Identical twin sisters Desiree and Stella grow up in a small town in Louisiana, Mallard, where everyone is Black but very light skinned. The twins run away to New Orleans when they’re sixteen. While Desiree marries a Black man, and has a very dark skinned daughter, Stella marries a white man, who thinks she is white too, and has a blonde, light skinned daughter.
Desiree’s husband is abusive – and she returns to Mallard with her daughter Jude. Jude has a very hard time in Mallard because she is picked on for being dark skinned. She ‘escapes’ to California where she attends UCLA, because she wants to study medicine. In Los Angeles Jude meets Reese, a trans man, who she falls in love with.
Stella’s husband’s job takes the Sanders family to Los Angeles, and daughter Kennedy pursues her dream by becoming an actress.
One night, Jude is working a party and when the hostess arrives she knows it’s her aunt Stella for she looks exactly like her mother Desiree…
I really enjoyed this book, it’s well written and I love the relationship between Reese and Jude, their dynamic is great.
Read for the ShelfReflection Reading Challenge 2024.
Prompt 37: A Book with Twins.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
