmly rooted in a time and place - Appalachia in the 1970's. But, at the same time, they are human stories that take place in communities worldwide. There may be cultural differences but the tales remain the same, allowing us to identify with the characters and their stories. Beautifully written, evocative book.

What a stunning debut novel that is heartbreakingly beautiful and lyrical! Set in the Appalachian mountains, it relates the story of Sadie Blue, a young pregnant woman married for fifteen days to Roy, a drunken abusive husband. The cast of characters include the preacher, his sister, the optimistic new teacher, Sadie's aging grandmother, and the town's do-gooder. Each has his or her own unique voice that is what sets this novel apart from others. You will love and grieve for Sadie and may be angered by others but you will surely come away from this book with a different perspective!

This book was getting lots of buzz and excitement, and I was really hoping for this to be an amazing mark, but sadly it missed the mark by a lot. Not only did I not connect or root for any of the characters, but I found it extremely difficult to understand the dialect and gets accustomed to the dialogue that this author display.

Trigger warnings: abuse

We follow Sadie, a 17 year old pregnant women, who seems to be bright soul in this small Appalachian village, that's stricken with poverty and isolated from the rest of the world. Backwards, we could call it. Then one person, an Eastern teacher comes out and pulls the balance of this community off center. This book is supposed to give us a deep dive into the demons and struggles of living in North Carolina Appalachia as an uneducated, poor white women.

Let me tell you, this is an extremely difficult read. There were many difficult scenes that took me a little while to process before I could make full sense of them, so I would not reccomend using this as a beach read, even though it will be published in the summertime and the cover is deceptive bright.

If the Creek Don't Rise sometimes felt like riding choppy waves, because of all of the POV changes. Usually, I am all for this type of alternation, but in this specific instance I felt like it didn't quite work. My problem with it was, that not only do we often switch POVs(and get introduced to brand new characters in the story which I didn't understand how they were connected) but also we move back and forth in time, which made it even more hard to keep track off.

My one great thing was the character of Sadie. I really was rooted for her and felt like I could deeply connect to her as a beautiful human, and being the central one in the story it made the story sparkle a little bit more, and because of this one person that every thread and strand keeps on coming back too, I found this book enjoyable enough to bear to finish it.

I had trouble grasping the setting of 1970s in North Carolina, maybe because I didn't feel distinct of different culture that could have been portrayed more directly, I feel like. I've seen other reviewers praise this part of Weiss writing, but I honestly thought that she work on this element in her debut novel.

The ending wasn't particularly special, because it was predictable, but I thought that it was a solid resolution to this. The author doesn't leave us hanging in the middle of an event, she wraps it up quite neatly, which I could objectively appreciate.

**Thanks you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for providing me an arc for my honest review. All opinions are my own.**

A bittersweet story of a poor Appalation town told through the voices of characters living there. Written in the first tense we get to know all the good and bad of each person. Sadie Blue is a young girl who ends up married and pregnant to an older man who beats her regularly. The story revolves round Sadie and all her friends and family. Introduce a new school teacher and will things begin to change?The characters are all interwoven and fascinating. A great book about small town America in the 70s

Bio:

A strikingly sincere portrait of a town and its buried secrets from an outstanding new voice in southern fiction.

In a North Carolina mountain town filled with moonshine and rotten husbands, Sadie Blue is only the latest girl to face a dead-end future at the mercy of a dangerous drunk. She’s been married to Roy Tupkin for fifteen days, and she knows now that she should have listened to the folks who said he was trouble. But when a stranger sweeps in and knocks the world off-kilter for everyone in town, Sadie begins to think there might be more to life than being Roy’s wife.

As stark and magnificent as Appalachia itself, If the Creek Don’t Rise is a bold and beautifully layered debut about a dusty, desperate town finding the inner strength it needs to outrun its demons. The folks of Baines Creek will take you deep into the mountains with heart, honesty, and homegrown grit.

Review:

This story is extremely character driven. The author has strong three dimensional characters that feel so real they literally jump out of the pages at you.

Sadie Blue, the main character, is seventeen and pregnant. Newly wed to Roy Tupkin, a wife beater.

Most of the people in the town are uneducated, as is Sadie, but it doesn't stop them from leading what can be considered extraordinary lives.

As you meet each character, you can literally feel your heart warming and opening to love another one.

This story combines strong characters with strong voices, a bit of drama, and a town full of secrets to make an amazing southern fiction. This is the story you take with you and never forget because the characters felt so real.

*I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ - Five Hearts

Wow! This was an extremely enjoyable read! I absolutely loved the southern voice of these characters throughout this book. It is a breathtaking and gritty portrayal of hillbilly life from the year 1970 which is set in the Appalachian Mountains.

