First Sentence Friday and Free Book Friday!
Welcome to this week’s installment of First Sentence Friday and Free Book Friday! For the foreseeable future, the free book is a signed Advance Reader Copy (ARC) of When the Jessamine Grows.
Special Note If you comment (the way to win a book) on the blog site, please be sure to add your name at the bottom of your comment because some of them are showing up as Anonymous. 😉
It is understood the Civil War brought hardship in many ways to everybody. No one was excluded, no one escaped sacrifice, and many suffered, particularly as the war dragged on. By 1863, the North had labor shortages and inflation which created problems for its citizens, but despite this, their economy did very well. Actually, it was “booming.” Meanwhile, in the South, the outlook wasn’t great. The South was starving. Literally. Food shortages were caused by a variety of problems which piled up, one on the other. From a drought (1862) to Union blockades, to shipping problems, the situation over time became dire, not only for the Confederate soldiers, but for civilians as well. They figured out how to make do, using what they could as a substitute. For instance, okra seeds were roasted, then boiled into “coffee,” for example. Foraging for food became a necessity, and was required for survival, but after some time, the Southern landscape was so ravaged there was no wildlife to hunt. Desperate for sustenance, looting (mostly among soldiers) became a big problem. In Richmond Virginia, and across the South, there were the infamous bread riots where men and women took or threatened to take what they so desperately needed.
You can read about the riots and the hardships here.
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Chapter 22
Joetta looked out the small window of the kitchen every so often, examining the soldiers enthusiastically tearing into large steaming chunks of meat from the pig’s carcass.
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FREE BOOK FRIDAY!!!
For this week’s chance to win a signed ARC of When the Jessamine Grows, can you think of a time where you’ve experienced an unexpected hardship in your life that required you to make do in some way? What was it, and how did you handle it?
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PRE-ORDERS
Pre-orders gauge the interest and signal to the publisher readers are eager for an author’s work! Please consider pre-ordering because it really does help! If you’re holding out because you might win an ARC or a finished copy, remember you can always give away the extra as a gift to one of your reader friends. 📚
Pre-order links for your convenience:
Kensington Publishing Corporation
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Last, but not least, don’t forget to:
- Add WHEN THE JESSAMINE GROWS to your Goodreads “To Read” shelf
- Share this post with your reader friends
- Follow me on Goodreads, Twitter, Facebook, Bookbub, or my blog!
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