Review: Trouble the Water by Jacqueline Friedland

Trouble the Water

by Jacqueline Friedland

Publisher: SparkPress

Pages: 352

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Abigail Milton was born into the British middle class, but her family has landed in unthinkable debt. To ease their burdens, Abby’s parents send her to America to live off the charity of their old friend, Douglas Elling. When she arrives in Charleston at the age of seventeen, Abigail discovers that the man her parents raved about is a disagreeable widower who wants little to do with her. To her relief, he relegates her care to a governess, leaving her to settle into his enormous estate with little interference. But just as she begins to grow comfortable in her new life, she overhears her benefactor planning the escape of a local slave—and suddenly, everything she thought she knew about Douglas Elling is turned on its head. 

Abby’s attempts to learn more about Douglas and his involvement in abolition initiate a circuitous dance of secrets and trust. As Abby and Douglas each attempt to manage their complicated interior lives, readers can’t help but hope that their meandering will lead them straight to each other.

Kritters Thoughts:  I love a good solid historical fiction and Trouble the Water was just that.  Abigail Milton moves from a hard life in Britain to what should be a nice and pampered life in Charleston, SC with a friend of the family, but little does she know she is moving to the heart of race relations and into a home where the beliefs are different from the rest.

I love a book about the Underground Railroad and this book has it, but I wish it had more.  It took a long while to get to that point and I just wish it had more of the ins and outs of it in the book.

BUT I did love the time period and the characters and the setting.  I loved Abigail Milton and how her story unfolded.  I loved how the stories of her past are revealed and how Douglas Elling reacts and takes care of her.  I loved the balls and dinners and the etiquettes of the past - it is always fun to read about what goes into all the events of the past.

I think this book is Jacqueline Friedland's debut and I hope she has more to come, maybe in a different time period!


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Ebook 2018 Challenge: 16  out of 100

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Netgalley.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.