“Regular folks buckle under the piss and vinegar in this world.”

IF THE CREEK DON’T RISE by LEAH WEISS is an interesting, compelling, and beautifully written novel that has a really engaging storyline and characters that grabbed my attention from the very first chapter.

Being a Loretta Lynn and country music fan I absolutely loved Sadie Blue’s respect and adoration that she had for Loretta Lynn. The references to Loretta Lynn were quite appealing and enjoyable!

HE’S GONNA BE SORRY HE EVER MESSED WITH ME AND LORETTA LYNN

“She’s got a hard life. Sings hard songs. She found a way up and out of her Kentucky holler. Miss Loretta is a miracle to me.”

LEAH WEISS delivers an impressive read here told in the first person from the perspectives of quite a few different relatable and likeable characters that was easy to follow along with the storyline and all the characters involved.

The ending was a complete surprise!

To sum it all up it was an entertaining, steady-paced, and an easy read with a very satisfying ending. Highly recommend!!

Thank you to NetGalley, Leah Weiss, and Sourcebooks, Inc. for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book for a fair and honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. I'm not generally a fan of first person narratives, but I loved that this one was shared by multiple and contrasting characters. It reinforced the spirit of community in Baines Creek - something that is integral to the story.
Leah Weiss transported me to Appalachia with her strong individual characters, their distinct manner of speaking, and their fierce spirit of rural independence. While I didn't love everyone that I met, I felt that I understood where they came from.
My biggest gripe with the story is that the author and I seem to have a disagreement over the morality of one of her characters, and I wasn't altogether happy with the way his part of the story ended. Similarly, there were characters that I came to love (Eli, Kate Shaw, and Birdie), whose stories were not tied into the end, and I wanted them to be. These are small complaints. This is Sadie Blue's story, and I think I understand why Weiss did what she did. I just fell a little too much in love with the characters and wanted to know more. I suppose that is something of a compliment.
I look forward to reading whatever project Weiss takes on next, and I am thankful that she did decide that there was room in the world for another story.

This is a VERY strong four rating. The only reason it didn't earn a five is that I was so tempted to abandon it at about the 12% mark. The first chapter opens with the beating of Sadie - pregnant, 17, and married. The abuse is hard to stomach, but her situation is the entire purpose of the story - and the story is exceptionally well done.

Appalachia in the 70s was grim and hard; I'm not sure there was a time that it wasn't a challenging place to live. The eight years I lived in NC were not in Appalachia, yet to this reader's ear, the "voice" in each chapter rang true. Several of the characters have settled into my heart, and I hope we hear from them again in future books.

Relate-able these days. 17, pregnant and newly married to a young man who is abusive. How many kids go through this today? This book is set in 1970's in North Carolina in the Mountains. The characters are really alive in this book. I loved this book through and through and will reread it! netgalley review!

Copy furnished by Net Galley for the price of a review.

In the shadow cast by Bentwood Mountain lies the small town of Baines River, North Carolina. This is coal mining territory, and the accumulation of years of dust and grit coat the town gray on the inside and out. The local church is a magnet for folks with unanswered prayers, where false hopes are encouraged to flourish.

Big news comes in the form of a new teacher in town. No shy and retiring schoolmarm, this lady is much older than her failed predecessors. Tall and rawboned, Miss Kate Shaw wears her hair chopped off short and blunt, and is clad in britches rather than a dress. She aims to make a difference here. Folks in Baines River are slow to accept newcomers, though, especially one as different as Miss Shaw.

If you come across an old woman in the woods with a tangled topknot of wild hair and a crow perching atop, you have found the aptly named Birdie Rocas. With her gnarled hands and knotty walking stick, Birdie is the area's medicine woman, midwife, and soothsayer. Have a care, this lady can see through you, right to your very core.

Prudence Perkins, spinster sister of the town reverend, is sour, self-righteous, and mean-spirited. Granny Hicks, her frail old body hides a spine of pure steel and the nerve to match it. Roy Tupkin, a local miscreant, has just married young Sadie Blue. He's meaner than a snake with his slitted eyes and abusive ways. Sadie is sweet, but not <i>too</i> sweet.

The scent of made-from-scratch huckleberry pie wafts through the air. Moonshine hot-rods carry 170 proof white lightning brewed in hidden stills and protected by camouflaged traps. What is in that poke sack toted by Jerome Biddle, the simple-minded man who speaks in rhymes?

All the stars are burning bright for this one, my first five-star read this year. Don't miss it, it's a dandy.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of my honest opinion. Loved this book. Hooked me in the first chapter. Totally was not expecting this. Can't wait to read more by this fantastic author.