Whistlestop Wednesday Book Review: Though Waters Roar

Lynn Austin weaves a generational tale with deft skill in Though Waters Roar, which opens with young Harriot Sherwood in jail for a crime which would break her grandmother's heart. As the book discloses Harriot's secrets, it also uncovers the stories of Grandma Bebe and Lucy, Harriot's mother. But this book is not just about the lives of three women who share a blood bond. Rather, it embodies in its three protagonist's lives the struggles of all women in America as they fought for the right to vote and to abolish Demon Rum from the bars and speakeasies.

I enjoyed this book for its believable characters and sense of place and time, which transported me between the second half of the 19th-Century and the 1920's. Some of the decisions made by the book's characters seem a bit foreign in light of today's sensibilities, but they were true to the times. A thread of faith in God and the acceptance of life's hardships wended through the story like a bright stream. The transition between time periods sometimes came too fast for me, and one or two plot points could have flowed more naturally, but Though Waters Roar is worth reading. I recommend it for women who enjoy historical fiction, and for their teenage daughters.

(Note: A complimentary copy of this book was provided to Book Readers Central for purposes of review.)